In late April 1915 – not yet famous for her writings on etiquette – Emily Post made a decision to travel America’s roads across the new Lincoln Highway and write about it for Collier’s Magazine.  Starting out from Grammercy Park in New York City, Ms. Post was accompanied by her son, Edwin (Ned) and her cousin, Alice Beadleston, the three travelers set out for San Francisco in a custom-made automobile – and 45 days later they arrived – though the car had to be rail-freighted to San Francisco from Arizona after a mechanical breakdown.  On May 6, 1915, Emily’s group became stuck in “a sea of mud” just outside of Rochelle, Illinois, after a very heavy spring rainfall the group took rooms in the old Collier Inn for the next two days and discovered the joys of a small Midwestern hotel said Ms. Post.  “It seemed to us as though we had found a veritable ritz.”