Even 100 years ago it had become common knowledge, if you have a mission, a cause, a drum to beat, and you want to get
people's attention, do it with a motor vehicle. There's nothing like the smell of the grease pit and the roar of the car, to stir
people's curiosity. Suffragettes Alice Burke and Nell Richardson did that, leaving in April of 1916 to drive cross country... and back.
In 1909
Alice Huyler Ramsey was the first woman to drive cross country,(with three other women) and among their adventures,
only 150 of the 3600 miles were paved, and they had been surrounded by Indians with supposedly draw bows in Nevada.
So only seven years later this trip of the Golden Flyer was far from a walk in the park. There's a million ways to die in the west.
The
New York Times reported after 10,700 miles over seven months, giving speeches along the way, the Saxon Motor Car arrived
back in NYC carrying Burke, Richardson, and a black cat named Mascot. Got to admire their pluck.
Twice I've driven 10,000 mile in three to four weeks but on roads, mostly paved roads. These ladies had to contend with everything
from deep mud, to dry desert, to chopping trees. I wonder how many tires/tubes they had to repair and pump up?
I don't know if it helped them win the vote a couple years later in 1920.