Sure, you've heard about Civil War reenactments, but did you know that there are groups that set out to follow the Oregon Trail each season?
It's true! And, the other night, after seeing an advertisement in Sunset magazine -- "I wore 5 calicos on the Oregon Trail" -- I decided that living history was the life for me.
Me: I'm so going on the Oregon Trail.
Kristin: What are you talking about?
Me: The Oregon Trail! Look, this woman made her own calico dresses and relived the trail. Oh, that looks so fun. I'm going to sign-up.
Kristin: That doesn't sound like much fun.
Ben: There is no way you could handle that. And I'm not going with you.
Me: I'm a total outdoorsman. You'll see. I'll send you a letter from The Trail.
Once I started to read the online information about the journey, I realized that Ben was probably right. For starters, I'm not even equipped with the right accessories:
Blackpowder muzzleloader: any make or model as long as the model was not originally manufactured after 1859.
You don't think they'll let me sneak by with my 1864 muzzleloader?
I loved studying about the Oregon Trail in elementary school. In fact, one of my favorite school-related projects was keeping a imaginary travelogue about life on the trail.
And then, there was Oregon Trail, the computer game.
Do you remember how you had to name your traveling companions?
At first I would name my crew after members of my family. But once I realized that nary a journey ended with a full body count, I soon took to traveling with a wagon full of strangers.
"Mommy dies from a snake bite!" was just something you didn't want to hear.
