Despite her poor health, she took on many
challenging journeys. She wrote articles about her travels and later compiled
them into books. She also logged everything in her diaries. These records give
many examples of the dangers and difficulties that she met and the risks that
she took while on the road.
There is one particular episode that looks like a nightmare scenario to me. It has some familiar elements.
The walking tour nightmare
While Stella Benson was exploring the US in
1918, a new female friend in New England proposed a walking tour.
The final leg involved walking 18 miles through the night to catch a train at 05:30.
They left very little margin for error, which was a big mistake. They got lost and went several miles out of their way; it took a while to find someone to put them back on the right road. At 4:00 am they still had six miles or so to go. The backwoods people were infuriatingly unhelpful: no one would give them a lift.
They had only 15 minutes left when they met a
man in a milk cart. They offered him money to turn round and take them to the
station; after pondering for a while, he refused. Then they met a man in an
empty car and waved and shouted. He slowed down a little then laughed, told
them to get off the road and drove on.
When they were one mile from the station, they heard the puffing of the train and saw smoke; they gave up, assuming that they were too late. They walked slowly towards the station, feeling awful because after all their efforts they had missed their train.
When they were within 100 yards of the station, they noticed that the train had backed in again. They made one last, desperate, torturing effort, running as never before, and reached the platform only to see the back of the train disappear round the bend.
“Defeated and robbed of pride we threw ourselves on our backs in mid-platform.”
