Road trips have always been a favorite part of my life. I spent most of my youth moving about and I always seemed a little more comfortable on the road. In other words, I was looking forward to this trip. I was even happy that the next two days would be spent in preparation.

First priority was to insure Jeb was properly armed and prepared. After breakfast I issued him his weapons for the trip. He was happy to replace his musket with the Harper rifle and the musket pistol was nothing new to him. He did marvel at the quality of each and promised to take care with them. The revolver simply amazed him. I spent a half an hour explaining the operation and maintenance before we went out shooting. Most importantly, I explained to him that it was advanced technology and had to be hidden away. People would kill him just to get that weapon.

I would carry the double barrel, my musket pistol, and, of course, the M1911. For a long gun, I finally settled on the 30.06. When in the scabbard, it looked no different from a musket. Plus, we used full length scabbard that covered even the butt of the rifle. I had been using those for years, after tiring of my rifle getting wet and dirty.

So we went out shooting. Familiarization fire was the term for it. Basically, Jeb practiced with each piece until he could reload and shoot confidently. He loved the rate of fire out of the pistol and commented several times on the accuracy of the rifle. I’d have a hard time getting him happy with his old musket again and needed to look into procuring some more rifles. I decided that I would find a way to replicate our repeating rifles in the next decade and who cared if we made our mark in the world as an arms dealer?

We spent a couple of hours on shooting drills and then another hour on proper cleaning and maintenance. By then, dinnertime was approaching and I told Jeb we’d work on our travel packs after the break. Thomas had shown up while we were gone and he joined us for a nice meal that Matilda and company had created. We were treated to a full three courses, with a brisk summer salad to start. I could taste my good balsamic in the dressing and we had the first of the tomatoes. The tomatoes were sweet and meaty; they could have been a meal all on their own.

Thomas got his promised steak at this meal, also. It was one of my thick ribeye cuts from the freezer, broiled over fire to medium-rare perfection, then topped with a few pan-fried crayfish. Pete, Timmons, Holder and I each got one, also, while the women had a variety of dishes almost like they’d ordered from a restaurant. Matilda and Sarah stood by while Esther and the older girls served, Matilda glowed with pride and Sarah looked simply exhausted.

The final course was a rich New England brown bread, sweet and completely filling. Even coffee would make it difficult to avoid a nap after this meal. I was gone before the coffee even got there, deep in a steak-induced food coma. Someone sweet led me to my bed and even set a fan on me. I snoozed for almost a full hour and woke feeling completely refreshed.

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The after-dinner mission was to prepare for the journey. I wanted to spend some time with those close to me on Sunday. I also wanted to insure that the boatmen were well provisioned for their journey, so I opened the larders to Timmons. I also reminded him that we would be purchasing goods in St. Louis, so we didn’t need to restock completely here.

I made a surprise last minute decision and added Amos to the group. It was an intuitive move which might prove to be a mistake, but I followed my gut. Sonya was happy to use some of our limited parchment paper to create a Bill of Sale showing me to have purchased Amos almost five years ago. Amos, being a typical young man, was eager for the adventure and didn’t even shrug when I went over his duties with him. His main purpose was to accompany Brin until we started our return journey. On the return, he would be fully armed and simply part of the team. I gave him the .22 rifle and revolver and reminded him that he wasn’t to carry them in the open.

I also had Jeb and Amos pick out their favorite saddles. Michelle stepped in to help them with that bit. I hoped to bring back a string of mares to expand our herd. As well, I'd hoped to pick up some tack, despite by desire to limit my spending as much as possible. Contrary to all of my wishes, a money tree apparently did not come with our particular model of time glitch.

I showed the guys how to pack their riding horses and made sure we had a lean-to half for each of them. Summer was quickly approaching and all we needed was protection from the weather. Matilda promised us enough food for the trip down and even pre-mixed bread flour for the trip back, which would surely save us time in meal preparation. We had a pack of hardened travel foods. It didn’t make sense to buy what we were making daily. For meat, Matilda kept that smokehouse running constantly. Holder and Isaiah had gotten involved. Now, even the wood type was manipulated for flavor. Already, the amount of meat and fish in there was staggering.

I hadn’t really paid attention to the fishing that Michelle had organized. On any given day there were two to four women down at the river harvesting fresh fish. Matilda also had one or two working the shoreline with her, harvesting crayfish and clams. Some of this catch was stored in our freezer, but most were being smoked.

We needed more barrels for storage, which meant we needed to get our cooper going. More problems to work on. There would be plenty of time for contemplation on our journey.

We finished going over our body and main packs. Each of us would carry the common traveler's bag of the era. It was basically a utilitarian version of the modern hipster messenger bag - highly useful and easy to carry.

After outfitting with the proper ammo, food, water skins, and weapons, I told the fellas I’d see them after supper tomorrow. We were leaving at first light Monday morning and would be spending Sunday night down at the landing with the boatmen.