They called themselves the vagabonds.

This group of men, who from 1914 to 1924, took what were at the time the most famous

road trips in American history.

And just a few decades earlier, the very idea of a road trip would have seemed ridiculous.

Most people only traveled a dozen miles from home, basically how far your horse could

go.

And even with the advent of cars, people were skeptical of the road trip.

Roads were terrible.

You didn't even know where they were.

Rand McNally didn't publish the first national road map until 1924.

People also were suspect of cars.

John Burroughs called cars demons on wheels and said that they were bound to find even

the most secluded nook or corner of the forest and befowel it with noise and smoke.

But the vagabonds, riding in their Model T, were determined to show off the glories of

traveling by car for two weeks.

Every year they went up the coast of California or over the Catskill Mountains or down through

the Everglades, and they created this incredibly romantic vision of their travels.

And everywhere the vagabonds went, onlookers and newspaper men followed.

That's because these weren't just any road tripers.

The vagabonds, as they called themselves, were Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone

of the Tires and John Burroughs.

The very naturalist who had railed against cars in the first place.

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