1938 endurance run truck, still out to prove the durability of the Ford

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/old-gas-stations.75124/page-82#post-2297778

The University of Kentucky photography collection has a cool variety of 1930s photos

the above and below, are both examples of a grocery delivery truck, getting the Woolcott convertible top installed

Crazy to find a pair of photos of this top, that I've never heard of, in the covered and uncovered states!

Below is the Woolcott convertible top company truck!  Love this hobby!

https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/?f%5Bsource_s%5D%5B%5D=Lafayette+Studios+photographs%3A+1930s+decade&offset=320&per_page=20
https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/?f%5Bsource_s%5D%5B%5D=Lafayette+Studios+photographs%3A+1930s+decade&offset=520&per_page=20

1911 San Francisco to New York run, this Swiss Saurer double chain-drive truck, the “Pioneer Freighter” stops in Albion Michigan, it ran on BF Goodrich hard rubber tires while carrying a three-ton load across country in a two-stage trip.

This run by the truck started early in March of 1911 and traveled west from Denver to Los Angeles, and then North to San Francisco. From there it was shipped by rail to Pueblo, CO and on June 12, 1911, it then headed east to New York and arrived there a month and a half later on August 2nd.

 The truck was built in the US at the Saurer Motor Truck Company factory in Plainfield, NJ that merged with the Mack Brothers Car Company later in 1911.

Today’s enlargeable photo shows a stop on the eastbound Saurer truck trip to New York in Albion, MI at the Albion Garage for a promotional photo. The Service Station sold Goodrich tires and sold the Flanders car, one of which is parked to the left of the truck. The second car is a tourist’s Model “T” Ford touring car.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Fordmodelt/permalink/10161203866800548/

cross country Rajo head

https://www.facebook.com/groups/stiffspeed/permalink/1631122770367666/

Bicycling across the desert, the GAES Titan Desert by Garmin in Morocco

https://solobici.es/fotos-titan-desert-2018-paisajes/

Columbia record run - Chicago to New York, 1904. 58 hrs & 45 minutes.

https://tmblr.co/Zqou6t1xQ1y1D

somewhere in that hole are his engine and back tire

https://plus.google.com/+Silodrome/posts/PhFQ68GSDA3

Drivers would do about anything to set a world record, and prove the car's claims of superiority

http://www.overdrive.fi/forum/threads/vanhoja-valokuvia-ameriikan-raitilta.267070/page-40#post-2957404

in the Kamaz truck, on the Dakar Rally

determined to cross with the bike, no matter the difficulty

http://v2guzzi.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2017-06-29T16:39:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=17&by-date=false

Wolfgang Schmidt of Germany’s W&W Cycles, in 2008, led an epic motorcycle expedition along the Mackenzie Ice Road in Canada’s Northwest Territories during the dead of winter, to prove a point, and the reliability of aftermarket parts

To understand why someone would want to ride their motorcycle under such harsh and extreme conditions, you have to go back to a 1990’s Harley-Davidson advertising campaign that implored riders to use original spare parts if they wanted a reliable ride.

Choosing to view that assertion as a challenge, the folks at W and W Cycles decided to prove that it’s actually the other way around… that aftermarket parts were just as good, if not better, when it came to reliability. And to test this theory out, Wolfgang and his team rebuilt two bikes — a 1948 Panhead and a 2006 W and W Custom Shovelhead — and took them for the long cold ride.

Wolfgang used Performance Machines wheels and brakes on the journey through the Canadian Arctic.

http://www.custommotorcyclepartsblog.com/ice-road-bikers-use-pm-parts/pm_ice_gasstation/
https://www.facebook.com/bigislandchopper/posts/1809253739101632

AAA headquarters at Eighth and Olive Streets, August 6th, 1911

so... what's the three wheeler? Mario mis-identified it... it's not an American Tri-Car, Steve nailed it, it's a Motorette, made by the C.W. Kelsey Mfg. Co. in Hartford, Connecticut 1910-12.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll59/id/494/rec/241

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll59/id/1348/rec/324

Thanks Mario and Steve!

http://www.american-automobiles.com/Motorette.html

In early 1911 a Motorette driven by Ward C. Sharwood, with Otto Krause as passenger, began a 4,416 mile journey from Hartford, Connecticut to San Francisco - the smallest engine driven vehicle to attempt the transcontinental trip. By late July they had made it as far as Ludlow, California, where they were arrested and held for two days for driving on the railroad right-of-way.

They reached San Francisco on August 14th, after taking 5 months - in which they had 41 days of actual running time.

They arrived in LA on August 5th, and this above images were taken August 6th 

an Essex endurance run I haven't come across before, LA to Death Valley from the Santa Fe station

http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4574544&postcount=585

Who to bet on to crush the record, win the race, and dominate the field... the woman that biked 2100 miles to get to the 2800 mile race. She was just getting warmed up. You better not bet against her.

Not many people who don't ride bikes for a living, or for long distances - like across continents - have heard of the people that do. Okay, we've all heard of Lance Armstrong, but you may already see where I'm going with this... he doesn't ride for distance, he rides to win the Tour de France.

There are some people who somehow can afford to not have a job, and maybe it's because they don't have to pay rent, because they never sleep in a bedroom...  they sleep on the roadside, in parks, or where ever they are when they realize they are too wiped out to keep biking.

Among them, is Lael Wilcox, and to read her blog is to see that the riders know each other, they meet up on the roads sometime, in this country or other ones, and some are just well known among the bikers that read biking magazines instead of Hot Rod, Rodders Journal, Automobile, etc.

Well, I was blown away to read that Lael rode TO the race from Canada to Mexico, a 2800 mile amateur race that I've only just learned of, the Tour Divide. Just how damn astonishing is it to ride 2100 miles to get to the start of a bike race? Blows my mind. But, going back to what I said earlier, only because I had no idea that all she seems to do in this world is ride a bike. Everywhere. For the last 9 years she's biked all over the planet. Europe, the middle East, Canada, America, Africa etc etc. So, for her, getting to the race was a thing that didn't even matter, it was just what was needed.

You can read her article about the race https://laelwilcox.com/2015/09/12/tour-divide-story/ but she doesn't follow it up with remarks about crushing the previous record, by 2 days, or what she did after... the next entry in her blog is her heading out on another ride.

But Outside Magazine did a story on her https://www.outsideonline.com/1997471/how-lael-wilcox-crushed-tour-divide

and that was in 2015.

Who knew, she also runs for fun and did this REI video which really covers a LOT like the Tour Divide

For 2016, she rode the Trans Am (cross America) from Astoria Washington to Yorktown Virginia, a 4400 mile race.... and she won it. I didn't categorize that as "she won the women's category" no... she WON the WHOLE DAMN THING. And broke the record for doing it the fastest.

She's the first American to win it, and she's the 1st woman to win it. https://cyclingtips.com/2016/06/trans-am-lael-wilcox-wins-smashes-womens-record/   https://www.facebook.com/TransAmBikeRace/

Why isn't she competing in the Olympics? The Tour de France? Hell if I know.

For comparison to the worlds biggest bike race, the Tour de France

the Tour Divide, have you ever heard of it?

It's an annual amateur ultra-distance mountain biking race traversing the length of the Rocky Mountains, from Banff, Alberta Canada to Antelope Wells, NM.... it's the world's longest off-pavement cycling route.

The race format is strictly self-supported, and it is not a stage race - the clock runs continuously from the start until riders cross the finish line, more than two weeks later.

The race has a very low profile, has no entry fees, no sponsorship, and no prizes. Although "letters of intent" from likely starters are encouraged, any rider may turn up on the day to participate.

Challenges along the route include mountains, great distances between resupply towns, risk of mechanical failure or injury, bears, poor weather, snowfall, and significant unrideable sections that require pushing the bike.

 Riders usually adopt a "bikepacking" style, carrying minimal equipment sufficient for camping or bivouacking, and only enough food and water to last until the next town. In this way, riders ride huge distances each day.

The Tour Divide has been raced and completed on both single speed bicycles and tandem bicycles. It usually starts on the second Friday in June

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_Divide
http://tourdivide.org/

It was tirelessly mapped over a 4 year span, and published in 1998, highlighted by long dirt roads and jeep trails that wend their way through forgotten passes of the Continental Divide. It travels through Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and the United States of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico

Anita King made history in 1915 when she became the first woman to complete a solo drive across America. 100 years later, her great nieces recreated the trip

Her great nieces went cross country in about 49 hours, in a Chrysler 200. Anita needed 49 days, some which were nothing more than getting unstuck from mud. I wonder if she innovated any ways for quickly getting unstuck?

http://www.lincoln-highway-museum.org/King/King-Index.html
https://unrememberedhistory.com/2016/04/27/a-paramount-girl-a-touring-car-and-the-road-to-the-movies/
http://comolasamapolas.blogspot.com/2012/06/anita-king-la-chica-de-la-paramount.html
http://www.leadertelegram.com/News/Front-Page/2015/08/16/Great-great-nieces-repeat-woman-s-historic-road-trip.html
http://anitakingfilmstar.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_34.html

the 1914 motorcycle for 4, and a family went coast to coast on it

http://carzhunt.blogspot.com/2017/01/indians-classic-motorcycles-and-ner-car.html