Effie N. Hotchkiss and mother Avis, first women to ride cross-country
on a motorcycle from NY to San Francisco.
Photo from the September 1915 issue of The Harley-Davidson Dealer.
On June 24, 1915, Della Crewe set out to see America by motorcycle, after rejecting both the train and steamship as being not only too expensive but also uninteresting. With only 10 days of riding experience on her 1914 Harley-Davidson V-twin, she filled her sidecar with 125 pounds of baggage, including her dog, appropriately named Trouble, and began her tour. Despite warnings from friends that she would get held up by hobos or kill herself in an accident, she wanted the freedom and mobility offered only by a motorcycle.
