Then on Sunday, May 4, an auto party consisting of Carroll and Irene their children Bethel and John, our daughter Nelle and my niece Nellie Slavens and I left our home at about 11:30 A.M. and went to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. Our route was the same we had gone on previous trips via Rockville to Frederick, Maryland. There we turned south and passing through the small towns of Jefferson and Sandy Hook we arrived at the toll bridge which spans the Potomac River over which we crossed into the picturesque old town of Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, made famous before the Civil War by old John Brown, Osawatomie, Kansas, who undertook to capture the federal arsenal located there, and after an encounter with federal troops was captured and was afterward tried and hanged. The town is a small place built on the cliff overlooking the Potomac River. We passed through the only street of the town and then drove to a large hotel built on a high point from which there was a splendid view of the Potomac River, and also of the Shenandoah River which flows into the Potomac near the town. From there we also saw the entrance of the tunnel through which the railroad passes through a high mountain near the town. After remaining in Harper's Ferry about an hour we retraced our route and again crossed the toll bridge. Then we stopped, all got out of the car and Irene and Nelle took pictures of the party standing near the bluff near the bridge. Then we resumed our journey and went back to Frederick. There we turned west and went through Braddock Heights and Middletown to South Mountain near which a battle was fought during the Civil War. We remained there a short time and then retraced our route to Frederick. Soon after we started home from Harper’s Ferry we noticed in the distance to the right of the road probably twenty or more miles dense clouds of smoke rising, which we supposed was a forest fire. After we got to Frederick and turned west the fire seemed much closer and was in the forest to the west of South Mountain. It continued to burn and was still raging when we returned to Frederick. Next day we saw in the morning pager an account of the fire which burned over a large area of forest and destroyed some farms. Leaving Frederick late in the afternoon we arrived at our Washington home about 9 o'clock P.M., having traveled about 160 miles and had a very enjoyable trip.

We left our home in Washington about 11:30 A. M., Sunday, May 11, 1930 on an auto trip through a part of northern Virginia. The party consisted of Irene and Carroll, their children John and Bethel, our daughter Nelle and I. We went the same route we did when we made the trip to Winchester on April 27, until we had gone a few miles past Fairfax, where we turned to the left on Lee Highway and went to Warrenton. For several miles before we reached this town the route was over a dirt road and a very rough one part of the way. We stopped a short time in Warrenton while Carroll did some repair work on his car. Warrenton is a very nice town but many of the buildings look old. Leaving the town we turned west toward the Blue Ridge Mountains. Part of the road before we reached the mountains was a rather poor hard surface road and some of it was a bumpy dirt road and travel over it was disagreeable. After going quite a distance probably twenty or twenty-five miles we began to ascend the Massanutten Mountain over a splendid hard surfaced road which wound round the ridges of the mountain and at times looking back we could see far below us the road over which we had come. We continued to climb the great mountain until we reached the peak and then we descended a few miles west of the summit where we stopped and ate lunch Then we turned around and retraced the route we had come earlier in the day. Massanutten Mountain is probably as much as 3000 feet above sea level and the view from the peak and from various other points was very fine. I think it was equally as grand a sight as that at Afton which we had viewed with so much pleasure on a previous trip. Our road back home was again through Warrenton and over the bumpy road.

I neglected to say that on the trip to Warrenton we stopped a short time at the Rock Bridge over Bull Run Creek over which troops of both armies passed in the battle of Bull Run during the Civil War. The girls got some stones near the bridge and they took pictures of the party standing on the bridge. We arrived at home about 9 P. M. having traveled about 150 miles during the day. We had a tiresome but still an enjoyable trip.

On May 18, 1930 Hon. John W. Palmer, Representative in Congress of the Seventh Missouri District, called on us. I knew John Palmer when he was a young man At that time he was a partner of Drs. George N. & John N. White in a drugstore in Cross Timbers, Mo. and either then or soon afterward he was a young physician. Some years later, he attended a law school from which he graduated and engaged in the practice of law, having been admitted to the bar at Linn Creek, Mo., at which place he located for the practice of his profession. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Camden County and after serving several years in that position, he was elected a Representative of the County in the House of the General Assembly of the State of Missouri. A few years later he removed from Camden to Pettis County, Missouri locating at Sedalia and during the administration of Hon. M. Hyde as Governor of the State, he was connected with the Governor’s official family, but I do not remember what position he held. In the election of 1928 he was elected as a Representative in Congress from the Seventh Missouri District. I was truly glad to see my old Missouri friend and to talk over old times in Hickory County. He is a man of good ability and is making a creditable record in Congress and is carefully and diligently looking after the interests of his constituents. He is a candidate for re-election. I wish him success.

From our daughter Nelle and her sister Mrs. Irene Donohoe and her husband and children John and Bethel, who on May 30, 1930 started on an auto trip through Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky, I learned that they went through Fairfax and Winchester, Virginia, Romney and Parkersburg, West Virginia and then through the southern part of Ohio to Cincinnati, Ohio where they stopped and visited their cousin Mrs. Nona Kilgour and her family and their aunt Mrs. Laura White who had been an inmate of the Kilgour family since she returned from Baltimore to Cincinnati in 1929. After spending a day and night with the Kilgours they continued their jaunt on Sunday accompanied by Mrs. White, crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky, and passed through Lexington, Mount Sterling, Montgomery Co. near which their Grandfather Slavens was born and several other Kentucky towns and they stayed all night at Raineila, Ky. The next morning they resumed their journey and owing to some tire trouble were delayed several hours and then passed through Covington and other Virginia towns and arrived at home at 11:30 P. M. that night having traveled 1198 miles. We were all glad to have their Aunt Laura with us again. They had a tiresome but enjoyable trip. On Sunday, June 8, in company with sister Laura White, Carroll, Irene, John and Bethel and I went on a motor trip through a part of Maryland.. We went through Ellicott City and Baltimore and into the country a few miles north of Baltimore passing through Towson, the county seat of Baltimore County. Returning home we passed through several small towns the largest of which was Hyattsville, and arrived home before dark.

Note: Added to this last page of this copy of the book is the notation "Aunt Josie died Sept. 4, 1939. Uncle Luther died Nov. 8, 1939.