He had kept raising difficulties. From doubts about the engine to mud on the tyres.
She was more confident, her money had helped built it, she had helped design it, she knew it would work.
She planned it carefully, told her husband she was going to her mother’s home more than a hundred miles away, he expected her to take the train, she waited until he had left the house.
Then her sons rolled the ungainly machine out of the stable, pushed it until it started, and Bertha Benz took the world’s first motor car and drove into history.
Bertha Benz, picture from Wikipedia
Charli Mills from the Carrot Ranch prompts us thus this week
September 19, 2022, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about mud on the tyres. The tyres can be from any conveyance or serve as an analogy. How did they get muddy and why? What impact does mud on the tyres have on the story (plot) or characters (motivation)? Go where the prompt leads!
I have gone slightly away from the prompt again with a completely true tale about another remarkable woman.
A delightful reconstruction of the journey, it is in error in only two particulars.
Her son’s came with her as the car wasn’t powerful to go up hills and someone had to push it.
She wore a hat, her hat pins were invaluable in freeing blocked valves.
The Curious Archaeologist 