1953 Trip to California

This is a trip log written by David Barth, beginning on June 20, 1953 as the family left for a trip from Columbus, Ohio to Los Angeles, California in the family's dark gray 1948 two-door Chevrolet sedan. David was 10 years of age.

Our mileage is now 38,677 when we left home it was 38,670. We went over three bridges, two of the bridges were over Treacle Creek.

June 21st. We slept in a motel last night, and this morning we got up and left Motel Cordia. 70 miles later, we stopped at a one-table picnic place and saw six trains go by, pulled by steam engines. We have been through quite a few towns now. It has been hot for the two days we have been on our trip.

We have been to Kenneth's [Leoda Klindt's son in Jefferson City, Missouri] and we have met three other children. Their names are John, who is 3, Fred who is 8, and Judy, the biggest one, is 10. They wanted us to stay to eat, so we stayed. We have been driving and now we are going to eat our dinner and we are crossing a bridge.

June 22. We got up from our motel and were driving and then we stopped and ate on a picnic. There were to gray cats. They were cute. Dad stopped at the border of Missouri and Kansas and looked at rocks. I got a little sample of rocks. Then we drove along Kansas and entered Oklahoma and Dad took our picture. We got some crushed ice then we ate. And then we saw the house I lived in when I was born. We saw some of our neighbors. Then we got a motel in Tulsa.

June 23. We got up late and were off. A few hours later we went on the Turner Turnpike. It is 80 miles long.

June 24. We are in New Mexico. Soon we will be in the Mountains! We have seen lots of sand and tumbleweeds.

June 25. [David lost interest writing in his log, and at this point his mother, Norma, continued writing the log, in her handwriting].

We got up from our motel in Albuquerque, N.M., and we got an early start. We saw the sunrise and Dad took some pictures. We went along the road of a mountain. We stopped to see some hard lava. It was a big lava field. It was about 40 miles square. We got some specimens.

Mother took a picture of me holding an adobe brick. Adobe bricks are made of mud and straw. We stayed there for about 45 minutes. We saw an Indian on a white horse. He had on his Indian clothes.

We ate breakfast by the side of the road, on a hill. We saw some sheep. Two Indian boys and two Indian girls were herding the sheep. We finished breakfast and drove the car into the pasture and Mother asked if we could take their pictures. They finally said yes. One was dressed in a velvet blouse and skirt. She had silver and turquoise bracelets and belt.

We stopped in Gallop New Mexico and went into a shop. I got a tie slide made by an Indian of a sheep's backbone. It is a steer head. We went to another store and got Duncan [David's brother, Duncan Norman Barth] a pair of moccasins. I got a pair too. We saw lots of Indians of the Navaho, Zuni, and Hopi tribes.

From there we went to the Painted Desert. Our next stop was Newspaper Rock. It had Indian writing. They think it was written about 800 or 900 years ago. Next we came to the Petrified forest. There were no trees standing up. They were all laying down, and broken into pieces. They were many different colors. We saw the natural bridge made by a petrified log 111 feet long. We went to the museum and saw lots of specimens of petrified wood. The ranger told us the history of the petrified forest. No one may take specimens from the monument, but outside the monument there are no restrictions, so we stopped and I got some petrified wood. We slept in a motel in Winslow, Arizona.

June 26: About 6 a.m. we arrived at the Meteor Crater.

Burma Shave signs seen along Route 66:

Our best advertising
space is your smooth
shaven face
Burma Shave

The hairy devil is
forced to dwell
in the only place
where they don't sell
Burma Shave

His was the
mushy type
until his beard
grew overripe
Burma Shave

The wolf is shaving
neat and trim
and now red riding hood
is chasing him
Burma Shave

Five star generals
privates first class
show equal rank
in the looking glass
Burma Shave

No, No she said
to her beastly beau
I'd rather eat the
mistletoe
Burma Shave