Miriam McFate Travel Journal - 1926

Wed, Oct 20, 1926

Cold and chilly all day. Got up at 5:00. Did not rain much. Got breakfast. Boys located the trouble. Short somewhere in the engine. Sure are fine people here. Gave us a pan of pears and a pan of onions. Started at 7:30. Drove to Aledo, Ill. Stopped and got some groceries. Left Aledo at 8:55. Stopped for gas and oil at a filling station four miles this side of Little York, Ill. Drove on to Monmouth Ill. Stopped at 11:00 and oiled up. Fixed the left hind tire. It slipped forward about an inch, was afraid it would damage the valve. Started again at 11:25 To show you how good & smooth these road are will tell you what I did. I peeled potatoes. Started the fire in the heater and put potatoes on to boil.Clarence is at the wheel, coaxin’ the Lizzie on about as fast as it will travel. Will have potatoes ready to eat when we stop for dinner. Stopped for dinner 12:30 Discovered we had left our dog. Every dog has his day so suppose this will be Jimmies’s. Eat our dinner and started on.

Seen lots of threshing yet to be done. Lots of grain growing in the field. Fine country and fine farm dwellings along this road. The road runs in all direction. Not like they do in Ia. Could see lots of three-cornered fields. They are not particular about every road going straight with the direction, but they sure have real roads. We stopped in Good Hope Ill and oiled up the truss rods at 1:55 put another lug on the tire that kept slipping and went on.

Passed this Macomb Ill, a city of 8,000 population, at 2:30 Drove on till 5:30. Stopped at Fredricks Ill. No camp ground so pulled up on the side of the road, by an oil station. Found out the levee on the Ill river had gave way Flooding Beardstown. So are undecided about what to do. Got our supper. Grover and Clarence went up to town to see what they could find out about the other side. Went to bed. Sun shone a little this afternoon but is still cold.