It's About Time
Chapter 17
It was a month later and they only had one more month before they left for West Virginia. Their home was for sale yet so far they'd had very little interest in the building. Kate was being a little greedy so they were trying to sell it for more than they had bought it for. Since they had another month that was fine with Rick. But that would need to change in a couple of weeks.
They also had a lot of things to buy. First up was what to get there in. They had purchased a brand new Conestoga wagon. "Why this one, babe?" Kate didn't understand. She'd seen wagons in western movies and this didn't look anything like them.
"This one can hold more, meaning it can handle more weight. Plus it's sealed so that it'll float if we have to cross a large stream or river. The horses will swim and the wagon will float. Down river, granted, so we need to be careful, but it shouldn't sink and take everything with it," Rick had explained.
The man they'd bought it from had told them that based on how much weight they put in it they would need four to six horses to pull it and they would need to ride two of them since the wagon didn't have a place to sit. It was basically a river barge with nowhere to sit.
"OH!" Now Kate got it. "And Patches and Samson?" What did they do with them? She really liked her horse. He was proving to have a unique personality. He had even learned to spot her when she came close. Maybe it was because of her or it was because of the apples she fed him. Either way he liked her.
"We either ride them or tie them so they'll walk behind the wagon. Simple." Rick didn't see any other way.
They also had six Morgan horses since they had plans on filling their wagon with goods and supplies. They were rich, after all. The very first thing to go into the wagon was a brand new wood burning stove that had recently come out. Only the truly rich had one in their homes. Most everyone else used open fireplaces to do most of their cooking. It also weighed a heck of a lot so getting it into the wagon had been a bit of a chore.
They left the wagon and the horses with their new German immigrant friends. Rick had learned what Kate already knew. The leader of the group was named Werner Klemperer. He was a little older than Rick and was a tall strapping fellow who they had learned was really strong. He was also a little forceful. He and the group were happy to have Rick and Kate join them. The fact that Kate spoke fluent German helped. And based on what they'd cobbled together thus far showed them that Rick and Kate were going to be the richest of all of their party. Likely richer than all of them combined.
In addition Rick had a plan and through Kate had described the place to them. Rick answered Werner's question about how he knew so much. "Research and I ask a lot of questions!" They had been here longer than this group had, after all.
At the moment Rick and Kate were carrying their latest purchases to load into their wagon. They both had all the blankets they could carry and loaded them into their wagon.
"What's next, babe?" They didn't have a computer though both of them did still have their cell phones, mostly by accident. They hadn't intended to but they had somehow been touching them. Granted they were mostly useless; the phones' batteries would die eventually and stay that way. But Rick did have a number of things in his phone's memory that so far had come in handy.
They already had a lot of things that they wouldn't need immediately or on the trail: a plow, shovels, a scythe, rakes, hoes, saws, a draw knife, broad axes, mallets, planes. Rick had even purchased rifles and pistols of the day. They were primitive in the extreme based on what he and Kate were used to but they might come in handy. They planned on relying on their compound bows for most of it. Their bows were going to be a shock to anyone that got in their way. Their range and power made them formidable weapons.
"Okay, question. We have six horses to pull the wagon and two riding horses. We need food but we might need milk in the future. So do we tie a pair of cows behind us as well?" Rick asked.
"What about pigs, the things are everywhere." That had been a rude awakening after reaching the City and living there. There were hundreds of pigs roaming the city. Though if they had thought about it it shouldn't have been too big of a surprise. Garbage collection was basically nonexistent, so it piled up all over the place. Since pigs ate anything and everything, including dead bodies, they ate the garbage.
"We need food anyway and bacon would be a good choice. So is that a yes to the cows? Or goats, maybe? We could make cheese from goat milk," Rick suggested since he wasn't sure just how much they could pull behind them safely.
"Fine, a pair of cows for milk and a pair of goats. Can we get those last? Like the day before we leave?" She didn't think the Germans would kill them and eat them. But you never knew and it paid to be careful.
"Okay by me. As for food we're going to have to start adding all that into the wagon." Rick had a list for that as well: 600 lbs. of flour, 120 lbs. of hardtack, 400 lbs. of bacon, 60 lbs. of coffee beans, 8 lbs. of tea, 100 lbs. of sugar, 200 lbs. of lard, 100 lbs. of beans, 400 lbs. of rice, 100 lbs. of dried peaches and dried apples and all the spices either of them could find at any cost.
Kate made a mental note to take all the perishable produce she could. Patches loved apples and she was going to make sure he got some somehow.
They would add seed for corn, wheat, and other crops since living off the land was what they would all be doing. Rick had even found more marijuana plants and even a few more hop plants.
Kate soon found that one way to preserve bacon was to pack it inside a barrel of bran. Also, eggs could be protected by packing them in barrels of corn meal – as the eggs were used up, the meal was used to make cornbread and corn muffins.
Milk could also be churned into butter by simply hanging it in cloth-covered pails beneath the bumpy wagon. By the end of the day fresh butter would be ready.
They had also learned from Werner and others in the German group that they were going to need to bring far more than just a pair of horses, milk cows, and goats. If they wanted to have fresh meat they were going to have to bring a large number of cows for butchering along the way.
They soon had sixteen cows for just that. All of them would hunt wild game for food along the way. It was just that counting on just that might lead to disaster.
In an attempt to balance out the load Rick put his brewing supplies toward the back since it weighed a bit. Though Kate's stove was the heaviest item they had.
Far in the back and far forward was most of their food along with food for all the animals including the two animals that Kate didn't understand why Rick had bought them. Though she had a suspicion.
"Kittens, babe?" He had three of them.
Rick grinned at her. "Meet Huey, Dewey, and Louie the second. The plan is to have a barn eventually. They can kill the mice that will try and make the barn a home."
"We're going to be miles long, babe." Kate tried to picture it. Seventy-three Germans with two per wagon meant thirty-six or more wagons not including their own. Add to that all the horses, cows, and whatever else was tied behind any number of them.
Rick began chuckling. If even half of them looked anything like what they were going to look like it was going to be sight, that was for sure.
"How long is this going to take us?" Kate asked. After all they were packing their wagon to almost full.
He scrunched up his face in a please don't shoot me look. "At ten to best case twenty miles per day and roughly six hundred miles means about nine weeks at ten miles per day." Rick saw the look she was giving him. "Could be worse," he said, shrugging. "We only want to go to West Virginia. If we wanted to go to California or Oregon it would take five to six months and that's leaving from Saint Louis. Of course that's if the Indians didn't get us or we didn't freeze to death in the mountains or we didn't lose our way and end up lost and dead. Or float down the river and crack up on the rocks."
"You sure we can't just fly?" It would be so much simpler and faster.
"Well for that we'd need to design a plane and build it. Design and build the spark plugs, figure out how to make the gasoline we would need. Find materials light enough to make it with. Then–"
Kate interrupted him. "Fine, fine I get it. Maybe we should have been sitting on motorcycles when it touched us." Anything but riding a horse for nine weeks straight.
Rick thought about it. "Might have worked, might have not. Did we even have anything that didn't touch us and come with us?" He suddenly knew the answer but it had Kate thinking.
"None of my aluminum arrows came. The quiver did but what was in it didn't." She'd been using the instructions stuffed down her bra and was busy making arrows for both of them when she wasn't singing or out buying food to cook so they didn't both starve.
"Okay, it wouldn't have worked," Kate grumbled.
"But you love me," Rick said as he embraced her and nuzzled her neck.
"Lucky for you, I do, or I would just shoot you. …Or stab you." Since her new pistol was primitive in the extreme she just might miss him. She did kiss him back when he kissed her, though.
"There's still one thing we have to do," Kate informed him and saw the puzzled look on his face. They had just about everything already. She gave him a hint by hold up her left hand.
"Get married! I forgot. I'm so sorry. I've been lost in what we need to survive to get there. I forgot all about that. We can look into that tomorrow. It may have to be simple. I don't know of any family in 1821." They were in the next year now.
"Yeah, my parents haven't even been born yet. Not sure what they would say if old me showed up and told them I was the daughter they hadn't yet had." Kate laughed since it was about all she could do. She might live long enough to find them before they left for Germany, but they wouldn't really be her parents. Still just seeing them even from a distance might be nice.
"I'm sorry, love. Your father doesn't get to walk you down the aisle. No big wedding, no something blue and all that." Probably not a whole lot of anything except someone to marry them.
"We could invite some of our new German friends," Kate said hopefully.
"We can ask. We can get married the day before we leave," Rick promised.
"I do," Kate replied with a wide smile since she was teasing.
"Hold that thought." Rick kissed her again.
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They had to unpack their wagon just a bit to add Rick's latest purchase. "What's this thing for?" Kate inquired as she began to help him remove the first barrel that happened to be full of bacon.
Rick started to explain. "There are no hot showers…"
"Don't remind me!" Kate rolled her eyes. Her one saving grace was that with a little work she could at least take a hot bath. She had to heat up the water and dump it into the tub little by agonizingly slow bit.
"Well, if we put this on top of some bricks, fill it with water, and build a fire under it you can have your hot bath. Provided you're willing to share." Rick missed hot showers, too. That and electricity, cars, planes, modern trains, and a countless other things.
Kate squealed and kissed him soundly for it. "Get to work, babe, stop dragging your feet. We have to get this thing into the wagon." It was now her most prized possession.
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Only twelve of the German immigrants didn't have a lot of work to do if they were going to leave tomorrow morning.
While it wasn't the wedding of her young dreams, it was still a wedding ceremony and she was the one getting married. Her ring was from the 21st century and was gorgeous. She had gotten Rick a ring and it came from 1821 so it was rather simple.
It was so simple all she had to do was say, "I do," as did Rick. Then they kissed and heard clapping from their new German friends.
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They had sold their house and they'd had to pull out their little dome tent that had their new friends talking and asking questions about it. Plus they had an air mattress and sleeping bags that none of them had ever seen in their lives. It only reinforced the belief that having the Castles with them was a good thing.
Then they watched as Rick put his compound bow at the front of the wagon while Kate's was at the back. Again they had never seen anything like them. Kate had even offered to let Werner fire an arrow from it and had suggested a distant target for him to hit.
He had thought she was nuts. It was far too far away, however, he did manage to come close to hitting the target. Now he wanted to know how to make one. And for that Rick had a diagram on how to do it just in case one of theirs was damaged.
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It turned out that there were thirty-nine wagons in all and Rick and Kate were sixteenth in line. Their wagon was the largest and longest at eighteen feet long by eleven feet high by four feet wide that had six Morgan horses pulling it and likely weighed in at four point nine tons. Then came Patches and Samson, two milk cows, four milk goats, and finally sixteen cows to butcher and eat either along the way or after they got there.
The Germans had the bulls so they could, if they wanted, have baby calves in the future. They also had a mix of horses, oxen, and mules pulling their respective wagons.
As much as it sounded horribly expensive it was actually not all that expensive. Rick and Kate still had several pounds of gold coins in addition to a lot of cold hard cash from their jobs, selling their house, and the money made in interest.
They had also learned that several of the Germans had gotten dogs to help defend them and be watch dogs when they stopped. There were sixteen dogs in total and most were young. Three years old was the average age.
"Ready?" Rick turned to look at Kate who was sitting on the horse next to him. They were both on the horses closest to the wagon with two horses out in front of each of them.
"Nine weeks on a horse while living in a tent with no showers and barely a bath unless we come across a stream? No! Do I have a choice, husband of mine? No. Let's get started." Kate kicked her horse and used the reins she had to get the two in front of her moving. Startled, Rick gave his reins a shake and both sets of horses began pulling the wagon.
"Nine weeks," Kate muttered to herself, not hearing Rick doing the same. Neither were all that enthused about the journey. It was just that they had committed themselves to this before they even came here.
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They both knew that there were German outriders in front and on each side, meaning several of the wagons only had one person. Each was armed and on the lookout for trouble. Werner himself was even one of them. Somewhere along the way Rick and even Kate would be doing the same. Werner had at first fought having Kate be one of the outriders. But watching her use her bow and watching her beat several of his best men in hand to hand taught him otherwise.
Rick had stood there smiling while Kate used what he knew as Judo to take out each of them. She had them flying and hitting the ground hard since none of them knew how to fall properly. All of the German immigrants now had a new understanding of Kate. The women weren't so sure since what she was doing and willing to do wasn't normal. It just wasn't done. Then they also found out that she knew how to cook.
Kate for her part was loving it. So few of them understood English so she was speaking German a whole lot and was having the time of her life.
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They were a week in and Rick had the tent up, the mattress inflated, and both sleeping bags in place. Several of the German women were doing most of the cooking and each time they stopped they tried to gather into as few groups as possible and even then they had guards.
There was a small stream nearby and Kate had just come back from giving herself a sponge bath. She briefly considered stripping and washing everything in the stream but thought better of it. A few of them were young teenagers both male and female so even if she thought it was safe, it was best not to encourage something stupid.
"How you feeling?" One week in had shown them just what life was going to be like for eight more weeks or so. It meant checking their wagon. Focusing on the wheels. They only had one spare and it was one of the smaller ones up front. The rear wheels were larger and if they lost one of those they were going to have to build one.
That was followed by releasing the horses to forage while hobbled so they couldn't run away. Feed them, feed the cows, feed the goats, feed the kittens, and then feed themselves.
Kate would also be taking her turn to help cook for the group eventually. Her kitchen goods consisting of a Dutch oven, a skillet, a kettle, a coffee grinder, a teapot, several knives, a ladle, some wooden spoons, tin tableware, and matches had been almost the last things packed.
"So far so good. That stream was a little cold. I don't suppose we could unpack your bath and build a fire?" Kate knew the answer was no, but she could dream.
When they got closer to the cooking area Kate could smell it. "Damn but that smells good. There's nothing like authentic German cooking. You're going to love this, babe." If it tasted even half as good as it smelled Kate was thinking she just might survive.
Granted, Rick had already eaten German cooking a number of times over the last week, but this was a different group of women.
Then Werner stopped her and started talking to her. "He wants to stay here tomorrow and go hunting for game. Gut it, skin it, and prepare it. It'll save us from having to kill and butcher a cow," Kate explained. "Oh and one of us needs to volunteer for guard duty on horseback tomorrow. And there's a stream nearby so we can fill our barrels with fresh water." Werner had a reason that seemed sound to Rick.
"I'll take guard duty if you want to help with what they kill or you kill." Her bow had more range than any of the weapons that the Germans had. Plus their flintlocks were loud. So if they managed to miss it would scare away all the others.
"Deal." Kate was in; she slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "We're in the middle of nowhere, husband, but I still love you." She smiled at him.
"We've only gone seventy to ninety miles so far which means we're in New Jersey and will be for a week or two. After that will come our first big test, crossing the Delaware River. It's about three hundred or so miles long, four hundred fifty feet wide and thirty-five feet deep. And no, we can't go around it. There are a number of places that have sandbars in the middle. If we can find one of those it might be best." Their wagon could float but not all of the others were like theirs. Actually most weren't.
Kate nodded. "I'll tell Werner. Maybe he can send out men to reconnoiter the right place and direct us there."
"Don't get too enthused," Rick warned. "We still have the Leigh River to cross right after that. Maybe twice depending on just where we are. Then a couple of streams followed by the Schuykill River. There will be several smaller creeks until the big one, the Susquehanna River. THEN if we're too far north we'll come across the Ohio River. But we don't have to cross that. We just have to go south from there."
"I think I hate you," Kate told him since she wasn't looking forward to any river crossing. "This thing had better float or you, dearest husband, are in big trouble. And the animals had better not drown. Especially Patches." She poked him in the chest to reinforce her point.