“Find a Falling Star” contained a photo titled “Nininger Runabout,” but there was no related text or description in the book. In a rush to get the book to print, the publisher deleted the chapter describing the vehicle and the associated adventures, but the photo remained.
The Niningers constructed a home-made house-car and H.H. took the school year of 1925-1926 off from teaching at McPherson College to travel the western United States. The whole family went along, including Margaret, who was only six months old at the beginning of the trip. This was a time when very few roads in the West were paved.
H.H. financed the trip through lectures on biology and meteorites, meteorite sales, and other ingenious ways of raising a few dollars here and there. “When we started on our nine-month tour, we had $19.67 in cash. We owed $300 at the bank, and some $50 worth of finishing still needed to be put into our wheeled home. I had a half-dozen lectures scheduled ahead, at $25 each, the nearest about 200 miles and two weeks from home.”
You’ll be able to read much more about this trip in the expanded version of the book, “In Search of Falling Stars,” scheduled for publication in the Fall of 2024.