Hotel Lincoln Indianapolis, Indiana July 16, 1943
Dear Bess:
I've had quite a day. If you can imagine me leaving Uniontown at 7:00 A.M. after having breakfast at six-thirty and driving all day in the hot sunshine--keeping the speed indicator below forty most all the time and never more than forty plus, you can understand why I could hardly write my name on the register when I arrived about six o'clock--really about seven o'clock, because the watch went back an hour at Richmond. It was actually eleven hours driving to make exactly 370 miles. You know I've made 570 in that time.
I still had some of the grand box lunch Mrs. Boyle made for me and I didn't have to stop only at roadside parks to eat. I don't know whether I told you yesterday she sent over a shoebox with six deviled-eggs, a whole fried chicken, six bread-and-butter sandwiches, and some cupcakes sealed up in this Cellophane. I ate chicken, a deviled-egg, and a bread-and-butter sandwich for supper last night in Frostburg. Then I had my usual breakfast in Uniontown--a big tomato juice, Post Toasties (couldn't get oatmeal), toast and milk. Well by ten-thirty this morning I was hungry as a bear. So I stopped at one of Ohio's roadside parks west of St. Clairsville and ate a deviled-egg, a couple of pieces of chicken, and a bread-and-butter sandwich out of Mrs. Boyle's shoebox.
I stopped in St. Clairsville to get the old car tightened up. I had cultivated a rattle underneath that sounded as if I was going to lose the running gear. Fortunately I stopped at the right place and found a fellow who knew the Imhoffs and the Lewises. In fact they all live in the same block. So he tightened up everything for $1.68. He asked me my name when he was making out the bill and almost had heart failure when I told him--that's how the Congressmen came up.
When I registered at the White Swan last night the clerk said he hoped I wouldn't investigate him. The Lincoln clerk said the same thing. Ain't that an awful reputation?
Well I stopped at another Ohio park on the east side of one of those dams west of Springfield and ate the rest of the chicken and deviled-eggs but I still have some cupcakes and bread-and-butter sandwiches left--and I'm hungry now. So I'll have to go buy a meal I guess.
If all goes well, I'll get to St. Louis tomorrow--go and see John Snyder who is in the hospital having his rupture sewed up, and then go to Jefferson City and stay all night. I'll see Dick Nacy and then go to Kansas City. See all the folks and come to Colorado soon as possible. Kiss Margie. Love to you. My best to your mother, Chris, and the kids.
Harry.