|
next page | preceding page |
|
and falling
its side, with it's motor and wheels going
... then two men picking themselves up from
the cruel, hard earth against which they had
been forcibly thrown with merciless force was
a sight witnessed by several unappreciative
farmers just outside of Fairport." Winton struck a big stone, the article continues; and the horseless carriage "went up in the air like an India rubber ball, and when it struck ground, the machine sped along on three wheels." The fourth wheel broke off, the axle hit the |
ground and dug in, and Winton and Shanks were
thrown. "Mr. Winton asserts that we were thrown
at least 30 feet in the air" Shanks wrote.
They were not seriously injured. More trouble Our moment of mechanical truth comes on the sixth day of our trip as we are driving through the hills above the Hudson River. The 1899 has worked wonderfully all day, but then we smell oil burning and pull over. The air pump is on the way out. |
Wake figures it has only a few more miles in it.
He thinks those miles should be spent driving
through Manhattan and we load the 1899
on a trailer. It remains in the trailer
the rest of the, afternoon and all day Saturday to
Tarrytown, just north of New, York City. At dawn the morning of June 22 -- one week after we left - the 1899 is trailered into Manhattan and down Fifth Avenue, headed for Rockefeller Center. A few blocks away, it is |
unloaded and unleashed on the
Big Apple, the original town without pity
when it comes to traffic. Happily for us, at 6:45a.m. the streets are largely deserted, the taxi drivers doubtless in church. The 1899 has been, trailered about 500 of the roughly 700 miles, and that is a disappointment. But as we putter past St. Patrick's Cathedral, there is no denying we've still had a very special opportunity, - and perhaps those who try it in 2097 --people who will be bom 'in about 60 years -- will have better luck. |