It was 98 years ago this very day that 22-year-old Alice Huyler Ramsay set out to become the first woman driver to cross the United States. Ms. Ramsay was at the wheel of a bright red 1909 Maxwell DA, accompanied by three other women who came along as passengers. None of them could drive but they all helped push and shove when the car got bogged down. To appreciate this 4200 mile transcontinental run it must be remembered that through most of North America, there were no roads, only wagon trails that often were little more than trails in the grass.

Alice reported that "we spent thirteen days getting across Iowa's 360 miles of gumbo" and on one occasion, when a highway bridge was washed out, she and her three friends bumped along railroad tracks for more than a mile. After breaking the front suspension in a prairie dog hole Alice made temporary repairs with bailing wire and continued her trek westward; the trip took 41 days, third-quickest to that date. Alice lived to 1983; the authors of Automania reported that "even in her 96th year the late Alice Ramsay still had much of the sparkle and zest that she must have acquired in abundance prior to her epic journey." In 2002 she became the first woman to be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.