We were exhausted the following morning having arrived home filthy and mud-crusted around 1:30 a.m. My brother Reece, never an early riser, nevertheless showed up on our doorstep at a reasonably early hour for our return trip to the Ojito Wilderness. Though there were two opposing theories about the timing of our return—later … More Return to Ojito
From what I can tell from a reconstructed second-hand conversation made days later, about the time my brother Reece and I coasted to a stop on a mudslick road west of San Ysidro, New Mexico, to inspect what appeared to be a sodden hay bale blocking our route, my wife asked my parents … More Escape from Ojito
The last shall be the first, and the first last. The phrase kept running through my head as the car run unspooled from its lineup in front of the majestic Brown Grand Theater in downtown Concordia to make its way into the rising sun, the morning cool and clear and virtually windless, … More The Kansas White Way Car Run celebrates 100 years of road history
According to a 1917 plat map of Shirley Township, Cloud County, the Kansas White Way followed its current route eastward from Concordia to cross the Republican River at Clyde with only one minor exception, a little dogleg north at the unincorporated town of Rice. Nothing on the map indicated a town there at … More Rust bonanza on Rust Road
It took Sadie Vail and her family 21 days to travel by covered wagon from Blue Rapids, Kansas, to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. She was pregnant with her second child at the time though she never mentioned it in the pages of her diary other than a few brief references of not feeling … More I. Bound for Arkansas
Shortly after Ezra Meeker wrapped up his second recrossing of the Oregon Trail in Puyallup, Washington, on August 26, 1912, another covered wagon train prepared to embark on the leaf-strewn streets of a little prairie town named Blue Rapids, Kansas. There was none of the fanfare elicited during Meeker’s … More II: Prairieland departures
So from the start: Genesee Street by the levee, early morning sun breaking through roiling clouds, a slash of sunlight gilding the concrete signpost. Lori places a fresh-cut iris at the sign’s base and we’re off, heading south to follow Sadie Vail on her grand adventure. The only thing missing is almost everything: … More III: An uncertain and irregular trail
I was trying to see the road as Sadie would have seen it from the seat of a covered wagon, or even afoot as she occasionally mentioned, imagining the snail-like pace, the methodical plodding of the horses and mules, the intimacy of the land unveiling itself at each turn. Time a slow, … More IV: First lesson: Make no assumptions
“After a fine nights sleep in our wagons we feel fine and are now ready to travel at sun up,” Sadie wrote on the morning of Oct. 4, 1912. “We breakfasted on flapjacks and coffee. Tasted good. Nothing disturbed us but a dog fight between our dog and Chambers dog. … More V. The Lazarus mule
The Louisville school, now closed. A final flower for Sadie. With it is an antique washboard we brought to represent a few of the things they took on their wagon train. Some substitutions were necessary. Instead of bags of flour, for instance, we took Oreo cookies. It was a splendid compromise. The IOOF lodge in … More Louisville, Kansas
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