Regrettably, the time available for me to spend time on the Oregon Trail sites in Oregon is coming to close. The weather has just gotten "too wintry" and so I have decided to head for warmer climes to hole-up somewhere warm and dry as the next few chapters of the story take shape.
I have had some wonderful experiences and have learned much from the locals in several of the "Trail Communities". This post is a big "Thank You!" to everyone that helped, encouraged, offered some tips and pointed the way for me as I tried to absorb as much of the trail as possible.
The citizens of Vale, Ontario, Huntington and Baker City, Oregon have all been especially helpful and all seemed very anxious to see how the story of "Chance Hunter" and the folks of the Wilson-Lambert wagon train will make out as they trek across the great roadway known as the Oregon Trail.
I want to say a special thank you to the staff at the Ontario Oregon Community Library who put up with me for several weeks as I researched the wealth of old books there (and used the wi-fi for researching online). And to Kelly Burns, the Supervisory Ranger at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City, my warm, heartfelt thanks. She offered some great tips and ideas after reading the first eight chapters of the Oregon Trail book I am writing as well as providing me a copy of a wonderful, scholarly work about the Oregon Trail as it crossed the Blue Mountains of Oregon. I hope once this thing is in print to spend some time back there for a book signing! Yay!
If you are in the Baker City, Oregon area, it is worth the time to spend a nice long day at the center. You and your family will get a wonderful perspective on what it took to build this great country of ours and the strong, resolute people who made the seemingly impossible trip in those creaking wooden "prairie schooners" so long ago.
As I said above, the first few chapters are "in the can" and I will be trying to fit in more writing time as I get my stuff packed up, ready to head to southern Nevada (probably Henderson).
Chapters 1-9 are completed, just not final edited. I am finding out just what an undertaking writing a novel can be. Especially like I am doing, trying to make it historically accurate as far as places, times and characters encountered by my fictional cast. Stay tuned to this blog for how you can help the process along and be one of the special friends of the book. You'll get early versions of the book chapters as they are completed. I think it could be interesting for you as the story grows to see a novel take shape.
Be heading south soon!
God Bless!
Bob
