Dear American readers: According to promise and for the benefit of my many friends at Myrtle Point, I will try to give a description of our trip to California. My diary tells me that we left home on November 6 and landed at Glendale on November 13 after encountering much storm and several mishaps. We stopped at Grants Pass Thursday night at our grand children’s home, Rolston Edwards. Friday morning it commenced to rain, and to say that Coos county could rain does not tell it. At Ashland it began to snow and it snowed as hard as I ever saw it snow. We put our chains on the car at the foot of the mountain and had to drive slow. We saw perhaps more than a dozen cars in the ditch before we reached the summit. The snow on the summit was about eight inches deep. The cause of so many cars ditched was that they were trying to drive without chains, while others were in a hurry to get out of the storm and cold, and the highway being slippery they would slew off into the ditch. We were glad to get over the Siskiyou mountains and we arrived at Yreka about dark. Had a puncture and ran on the flat tire till the casing and tube were ruined, and had to have our tire refitted. We put up for the night in Yreka.

There were some very rough roads on leaving Yreka and also several slides. We drove as far as Red Bluffs where we stayed for the night. Sunday morning it stopped raining and we drove to Oakland [sic; Orland] in the forenoon. Stopped with our friend, F.A. Collins for dinner. We also met Charles Pendleton, who is in the moving picture business. In the afternoon we drove on to Woodland.

Monday we drove to Waterford, where we put up for the night with H.K. Root and family. Tuesday we were aiming for C.E. Broadbent’s, but we had a collision and jammed our car pretty badly. Two cars and a wagon all in a pile, but no one hurt. The old gentleman driving the wagon was thrown from his seat down into the wagon box. As we were between the other auto and wagon I had to pay damages. After settling up we got started and drove to Tulare where we put up for the night and had our car repaired. After starting the next morning we found that our radiator was leaking and had to stop again at Bakersfield to have it fixed. We left Bakersfield for Los Angeles over the ridge road. The wind was blowing a gale over the mountain and it was cold. My car was not pulling as it should so I got out to oil it and the wind nearly blew me off my feet. But in the closed car it was just as comfortable as in a house. I have many things to tell about our trip but I see I am making this letter too lengthy.

We are both well as usual and my wife stood the trip much better than I feared she would. She seems to breathe easier here, but it will take time to get the desired effect. With kindest regards to the American and its many readers, we are as ever your absent neighbors.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Barklow