Editor’s Note: The following is a diary written in 1963, and has been edited minimally to maintain the original spirit in which it was written. Included in the record are photographs taken by the family on the trip, as well as postcards saved by the Eaton children.

In the summer of 1963, Nancy Eaton of Greenville plotted out a cross-country roadtrip for her and her five children: Betsy, 15, Jane, 14, Chuck, 13, and Susan, 12, and Dick, age 10. In their station wagon, the family went from Greenville to California, hitting some of the United States most famous landmarks. This is the third installment of 10 in the diary she kept along the way.

In this entry, the family seeks out one of Jane’s many pen pals in Elk Creek, Ky., followed by a stay at Table Rock State Park in Missouri. The family stays at the home of one of Nancy Eaton’s friends and pen pals, several of whom she visited along the journey. They travel through Oklahoma and Texas, and end this section with the Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Santa Fe in New Mexico.

Got started at 10:00, after rain had stopped. Headed for Elk Creek, where Jane had a pen pal. Lunched before, but much difficulty locating the girl. Her home was empty, except for a bowl and a curtain. They lived on a road with a crown so high, the car scraped. We finally located the girl in the next town, where her grandmother worked. Mother was in Detroit. The father had left them.

We drove on to Table Rock State Park, and arrived late. Kids went to swim, but it was not good though we had driven a long way for a swim. We did not put up the big tent and it was very damp in the morning. It looked like rain. We were off at 7:00 a.m. and arrived at Tyrrell’s at 3:30. We had stopped for a swim at Heyburn on the way. This was off the route, but I did not want to arrive at Tyrrell’s too early.

Norman is a University town. The college seems to extend from one end to the other. Tyrrell’s home is 50 years old, large rooms and a delightful family. Dr. Thayer has a beard. Next year, he will be a full professor of English. Their oldest son, Jon(athan) would like to go to Harvard in 1964. Helen or “Nell” is a Junior next year and Joseph a sophomore. The two small girls, Antionette (“Tone”) and Connie are 9 and 8.

We had a hot dog and salad supper, and I slept in Nell’s room while the boys slept with Joe in the back yard, and our three girls on the porch. The tree older children were involved in a Junior Symphony Concert in Oklahoma City, being taped for recording on Saturday afternoon.

We left Tyrrell’s about 11:00 a.m., and then bought gifts for them and had the oil changed and the car greased.

We stopped at Groom, Texas, just east of Amarillo for the night. The kids love the motels because of the swimming pools. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant. Food is less expensive here.

Oklahoma, around Oklahoma City, is just dotted with oil wells. The capital building in the middle of the city is flanked with them. The old-type towers must be about 30 feet high. The grasshopper pumps are about 10 feet from arrow to arrow. These in the middle of small residential house area or around city buildings is really quite surprising.

There are more of these oil wells in the Texas panhandle and the first Western ranches which we have seen. The wind was howling all day, making driving hard.

The driving does not bother me at all.

Tomorrow we are going south through Texas to Hobbs, New Mexico, where we will spend the night before going to the Carlsbad Caverns. These were not on our itinerary.

Archie has asked me to call him Sunday. He called me last night at Tyrrell’s. He wanted me to call before 10:00 a.m., but this would mean before 6 a.m., a little early, I think.

The country here is quite flat. The rivers are beds with little water. The ground or soil is orange-red. The trees seem to have a permanent lean with the wind from the south. Yesterday, there was some wind, but from the east, so it blew you along.

It is 9:00 p.m., the boys are swimming and I’m watching and writing. It is getting dark. We will start early tomorrow for it will be a drive of about 300 miles.

June 23

Cattle, a single ranch and a piece of farm equipment might be all that is visible in a glance that might include six square miles. There is much irrigation of the land and again intermittent areas of oil wells. There are grain elevators and gins, though I do not recognize cotton growing.

When I stopped at a vegetable and fruit store this afternoon there were (Black people), Mexicans and white. This was in Lubbock, pronounced Lub as rub a dub dub. They plugged the watermelons with a pointed scoop that removed a piece to test if it was ripe. We bought two kinds of plums, apricots and cantaloupe.

Tonight we are in this Travelodge. This is the company Flo Capelle works for. They surely do it up well.

I’m sitting by a 40-foot swimming pool. We arrived about 4:00. (Did not start til nearly 10:00 this a.m.)

We have a family unit for $13.50. This is a large room with closet, shower, two large twin beds and then a second room they call an alcove with one twin bed, sliding door between. The best yet for our family. Coloring books for the children, free newspaper, free coffee in some automatic thing I haven’t tried it yet. Always ice available and dispenser for pop (for which one pays).

We are about 75 miles from Carlsbad Caverns. There is no place to camp there, so we will leave here early, go through the Caverns and on to camp or motel about 25 miles north toward Santa Fe.

Our room is upstairs and has a private balcony, too.

We will eat out tonight. I did not write Monday night and it is hard when there is so much to see.

We reached the Carlsbad Caverns at 9:30. It was real desert on top of the mountain from which the Caverns open. Yuccas, about five kinds, now in bloom until Tuesday.

The caverns are huge and everywhere are stalactites, stalagmites and curtains. The pamphlet will best illustrate. The trip is four hours, including lunch – a box lunch far down.

Outside it is over 90, a garage man in Rowell reported 104 on Tuesday.

On way to Carlsbad, we ran out of gas – just an interesting experience with natives giving information about the land – cotton alfalfa and barley where there is irrigation and fishing puddles – well stocked.

We spent this night in Artesia – reasonable, a pool, but not as nice as the Travelodge. We bought salad, cold cuts, etc. and ate in our room – both supper and breakfast. The early rise, early driving is better in theory than in practice. 8:00 p.m., ‘til 5:00 goes best with the hours of light but only allows 9 hours sleep, which isn’t enough for some, but the days are so long that it would be difficult to establish any hours. For 5:00 it is so light it is hard to stay in bed.

We stopped in Santa Fe. We had gone by way of Lincoln at Chuck’s suggestion that we see this Billy the Kid town and museum. The museum was closed at 8:55, and no one was interested.

Sidebar from the Diary of Jane Eaton, age 14

June 19, 1963

We left Mammoth Caves very early and drove almost all day. We stopped at a dairy bar and got monstrous ice cream cones for 10 cents, and then stopped at Kentucky Lake State Park for lunch and the kids went swimming. (I couldn’t, I have a cold. Mummy got me some cough medicine.) Then we went on to Mayfield, Kentucky to see Tommy Bushart, my pen pal. I telephoned him and he gave me directions. He was glad to see me, and I found him to be lots of fun. He does not have a father.

We are staying at the Avalon Motel in Poplar Bluffs, Missouri, which is not too far from my pen pal in Arkansas, but we are not visiting them. Tomorrow, Susan and I will visit our pen pals in Elk Creek and Tryone, Missouri. (Rachel Dedrich)

The kids went swimming again at the motel.

We went through Kentucky and Missouri. We crossed the Mississippi River on a ferry boat. It was lots of fun. A barge went down the river while we were there. Missouri is so flat and there are so many rows of crops that I think I was becoming crosseyed looking at them.

We drove by two gasoline stations, one on each side of the road where I noticed a bouquet of funeral flowers on the Gulf station. Just beyond the stations, Mummy realized that we were almost out of gas, so she backed up tot the Gulf station. No one answered her honk, so she decided to try someplace else. The car was completely OUT of gas and right in front of a gas station. Luckily, the station across the was was an AAA station. AAA pays the towing charge if you run out of gas. We were pushed across the street! We laughed and laughed! Out of gas in front of a dead gas station!