The sun is up. I am awake, gently swaying with the soft, cool breeze. I hear the camper door open and watch Nancy walking toward me. Moe is running. Nancy lifts him to sit on my belly. Lick…lick…lick all over my face, leaving a tongue smear across both lenses of my reading glasses. Looks, pun intended, like it’s time to get up and make breakfast.
The day is quiet. The campground is almost empty. I decide to liven the morning with a hike.
Lewis and Clark’s journals
Tuesday, October 16, 1804
Friendly contact with river tribes continued as the expedition headed up the Missouri. On this cool and windy day, they traveled about 5 miles, passing vacant earth lodge village sites. Great numbers of elk and buffalo were evident; at one point, the expedition witnessed Indians killing the goats with sticks as the animals tried to cross the river. Clark counted 58 kills. At the campsite, about 4 miles north and across the river from Beaver Creek, Indians visited; “those Indians stayed all night, they sung and were very merry the greater part of the night.”
The reference to “goats” is historically accurate in Lewis and Clark’s journals—they often used the term “goats” for what we now know as pronghorn antelope.
Back at the campsite, I find that it is still quiet. As I sit, I hear an occasional echo of human activity off in the distance. This is a nice campground. I am sitting on a bank looking across the Missouri River, surrounded by the sound of wind.
Well, once again, it is 6:00 p.m., and look at the sun. Where did the day go?
