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Enroute, at San Diego, a young AP correspondent at our hotel turned up with what at the moment seemed a fabulous suggestion.  A man named B. F. Roehrig, owned a couple of airplanes and based them in Mexico, just over the line.  The newsman thought it a great and newsy idea if I went aloft as a passenger in Roehrig's big old [[strikethrough]] Farnum [[/strikethrough]] Farman, a two seater.  Two yes but the dam [[sic]] thing was nothing but a jerry rigged canvas and piano wire kite with motor attached.  

The correspondent contended that since I was the first woman driver to make it across the continent, it would give him a great feature story, and give me another conspicuous first to be the number one female airplane passenger.  The very nuttiness of the idea excited me to affirmative enthusiasm.  Saturday morning out to the field we went to discuss it with Roehrig.  He was amenable and back to San Diego we went with a definite date to fly late that afternoon.  In those history making beginnings flying was done at sunrise and sundown when there was little or no wind.  The fragile construction of the planes dictated this as a number one neck saver.

Pure and unadulterated catastrophe greeted us when we showed up at flight time.  The big [[strikethrough]] Farnum [[/strikethrough]] Farman was a heap of parts in the field.  The possibility of contibuting [[sic]] to the march of progress and grabbing a few headlines was a pile of junk.  The smaller plane, the only other operative aircraft was a single seater.  Our flight prospects were gone.  The clincher came when the AP man confessed that in order to make the Sunday papers throughout the country, and to beat the [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] three hour time differential, his story had already been filed.  Disaster was moving in on the young AP man at express train speed.  If it was leaked that the flight never occured his job was out the window and he'd never be able to pick up another with any syndicated news service.  The four of us huddled like the Packers backfield.  The decision was to keep quiet.  The job was saved.