Between the Covers

Hardcover. Quarto measuring 9” x 6”. 53pp. Brown stiff paper boards with “Personal Trip Diary” written on the front cover. Approximately 2000 words handwritten. Light edgewear else fine.

A woman’s handwritten travel diary during her trips around the South Western parts of the United States and Mexico in April for the years 1961 and 1962. During her first trip, the woman travels alone to several different places in the mid and south west of the United States including Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee, Michigan, Georgia, and Mexico. She occasionally writes the amount of miles traveled in one day, sometimes driving up to 12 hours and 500 miles straight. The woman visits college campuses, diners, and hotels, but doesn’t spend much time in each place often heading on the road a few hours later, “This country is big at times to the point of monotony. Mile after mile maybe flat, crude, or cultivated, yet it is fascinating”. The woman doesn’t state where she is from but the first location written is from when she was driving through Virginia during a cold frost. This contrasts with her eventual destination, Mexico City which she writes about the heat several times. In Mexico City the woman visits her family and friends and spends her time “Drinking,” “Shopping,” and “Staying up all night”. She writes about her drive home and picks up again during her trip the next year writing about taking a different route, “Mountains completely surrounding new route and sweet flowers blooming, yellow, white-orange”. Her descriptions of the trip are sparse only mentioning the diners and food she had while traveling to Acapulco and Taxco, Mexico. Strangely enough the woman orders a filet mignon or steak for almost every meal during both her trips. In the back of the diary there are marks of locations the woman visited, miles driven, route instructions, and a list of hotel expenses.

An interesting women’s account of traveling by herself to Mexico once a year to visit family in 1961 and 1962.

Item #425951