April 26, 1849
Today we came upon the Kansas River and had difficulty crossing. There was a man charging $1 per wagon for a ferry, the easy way across. We had only $8 left, so there was plenty of debate.
We finally decided to pay the ferry man for half of our wagons filled with our most important things, and walk the rest across ourselves.
Our first 3 wagons, the ones on the ferry, crossed with minimal problems. On the fourth, the ferry man made us cross at a deeper part of the river, and we forgot to take the wheels off. First, a wheel broke off, and the wagon spun. The current took it downstream, and it flipped. All of the goods in the wagon, along with 2 people, Sven and Nikon, fell out of the wagon. The goods were lost in the river, and Sven and Nikon got broken arms! Fortunately, we were able to recover the wagon itself. We lost $2 extra than we had planned for. Better that than losing 6 arms and half our goods. On the bright side, we have a whole wagon we can use just for riders.
Today we came upon the Kansas River and had difficulty crossing. There was a man charging $1 per wagon for a ferry, the easy way across. We had only $8 left, so there was plenty of debate.
We finally decided to pay the ferry man for half of our wagons filled with our most important things, and walk the rest across ourselves.
Our first 3 wagons, the ones on the ferry, crossed with minimal problems. On the fourth, the ferry man made us cross at a deeper part of the river, and we forgot to take the wheels off. First, a wheel broke off, and the wagon spun. The current took it downstream, and it flipped. All of the goods in the wagon, along with 2 people, Sven and Nikon, fell out of the wagon. The goods were lost in the river, and Sven and Nikon got broken arms! Fortunately, we were able to recover the wagon itself. We lost $2 extra than we had planned for. Better that than losing 6 arms and half our goods. On the bright side, we have a whole wagon we can use just for riders.