Well, for the first time in 20 days I spent the night outside the RV.
No, I wasn't sleeping in the street — I was enjoying the hospitality in the beautiful and cozy home of Bill and Connie Whalen. I had met Bill briefly when we rendezvoused with him and Connie in Flagstaff, Arizona on the way to St. Louis, Missouri. He had been very helpful with figuring out how to get the RV's pilot light lit for the fridge and a few other things I was having difficulties with. After spending a few hours last night with him and Connie, I soon found him to be a great guy, and I appreciate the hospitality he and Connie showed me and the boys while in Phoenix.
I was awakened very early by my youngest pup Eddie. He was whining by the bedroom door, apparently wanting out. Not wanting an accident in Connie's house, I thought I better get up and oblige. He led me straight to the front door, then bolted outside and went straight for the RV. I opened it up for him, and he jumped in, sniffed around, and looked at me like, "Okay, let's go!"
I couldn't believe it. Apparently he had grown so accustomed to the RV and traveling that he felt more at home there than in the house. I, however, had other ideas — I picked him up, reassured him that we would be back on the road soon, and headed back for the guest bed inside the house. Although the boys and I have been on cross-country journeys of three days before, I wasn't exactly sure how they would react to this extended road trip.
But apparently Eddie is a born traveler!
The event at the Wells Fargo History Museum was to take place in the late morning, so before heading to downtown Phoenix, I dropped the RV off at Bell Ford
for advisor Joe Hough to take a look. Along with all the other before mentioned problems I'd had with the RV, over the last day and a half it had started to shake and sputter a bit when I accelerated. By the time I got to Phoenix, the problem had become very noticeable, and I knew it would not be safe to continue without it being checked out.
I hoped it would be something a good oil change and fuel line cleaning could resolve. However, not knowing anything about the mysterious workings of a motor I was wrong.
Way wrong.

Outside Tucson is
When Ormsby passed this peak he himself said very little about it. His journal only mentions that the first fresh water to be found for 40 miles outside of Tucson was to be found at the pass — although thanks to some recent rain along the way, they had apparently scooped water from puddles along the road for the horses. There is no longer a station, but luckily for the I-10 traveler there's always the DQ for refreshment.
At the
During the shoot, the host spoke to Los Cadetes about their new album — no doubt featuring many new 
Ormsby departed
The enormity of establishing a stagecoach route required the "superhuman energy" of the Overland Mail Company's leaders. Butterfield, Fargo and the others had the wherewithal to establish a route that took eight months to survey, traversed 2,800 miles, required 200 stations, employed 800 people, and required the purchase of 1,500 horses! 
In Auburn, California, John Q. Jackson, Wells Fargo’s 23-year-old agent, responded events the Wells Fargo way. On February 23, 1855, after a late night of dancing, a messenger woke Jackson at 8 am to report the crisis in San Francisco. 
Before the game started, Kid was lounging on the sofa and lecturing me on the futility of rooting for the Giants in that Series. I was on the floor, surrounded by the remains of an
Most of us know
"Living in Arizona all my life, I’ve looked forward to visiting the Apache Pass Butterfield Stage stop for many years. It’s one of the few places in stagecoach history where ruins still remain. I was really looking forward to
Additionally, pain remedies were very limited: Chloroform was used to render people unconscious, but opium and quinine were standard pain reliving drugs of the day. (I believe the former has a much stronger effect then the latter.) 
When war erupted in Europe in
At the meeting of the Bank's stockholders in 1920, Hellman said with typical honesty: "We cannot promise our stockholders extraordinary large earnings. Such profits cannot be made in legitimate banking, but we can count on gradual and steady growth. Our ambition is not to be the largest bank in San Francisco, but to be the soundest and the best."
The students were really involved, and despite the challenge of holding the attention of 30 or so fourth and fifth graders while so much excitement was going on around them, they were great listeners and seemed to enjoy my stories. 
As I approached the mountains, I was amazed at how alien they seemed — unlike the surrounding land or the
And what a site they are. The peak is a massive presence that seems to be, as Ormsby rightly described, as "if any moment to fall, while huge boulders hang as if ready, with the weight of a rain drop, to be loosened from their fastening and descend with lumbering swiftness to the bottom, carrying destruction in their path." 
What really makes this fun is that all the kids can follow along via the Guided By History blog, track what Casey is up to, and imagine how difficult it was 150 years ago for a letter (and any news at all) to make its way across the country.
When I was first planning this journey, my intention was to stop at all sorts of sites along the route — even cool places that had nothing to do with the Butterfield. However, reality had other plans. I have found that the rigors of doing a trip like this are much more than I anticipated. I find myself running out of time everyday, so that most everything I'm doing is Butterfield related. Don't get me wrong — it's been amazing, and there are more Butterfield sites than I could have ever imagined. But with the time constraints, I really had to focus my energy. I hope I've been able to create an interesting, albeit incomplete, log of 