Despite Dinah Shore's advice to "see the USA in a Chevrolet", Henry Ford was the original vagabond. Along with author and naturalist John Burroughs, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone, Ford spent several years "roughing it" with an entourage of vehicles, staff and onlookers across America's backroads to promote federal support for highways (pretty much everything was a backroad in those days) and to showcase his vehicles as personal equipment. I've bumped into this story a couple of times but this recent
Smithsonian Mag article has some great pics that I thought I'd share. Plus, this pair of quotes from Burroughs:
Before he joined the Vagabonds, the article says Burroughs "denounced [the Model T] as a 'demon on wheels' that would 'seek out even the most secluded nook or corner of the forest and befoul it with noise and smoke.' "
He later modified his view, however, and said, "We cheerfully endure wet, cold, smoke, mosquitoes, black flies, and sleepless nights, just to touch naked reality once more."
Seems like he got it right both times,
don
Adobe Loon (aka the Dawghaus)
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