Westward Ho the Wagons!

BEGIN WITH A BOOK: Last week we spent time time studying Lewis & Clark, and talked about how their journey and map making opened the gateway for others to head westward in the years to come.

So, when I spied the picture book "Wagons West" at the library a couple of days ago, I thought it would be a nice way to continue down that path, so to speak.

The book's narrator was a young girl whose family made their way from their home in the midwest 2,000 miles westward, in 1850. Along the way they encountered bad weather, bandits, and lots of geographical obstacles. But they found fertile ground in their new home, the Willamette Valley.

We talked a bit about what it would be like to make that trip and how much planning it would take and how hard it would be to be successful. Then I asked the kids, "So, do you want to try to cross the Oregon Trail?" They both answered with an enthusiastic 'Yes!' and so we did just that - at least virtually. Right after we sang "Home on the Range." :)

THE OREGON TRAIL: If you had an interest in computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, you most certainly knew about the PC game "The Oregon Trail," made by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (later Corporation), or MECC.

While The Oregon Trail is still being made in the here and now (in fact, I saw the lastest PC version for $20 at Fred Meyer today), I wanted to show CJ and Annabelle the old school version. After a little hunting around, I managed to find a great Apple II emulator via which we could play it online. Hooray!

First we had to list five members in our party, which meant Kirby got to go along, too. Then we were told the year was 1848, and we had to decide what month to leave Missouri for our 2,000 mile trek to Oregon. If we left too early, rivers might be swollen with winter runoof and there might not be enough grass for our oxen. Leave too late, and we risk being stuck in inclimate weather at inopportune times down the road. We talked it over and chose to leave in June.

Next, we were given $400 and were told to visit the mercantile for provisions - clothing, ammunition, spare parts for the wagon, oxen, and food. The merchant suggested 3 sets of clothing apiece (we opted for 2). He also suggested 200 pounds of food per person. This made the kids put pen to paper for a story problem (200 pounds per person x 5 people = ?).

We came to regret a couple of the merchant's recommendations. For instance, we found out later that bullets are relatively cheap and CJ's a crack shot - we could have forgone the expensive food we bought and should have bought more bullets.

Provisions laid in, we hit the trail. The travails started almost immediately. On Day 1, one of our oxen was injured. "Oh god, ALREADY?" Annabelle protested.

Just a couple of days later, we were faced with crossing our first river. We had to decide whether to pay to take our wagon on a ferry, to try to ford (roll across) the river, or to caulk our wagon and try to float ourselves across. We decided to cross our fingers and float. "I hope we don't get ourselves killed!" CJ said nervously as our wagon rolled into the river. Mercifully, we made it across unscathed. There were other bright spots. We made it to forts and major landmarks. We met Native Americans. We never ran out of food or clothing.

The challenges came one after another - there were rivers, bandits and curve balls (random notices popping up about blizzards and getting lost on the trail). And there was lots of disease- namely cholera, dysentery, measles and typhoid. Poor Annabelle was the first victim - a creepy message suddenly popped up on the screen telling us she was snakebit. Soon after, an even creepier message let us know she was finito. Kirby was the next to kick off - measles got her. Dad went next. He broke his leg and then some disease got him. About 1,000 miles into the journey, it was just me and CeeJ. Then dysentery and something else got me, and CJ was on his own. He made it through the Rockies and even managed to carry on when the oxen ran out (by trading with another pioneer).

Traveling alone, with just one ox remaining, CJ contracted cholera. It was the beginning of the end for him. Soon after he broke his leg. But to his credit, he made it 1442 miles.

While it sounds like a whole lot of grief, really the game was fun. All along the way the game kept changing. We had to hunt, we had to trade, we had to change our pace, modify our rations (eating), talk to people we encountered, broker trades, and more. It was a wonderfully educational experience, covering geography, math, history, lots of reading and more. We're all looking forward to trying our luck on the Oregon Trail again.

A BIT BETTER: Annabelle tried her hand at dressing herself again today. This outfit was definitely more coordinated than her last attempt. :)

GOODWILL HUNTING: We dropped a a trio of bags off at Goodwill today and you know we had to go in to see what we couldn't live without. The answer to that question was a $1.99 'plug and play' Naimco Classics game, featuring Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga and a couple of others. CJ was quite pleased and couldn't wait to show it to Christian when he got home. He asked Christian to share this review of the unit: "The Naimco Classic has excellent joystick action. The box was a little awkward in my hand but the game itself was spot on - almost an exact duplicate (of the original system)."

Responding to Christian's complaint, CJ created a makeshift "game console" for him by placing the unit on a wood TV tray. By bedtime tonight, CJ was talking about building a game cabinet for it. Gotta appreciate someone who thinks big.