Travel

I was watching a Western movie the other day and the good guys formed a posse and went after some bad guys. They were galloping as fast as they could to try to catch them……but ….how did they know where to go? There weren’t any paved roads, street signs, maps or GPS to follow…..just a few buggy tracks and a stage coach road. On a horse you don’t need a road. You can go anywhere you want. How many times did the lawmen take a wrong turn or get lost? Did they ever truly catch the bad guys?
Imagine if you wanted to go to Tombstone Arizona from St. Paul Minnesota in 1880. How would you plan for such a trip? It is 1,292 miles from St. Paul to Tombstone. A horse with a rider can comfortably travel 20 miles a day…..30 miles if you push it on occasion…. 30 miles if you were pulling a buggy, as it is easier on the horse. (This is a fact from the Amish) That means it would take at least 1½ - 2 months or more to get to Tombstone. How much money will you need to take? What provisions do you take, such as food, clothing, ammunition, bedroll, toilet paper, matches, soap, toothbrush etc. How many days will the provisions last? You will obviously have to replenish supplies along the way. What towns will you be going thru and will you have to go out of your way to get to a town for supplies which will make the trip even longer. How many wrong turns? You also have to factor in water, food and rest for the horse. How much time will you spend looking for water? What about inclement weather? Where would you find shelter? There were no telephones or cell phones or GPS to ask for directions and the maps were quite crude. Will there be a job for you in Tombstone when you get there? Mine for silver? What if the best spots for silver are taken? Where will you stay? There weren’t any Holiday Inns and you couldn’t call the local Tombstone hotel for reservations. My guess is that there wasn’t a direct telegraph line to Tombstone. It took a lot of courage to embark on a trip like that. But then again, that’s the way it was…..the sense of adventure…the pioneer spirit…the possibility of “Striking it rich!” You really didn’t plan for the trip; you just figured you’d live off the land and the hospitality of strangers and “Go for it!” So what if it took 2-3 months to get there, what better things did you have to do? The only question was “would it be worth it?”
I was having supper with a couple of friends Friday night and a trip to Arizona, next year, was brought up. It was decided that four of us in one van would never work what with all the provisions we’d have to take. The talk was to spend a month touring the Arizona Territories. How many clothes will we all have to take? All we have!! You never know what the weather is going to be like. It may be hot….shorts and cut off sleeves….it may be cool……long pants, long sleeves and a light jacket for the evening…….it may be cold…sweat shirts and heavy jackets. Women also have to have clothes for slightly hot, slightly cool and slightly cold. Can’t forget 4 sets of golf clubs golf balls, golf shoes, golf caps, and golf shirts. (Not to be confused with the above regular shirts.) This trip will take all of 3 days to get there, with one of the days reserved for sightseeing, so we will need movies for the DVD player in the van, a cooler for pop and water (maybe a wine cooler) and ice, a cooler for sandwich fixings, and a travel basket with utensils, plates, cups, napkins and snacks….lots of snacks! In that I am going along, we have to include medical supplies.....lots of medical supplies! Enough to cover any contingency, short of amputation. Don’t forget digital cameras, video cameras, cell phones and computers so we can get our e-mails or look up area attractions on the Internet. We will need current maps and a GPS navigation system. It can be up to 30 miles between towns and we might get lost. Our friends have one which they have named “Florence”. Sometimes Florence gets confused and misleads you with road directions but she is great at finding restaurants, gas stations and hotels. Don't forget to make room reservations and have our mail forwarded for a couple of weeks. When packing, we also will need to leave plenty of room for all the souvenirs certain people will buy. We have decided that we either have to take two vans or pull a U-Haul trailer. We could never plan a trip like this in 1880…..we’d need to take two stagecoaches. If we start planning right now we might be ready to go next March.