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Cheerful idiots and road trips seem to go together, that was the conclusion derived at by a writer for Outing magazine in March 1905. Today the accounts of early automobile owners, manufacturers and their road trip adventures are an endless source of fascination. 

Let me introduce you to Elmer Lovejoy. In 1892 he rode a biccyle from a ranch in Colorado to the World’s Fair in Chicago. Then he opened a bicycle repair and sales shop in Laramie, Wyoming and organized the Laramie Bicycle Club. On May 7, 1898, something new and startling rolled from his shop, the Lovejoy Novelty Works. It was a steam powered carriage proclaimed to be the first automobile built west of the Mississippi River. In 1905 Lovejay became the regional dealer for the Franklin Motor Car Company and in1907 established the first automobile rental business in Wyoming.

The years bracketing the turn of the century are rich with colorful stories and even more colorful characters. Horatio Nelson Jackson made the first successful transcontinental drive across the United States in 1903. Sponsored by Maxwell-Briscoe, Alice Huyler Ramsey became the first woman to drive an automobile across the United States in 1909. In 1908 a 22,000-mile automobile competition started at Times Square in New York. The finish line was in Paris, France.

Jim Hinckley’s America is a shared adventure. Join us, invite your friends. And let’s share the stories about great American road trips.