Elwood Kansas

Greetings,

May 23, 2011, Elwood Kansas – Today is the last pre-ride day. The camp is filling up with riders from across the US and even riders from Australia.

Earlier this morning, we caught a ride over to St Joseph and visited the Pony Express stables and the Patee House. The Patee House was the headquarters for the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company, and the Pony Express. The firm was founded in 1849 by William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell (the Patee House is the large brick building).

After touring the old town area, we walked back to camp on a highway bridge over the Missouri River. Today, the Missouri River is far from the slow lazy river that we often read about in literature. The Missouri river at St Joseph is flowing 110,000 cubic feet per second, about two feet over flood stage, and almost six times the water flow that we saw at Shoshone Falls a week ago. Please check out the "Sharpen Anything" Missouri Americana that we saw by the river in St Joseph.

We plan to spend the afternoon packing for an early departure in the morning. Tonight, we'll go to the Patee House for a catered dinner and tomorrow morning around six, I'll place the saddle on the back of Frank, take up the reins, and we will head west on the trail to California.

Best Regards,

Tom N