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The swelling tide of attention was generated by the wizardry of our public relations man, or in those simple times, our press agent. His persuasive ways brought amazing returns, with full page Sunday stories which appeared in most of the big newspapers of the day.... renown papers like the Boston Globe, New York Sun, Philadelphia Enquirer, Cincinnati Enquirer, Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Denver Post, San Francisco Chronicle and many of the other newspaper giants [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] which are still around and in good inky health today. The national promotion and publicity had the Willys Overland people estatically happy.

Nightly it was my job to send a similarly worded telegram to the one hundred and seventy five Overland agencies giving them a fix on our route. In each Overland dealer's [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] window was a painted map of the United States. The arrival of the wire moved a small cardboard cutout of Gertrude and me in the car to the current position. The display of the wire adjacent to the cutout underlined the authenticity of the message. The press agent who later became my husband proceeded [[preceded]] us via train and arranged the welcoming proceedings in each city. [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[strikethrough]] Almost every state we passed through found us at the festive board with the Governor. City celebrations usually found us flanked by the Mayor and his retinue of officials, VIP's from the automobile clubs plus VIP's who were just auto enthusiasts.  The [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] spontaneous greetings were great but there was always more driving just ahead for me. Certain sections take on a kalediscopic quality with flashes of washed out roads, missing bridges and trying to navigate through slashing storms. The weather couldn't care less about our project. It turned a fair cheek then would sock us with a real rip snorter of a storm.