This book could be called a near opposite of the one in my most recent review. That one contained lots of information and was well researched but not so well written. The Narrow Road: An Adventure on the Lincoln Highway tells me little that’s new and involved almost no research but is fairly well written. Yes, I do have variety in my reading.

I’m sure no one will be surprised to read that I sometimes visit Amazon and type “Lincoln Highway” into the search box. I used to do it to see if there was anything new that I hadn’t heard about but recently I’ve been doing it to see where my own book appears. The Narrow Road popped up in the search results and was not only “something new that I hadn’t heard about”, there were similarities between it and my book, By Mopar to the Golden Gate. Abbott’s book was published on December 17, 2013, mine on December 27, and both were travelogues of full length drives of the Lincoln Highway during its centennial year. Abbott lived far from the coasts, in Springfield, Missouri, so that, like me, he had to start his journey with an eastbound drive to New York City and end it with an eastbound drive back home. Beyond that, however, the similarities peter out quickly.

Abbott knew next to nothing about the Lincoln Highway before setting out to drive it. He was between jobs but had a little money in the bank. The recent death of his mother left him with no obligations and a cross country drive seemed like just what he needed. He more or less stumbled on the Lincoln Highway when he started looking for a route to connect the east coast with Route 66 which he knew about not only because of its own fame but because it ran through his home town. I think the coincidence of the Lincoln Highway’s 100 year anniversary and his own opportunity to run free for a bit clinched the decision to follow this newly discovered piece of history. He explains, “I didn’t go with any preconceived ideas. I learned just enough about the route to find my way.”

Amazon’s description of the book includes “…a travel narrative in the tradition of Travels with Charley“. I don’t doubt that’s what Abbott was going for but Steinbeck had a couple of decades of living and a shelf full of best sellers on the forty-three year old so that his “careful reflection and discovery” (also part of the Amazon description) ran a little deeper and carried a little more weight. One bit of discovery that, at least in my opinion, Steinbeck and Abbott share is the discovery that they don’t really like road trips. Neither says this, of course, but neither seems to be having the time of their life during their journey. I reviewed another book in the Travels With Charley tradition, Long Way Home, last year and the writer of that one, Bill Barich, seems to enjoy his trip a lot more than either Abbott or Steinbeck.

Steinbeck had no practical limits on time or money. Barich definitely did. Abbott’s time might not have been limited itself but his clearly restricted budget did certainly limit the amount of time he could spend running around with no income. Restaurants and motels were luxuries. Abbott ate a lot of canned fruit and peanut butter. He camped quite a bit and spent several nights sleeping in the homes of people contacted through a website. Both the camping and the home sharing contributed stories.

When Abbott left home, he was committed not only to the full coast to coast road trip but to producing a book about it. That commitment may have made him a little more observant and definitely kept him on the lookout for subject matter. More than once he noted that an encounter provided “something worth writing about”. Things observed and people encountered are written about and are sometimes used as launch points for essays on whatever enters Abbott’s thoughts at the time. None of the observations are particularly enlightening or the essays especially insightful but I enjoyed them — largely, I think, because they were quite different than my own observations and essays on a very similar trip. I believe this was Abbott’s first big road trip and I suspect part of my enjoyment of the book came from telling myself that some of Abbott’s thoughts were the thoughts of the typical first timer.

In the first paragraph, I described this book as “fairly well written”. I added the “fairly” qualifier because the writing, while extremely literate, has some issues. Or maybe it just has one issue. Abbott doesn’t exactly repeat a thought but neither does he let go of one easily. There were times when the same thought was expressed in so many different ways that I wondered if it might be some sort of writing exercise.

The Narrow Road: An Adventure on the Lincoln Highway, John Jay Abbott, December 17, 2013, Kindle ebook only, 388 KB, ASIN- B00HESQC2G
Apparently no longer available.

Carl Fisher was a busy man in 1913. His Prest-O-Lite Company and his automobile dealership were both going great guns, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway he co-founded looked like it might amount to something, the Ocean-to-Ocean Rock Highway he had proposed in September of 1912 was taking off, and then there was the Indiana Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

In the early years of the industry, Indiana was second only to Michigan in number of automobile manufacturers. Several of them cooperated in a 1911 four state promotional tour that was so successful they organized the IAMA and another four state tour in 1912. In 1913 they were ready for something bigger. The result was the Indiana-Pacific Tour that went from Indianapolis to San Francisco then down the coast to end at Los Angeles. Carl Fisher was part of the tour that left Indianapolis on July 1, 1913, the same day that the Lincoln Highway Association, which is what his Rock Highway proposal had led to, was incorporated. That coincidence of dates and a connection with the troublesome Colorado loop of the Lincoln Highway were essentially the only details of the IAMA tour I knew of. Now, thanks to Dennis and Terri Horvath, I know a lot more.

Hoosier Tour: A 1913 Indiana to Pacific Journey is not filled with flowery prose or lots of humor. That’s not how the Horvaths write. Neither is it filled with terse sentences and clipped descriptions. It is filled with an enjoyable and accurate account of the complete tour and the lead up to it. It tells of the men and machines on the tour and gives a hint of the tour’s impact on the acceptance of automobiles and the Good Roads Movement.

After a couple of chapters describing the IAMA and its planning for the tour, Hoosier Tour follows the Indiana vehicles across the country. Though not organized as such, the book is something of a group diary in that a day’s beginning and end points are usually mentioned along with highlights and lowlights.

This was a huge event in its day. It included eighteen cars and two trucks from fourteen manufacturers. Several journalists and a former Indianapolis mayor rode along. One car was driven by the winner of the inaugural Indianapolis 500, Ray Harroun. Several governors climbed aboard when the tour entered their state and rode along until it exited. Virtually every cluster of building on the route demanded a visit and presented the participants with gifts ranging from watermelons to free gas.

As an advertisement for Indiana built automobiles, the tour was a complete success. Not one car dropped out for mechanical reasons. It also performed well in regards to another stated purpose, boosting the Good Roads Movement. Aside from the high profile tour raising awareness considerably, it triggered improvement along the route it followed. Every locale wanted to make a good impression and the book tells of many improvements made just days ahead of the tour’s arrival.

One reason to impress was the belief, held by many, that Fisher was using the tour to evaluate the intended route of the Lincoln Highway. He denied any official connection between the route of the Indiana-Pacific Tour and the Lincoln Highway and much of the tour route was not even close to the path that would be announced in September but the belief was not totally without merit. Those familiar with Lincoln Highway history may know that the highway, as originally announced, did not enter Colorado but that a “Colorado Loop” was quickly added in response to pressure from the state. After reading the Horvaths’ account of the tour’s visit to Denver, which included a parade and a real brass band, it is rather easy to see why Colorado had expectations.

Even though the Indiana-Pacific Tour would continue on to Los Angeles, reaching San Francisco made good the title and there were great celebrations. A parade greeted them on arrival though the Horvaths do not say whether or not it included another brass band. Banquets, tours of the recently rebuilt city, and a stop at Cliff House kept the tourists busy for about three days. The book follows them down the coast to Los Angeles where most of the tourists boarded a train for the trip home. With the tourists back in Indianapolis, the final chapter touches on what followed for the Indiana automotive industry. Next are several pages of photos from the tour and appendices listing the tour’s people and vehicles.

There is little question that the Indiana-Pacific Tour should be better known than it is. It demonstrated the ability of automobiles, particularly Indiana built automobiles, to travel long distances and it brought nationwide attention to the value of good roads. It deserves to be more than a footnote to the Lincoln Highway and this book should help with that.

A lot has changed in one hundred years. It is a little sad that we can no longer purchase an Indiana built Stutz Bearcat but it is a good thing that we no longer have to dodge thrown ears of corn as the driver of the Stutz on the tour had to do after frightening a farmer’s horses.

Hoosier Tour: A 1913 Indiana to Pacific Journey, Dennis E. Horvath and Terri Horvath, AGG Publishing, 2013, paperback, 5 x 8 inches, 114 pages, ISBN 978-1490403267
Available through Amazon.