Where this was said
Navigating the West: Mountains, Mud, and Misdirection
At 35:45 · chapter starts 32:20
The western leg of the journey reads like a compendium of everything that could go wrong. The Cascade Mountains presented cliff-side roads barely wide enough for one vehicle, shared with stagecoaches and horses, with no room for error. The brakes were inadequate for steep descents; the clutch failed repeatedly and Crocker repaired it over and over again. When they ventured onto railroad right-of-ways — often the only flat, clear surface available — they drove across railroad bridges in an open car topping out at 30 mph, hoping no train was coming (an experience Josh compared to the famous bridge scene in Stand By Me). Locals, rarely having seen a car, were unreliable guides: one woman on horseback deliberately misdirected Jackson and Crocker down a dead-end driveway miles long, just so her family could see an automobile. They came back, met her again, asked why, and heard the cheerful explanation — and apparently accepted it without anger. On their worst day, the block and tackle was deployed 18 times to free the car from mud, ditches, and rivers [1] — Chuck "Block and tackle used 18 times in one day: On their worst day, Jackson and Crocker had to use their block-and-tackle pulley system 18 times…" 34:43 .
The Packard team drove into one western town just after a murder — and the entire crowd, including the sheriff, abandoned the fresh crime scene to stare at the car. Nobody out west had ever seen one before.
On their worst day, Jackson and Crocker had to use their block-and-tackle pulley system 18 times to drag the car out of ditches, rivers, and mud holes. That one piece of gear, more than almost anything else, kept the trip alive.
On their worst day, Jackson and Crocker had to use their block-and-tackle pulley system 18 times in a single day to pull their car out of ditches, rivers, and mud holes.
A woman on horseback gave Jackson and Crocker confident directions — straight down a dead-end driveway to her family's farm. They were miles in before they realized it. Her reason: her family had never seen a car and she wanted to give them a look.
