Show I 1 1 ON THE BEAM with al I 1 home again and are we glad to be back where its cool alter after a swing through the east with the national editorial association our journey by car took us through colorado where we spent the first night at salida calida then on to colorado springs and out thru thra kansas with our second nights lodging taken at mankato mancato Man kato eastern colorado and western kansas were virtually burning up at the time we passed through that area and the wheat crop was paid eald to be a near failure this year because of lack of rain As we entered central kansas however the wheat crop looked better an and by the time we reached eastern kansas it was reported that there was a bumper crop then on oa through missouri where we made a stop at leclede the birthplace of gen john J pershing and also virginias mother mrs airs J R udy of farmington though the sign leading into town reported that there were persons living in leclede we had an erle erie feeling as aa we toured the business district not more than three buildings housed active businesses the balance some 25 or 30 were vacant gives give one the feeling of a ghost town and just why more business activity cant be justified even in that small town we did not learn that evening we reached hannibal birthplace of mark twain and the point on the mississippi river where he wrote so many of 0 his wonderful stories looking out over the river which at that point has several beautiful islands one can easily visualize tom sawyer huckleberry finn and their friends floating down the muddy mississippi on a raft and their interesting experiences as related particularly tor for young ears after dinner in hannibal we drove the miles to springfield ill where we were to spend the night with our cousins the will mortons Mor tons car trouble at hiawatha kan and again on the road from hannibal to springfield delayed us so BO that we did not arrive until nearly midnight the next day was sunday but we were fortunate in finding a mechanic who did work at his home so we were away from springfield by after noon so on we limped destination baltimore we were guests in the hoosier state tor for most of the afternoon and spent our fourth night just across the line from richmond ind in ohio then on through ohio and into wheeling W V where we crossed the ohio river and headed southeast through pennsylvania and western maryland we here in the west pay little attention to driving through our lofty mountains on tine fine highways leading to and from our valleys let me say here that the trip down through the appalachians Appala chans fairly stood what little hair we have on end as we went up and down steep grades tor for hours with that inevitable right angle curve at the top and bottom of the grade we were mighty glad to find an excellent motel at Hagers hagerstown town from which point we had bad a two hour drive into baltimore the next morning next week well tell you about the convention in baltimore with other articles to follow on 4 a tour around the states of maryland virginis virginia and washington D C |