Have you ever taken a road trip with children? Or been a child on a road trip? How about a vacation trip with multiple train or plane connections?
It’s a classic question. I think I’ve asked it more as an adult than as a child. Perhaps it was rare — but I enjoyed family road trips. Some were a Sunday afternoon. (Needed to be home to milk cows.) Others, requiring much more planning, included days of driving rather than hours.
Step back in time in your imagination. You’ve spent a couple of months on a sailing ship. Now you’re on a steamboat headed north. Perhaps you’re joining relatives or friends who have immigrated earlier. Or maybe you’re the first — and determined to make your own way. If your destination was St. Louis or farther, you passed this portion of the Mississippi River.
Maybe you tied up across the way on the Illinois shore. You have a stop or two remaining — perhaps Jefferson Barracks or Carondelet — before you get to the city. Are you ready? Are we there yet? I hope the weather is fine. We need to find a driver to take our trunks.
In New Dreams, a sweet historical romance, Hans and Louisa travel from New Orleans to St. Louis separately. They have different dreams. What do you suppose they thought as the riverboat chugged toward the St. Louis levee?
