Lewis & Clark Tour, By Boat or RV. Floods, Fires.

TRAVEL WITH NPCA:
Lewis & Clark Tour: A Voyage along the Columbia & Snake Rivers,  September 23-29, 2011

"Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's two-year Corps of Discovery expedition began in 1804, marking a dramatic and pivotal episode in American history."

"Today, you can experience the same sense of wonder and discovery in far greater comfort than those intrepid explorers ever imagined.

Sailing aboard a spacious private yacht, the National Geographic Sea Bird, you'll cruise nearly 500 miles up the Columbia and Snake Rivers through Washington, Oregon, and Idaho into some of the most scenic, historic, and outright spectacular locations in North America.
For more information or to reserve your space, call us at 800.628.7275, email us at travel@npca.org, or go online."

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Discovery Expedition

From KETC, LIVING ST. LOUIS. "The Discovery exhibition out of St. Charles was chosen as the official re-enactor for the Bicentennial—retracing the entire waterway portion of the Lewis and Clark voyage in a replica of the original boat."

 

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On the Trail of Lewis & Clark by RV
 

"The Lewis and Clark Trail, from its beginning at Camp River Debois, a short distance upstream from St Louis, to the Corps of Discovery’s 1805-06 winter quarters at Fort Clatsop in present-day Oregon, offers today’s RVers an opportunity to experience unusually beautiful scenery and an exceptional sense of our country’s early history.

Unlike the Oregon Trail that would be traveled five decades later by hundreds of thousands of pioneers, the trail followed by Lewis and Clark retains little physical evidence of the historic journey. 

Fortunately, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and several members of the party kept amazingly detailed diaries (often, with equally amazing spelling).  The diaries were supplemented with excellent drawings of animals and plants by Lewis and superb maps by Clark. The extensive information left by members of the corps allows today’s RVers to easily follow Lewis and Clark’s journey along either the outbound or return route.

We have enjoyed many trips across the U.S., but none more so than following the Oregon Trail and Lewis and Clark Trail. The two trails begin and end in relatively close proximity making it convenient to trace both trails in a single trip."

More at: http://www.rvlife.com/Top-Story/on-the-trail-of-lewis-a-clark.html

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Lewis and Clark Supply List

You wouldn't need to take all these things!

"Once he was named by President Thomas Jefferson to head the Corps of Discovery, Meriwether Lewis began preparations for the long trip ahead. Much of that preparation involved education; in the months prior to his departure, Lewis would learn astronomy, botany, navigation, medicine and biology, among other scientific disciplines.

In addition, Lewis spent his time accumulating all the supplies that the expedition was going to need. He wrote list after list of provisions, which included guns, ammunition, medical supplies and scientific instruments. While still on the East Coast, Lewis accumulated almost two tons of goods using the $2,500 Congress had allocated for the expedition.

“A Memorandum of Articles in Readiness” for the Voyage, 1803

The following list is only a sampling of the supplies taken west by the Corps of Discovery, but it should give a sense of what an undertaking the expedition was.

Mathematical Instruments:

• surveyor’s compass
• hand compass
• quadrants
• telescope
• thermometers
• 2 sextants
• set of plotting instruments
• chronometer (needed to calculate longitude)

• Camp Supplies:

• 150 yards of cloth to be oiled and sewn into tents and sheets
• pliers
• chisels
• 30 steels for striking to make fire
• handsaws
• hatchets
• whetstones
• iron corn mill
• two dozen tablespoons
• mosquito curtains
• 10 1/2 pounds of fishing hooks and fishing lines
• 12 pounds of soap
• 193 pounds of "portable soup" (a thick paste concocted by boiling down beef, eggs and vegetables)
• three bushels of salt
• writing paper, ink and crayons

• Presents for Indians:

• 12 dozen pocket mirrors
• 4,600 sewing needles
• 144 small scissors
• 10 pounds of sewing thread
• silk ribbons
• ivory combs
• handkerchiefs
• yards of bright-colored cloth
• 130 rolls of tobacco
• tomahawks that doubled as pipes
• 288 knives
• 8 brass kettles
• vermilion face paint
• 33 pounds of tiny beads of assorted colors
•  

• Clothing:

• 45 flannel shirts
• coats
• frocks
• shoes
• woolen pants
• blankets
• knapsacks
• stockings

• Arms and Ammunition:

• 15 prototype Model 1803 muzzle-loading .54 caliber rifles
• knives
• 500 rifle flints
• 420 pounds of sheet lead for bullets
• 176 pounds of gunpowder packed in 52 lead canisters
• 1 long-barreled rifle that fired its bullet with compressed air, rather than by flint, spark and powder

• Medicine and Medical Supplies:

• 50 dozen Dr. Rush’s patented "Rush’s pills"
• lancets
• forceps
• syringes
• tourniquets
• 1,300 doses of physic
• 1,100 hundred doses of emetic
• 3,500 doses of diaphoretic (sweat inducer)
• other drugs for blistering, salivation and increased kidney output

• Traveling Library:

• Barton’s Elements of Botany
• Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz’s History of Louisiana
• Richard Kirwan’s Elements of Mineralogy
• A Practical Introduction to Spherics and Nautical Astronomy
• The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris
• a four-volume dictionary
• a two-volume edition of Linnaeus (the founder of the Latin classification of plants)
• tables for finding longitude and latitude
• map of the Great Bend of the Missouri River

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More History: http://www.charlottesville-area-real-estate.com/Lewis_and_Clark.html

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Yesterday:

They have a lot to clean up in the Northeast:

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- "Recovery efforts in the aftermath of flooding from Tropical Storm Lee focused Monday on reopening roads and bridges, cleaning the grimy layer of mud left by receding waters and tallying up the millions of dollars in damage wrought by days of drenching rains last week."

From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/12/northeast-flood-recovery-after-lee_n_958640.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C95046

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It was another hot day. Our little Autumn spell has turned back into Summer.  The temperatures are 10° higher than normal.  The cats had to come in from the screen porch by about 8.00 AM, so they only had a couple of hours watching the birds at the feeder.

Jay came by on his 3-wheel ATV for, well I don't know what for.  But he got some cold water while he was here, and I could tell he had tied one on the night before, as he was loud and hadn't really sobered up yet.

His mother, Claudia called and confirmed that, as he had been banging on her door wanting to be let in her house that night.  But she made him go back to his own house, and stay there with Jay's non-paying renter.  If the renter has to cope with a drunken Jay, maybe he will move out sooner.

 

Claudia's daughter, Jay sister went to her house to try to get back in.  The  authorities were there, and still not letting anyone move back in because the Magnolia fire is still not completely contained.

They told her that she could go in for FIVE minutes only to check on it, and even took her driver's license hostage. 

The house was alright, but smelled of smoke. The pool wasn't as bad as she expected, but there are ashes, burnt twigs and tree limbs all over the place.  Something must have been on the same frequency as her garage door opener, as it was open, and there were more burned twigs blown in there.  The power was still out, but her emergency propane generator had kicked in, and was keeping all her frozen food good.

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At least the kids are back in school, that's progress.

MAGNOLIA, Texas -- "A wildfire that has burned for a week in Grimes, Montgomery and Waller Counties was about 85 percent contained Monday.

Firefighters on the tri-county fire are slowly making progress on the flames that have burned 18,946 acres.

The fire broke out along F.M. 1486 near Sandra Dee in Montgomery County on Sept. 5 at around 3 p.m.

The Magnolia Independent School District held classes on Monday for the first time in a week. All schools in the Waller Independent School District also held classes on Monday. Students who are not in school because of the wildfires will be excused.

"Firefighters remain in the area monitoring hot spots. There have been no significant flare-ups or fire line breaches in more than 24 hours now, which shows outstanding progress. Law enforcement officers remain in the area patrolling and maintaining security," the Grimes County Sheriff's Office said on its Facebook page early Monday.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said the remaining areas and roadways that have been closed reopened Monday at noon, including FM 1774 and FM 1486.

FM 1486 will be open to residents only and identification will be required, officials said. Returning residents should remain cautious and remember the burned areas can contain hazards. Trees and tree limbs can fall without notice.

A sign of hope from one of the many still eager to see if they still have a home.

The tri-county fire has destroyed 60 homes and damaged 23 others.

A DC-10 jet and military helicopters dumped more than 11,000 gallons of retardant on the fire Friday. It slowed down the flames, but not enough to extinguish the fires."

More at: http://www.click2houston.com/news/29154236/detail.html

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More signs of progress.  Roads are now open:

That was the newscast later in the day.