CHAPTER ONE ~ AUGUST 27, 1919
CHICAGO TO INDIANAPOLIS EXPRESS TRAIN RACE
The engine roared as the automobile jumped sideways after hitting a rock in the road, carelessly pushing the rear wheels adrift to the outside of the curve. I felt the tires scrabbling for traction in the hard-packed rough gravel road. Calmly looking down over the side from my seat at the right rear of the open automobile, it appeared that the tires were losing the battle for traction as we slid ever closer to the edge of the road. The narrow roadside ditch would cause the car to flip over if the wheels dropped down into it at this speed.
I wondered how many times it would roll and if I would be thrown clear or trapped under the car’s body. I wondered if the engineer in the thundering express train’s locomotive on the tracks about a hundred feet from our left rear would laugh when he saw the car roll and realized he would win. He had not been the most pleasant fellow when we were introduced. Yet I had confidence that my father would keep us in the race. We had made four practice runs and he knew the road as well as he knew the 1919 Elgin Six automobile he was driving.
As if he knew what I was thinking, my father flicked the steering wheel and downshifted to bring the engine revs up. The tires spit gravel as they slowly scrabbled away from the road’s edge. He upshifted and we shot ahead of the locomotive, the engineer acknowledging our continued presence on the road with a long angry blast from the locomotive’s whistle. My notes from our practice runs indicated that the road was mostly straight for about a mile ahead. I tapped Jake in the front passenger seat and gave the predetermined hand signs that the road here was straight but with potholes and soft sandy spots to slow us down. Jake nodded and repeated the signs for my Dad. It was much too noisy and too easy to be misunderstood to shout, so by using hand signals we could keep the driver informed without him having to take his eyes off the road.
The young man sitting to my left in the rear seat was the official competition observer from the Chicago American newspaper’s Automobile Department. Chester Foust was hanging on for dear life and appeared rather pale as Dad began to weave and swerve to avoid the worst potholes and ruts.
The Roaring Road Book 1 The Road West Description:
Dan Lindner, a young sheba-chaser and fan of the late film star Wallace Reid is grabbed by thugs and taken to the local mob chief, who threatens him with dire consequences if he doesn’t undertake an unusual mission. Seeing no way out he reluctantly decides to go but his new flapper girlfriend Laure leaves him, thinking he is joining the mob. With his German Shepherd Dog named Raider (aka The Road Trip Dog) Dan begins his journey on the roaring road from his home village of Long Grove Illinois, driving a prototype Duesenberg Model X to the Wine Country of Napa and Sonoma.
Book 1 The Road West is the story of Dan, Laure and Raider’s adventures on their way to California and up to the time they begin their return to Long Grove. The young couple must contend with road bums, prison escapee bank robbers, a corrupt sheriff, Laure’s father who catches up with them, and a gang hired to take Laure back to the Chicago crime boss’s son who has become both enraptured and enraged with her.
Dan undertakes to rescue Laure from a rustbucket ship on the rough San Francisco waterfront. Seeking a few days of fun before their return journey from Napa to Chicago, Dan and Laure take a trip to Hollywood, meeting silent era film stars like Douglas Fairbanks, W.C. Fields, Buster Collier, Alice White and Billie Dove. They also make friends with sexy Louise Brooks, who devises a prank that succeeds and delivers major unintended consequences that reverberate throughout the story. Spiced with speakeasy visits and served with Napa wine to make a thrilling road trip tale.
“What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”
