- [Narrator] On the
afternoon of May 23rd,

1903, they were ready to go.

The two men started down San
Francisco's Market Street

to cross the bay on
the Oakland Ferry

for their long journey east.

It was the beginning of
America's first road trip.

A trip that would collect
a thousand impressions

of a country and a people

on the cusp of
extraordinary change.

- [Dr. Horatio Nelson
Jackson] My darling Swipes,

the hardest work I ever did
was to say goodbye to you.

I came pretty nearly
having cold feet.

There isn't one woman in
a thousand that would let

a fellow do what I have done

and I can tell you old
girl, I appreciate it.

Please give my best
love to your mother

and tell my father and mother

that I love them
as much as ever.

I shall write you when I can

and shall depend on you
to keep them posted.

Yours til New York, Nelson.

P.S., take good care of
yourself and don't worry.

- There is no thing
that we can do that is

more American than
getting in a car

and striking out across country.

I think as a nation we
can think of few things

that draw us more strongly than

a piece of roadway heading
to we know not where.

This is the way that we grow up.

This is the way that
we enter our history.

Get in a car and
find the country.