Charles Jessup Teetor

Travels with Rocinante Charles Jessup Teetor

Early in World War II German submarines practically destroyed the United States' maritime shipping including its supply line to the Panama Canal. The Unites States immediately embarked on a massive road building project to cut a highway through the mountains and jungles of Mexico and Central America to supply Panama. This road was euphemistically called the Pan American Highway. When the war ended Congress froze the funding and all construction stopped leaving five partially completed segments of road with sizable gaps of jungle in between. Immediately following their discharge from the armed forces in 1946, Charles Teetor and Robert Conrads embarked on an expedition to determine how much of the road had been completed and whether it was possible for a wheeled vehicle to drive from the United States to Panama. This is their story of driving the first vehicle to go by land from the United States to Costa Rica and why they were unable to complete the trip.