Up the Little Blue

Saturday April 16th  This delightful elderly woman came out when I stopped for a midday rest on the trail to the north of Fairbury and we had a long chat about life and politics..

A very sprightly 89 year old widow, Ortrude Schneider lives in the farm in the background which belonged to the family of her second husband. He had in fact been her childhood sweetheart whom she had originally given up to pursue a career in nursing, but they got together again in later life after they were both widowed!  Ortrude's grandfather came over to Canada as a 14 year old stowaway from Norway, working his passage in the galley.  I resisted an invitation to stay overnight and hear more of her stories as I had only covered ten miles and my schedule was tight.
At this point we were not far from the location of Lone Tree Pony Express station, which may have served as an alternate site to Virginia City Pony Express station just down the road,   Mo and Lady by the Virginia City Pony Express monument which is on Highway 15 about four miles north of Fairbury...

This station was also known as Grayson's or more intriguingly as Whiskey Run.

 

A little further on we came to the site of Little Sandy station, founded on the ranch of Joel Helvey and now sited on 717th road to Powell. Although the Pony Express trail passes close by, this  was a stage stop rather than a pony express station, the next way station being Big Sandy only a couple of miles further on.

 

 Another family member Frank Helvey was in fact a pony express rider, and helped to bury the three men killed in the Rock Creek gunfight. On one occasion his horse broke its leg as he was galloping to Rock Creek en route from Marysville to Big Sandy, and had to carry the mochila to the station.

Rain had been forecast and thunderclouds were looming, so I was glad to come across the pretty little hamlet of Powell, a partly deserted railway settlement which had outbuildings and a couple of grassy paddocks. I enquired at the neat house of Mike and Jan Slater (in the background of the photo below) and after a couple of phone calls I got the OK to put the horses in the paddock, and camp in the big central shed out of the rain! 

 
My dry and comfortable indoor camp for the next two nights complete with three piece suite .....

 ... it seemed a good time to take a day off and avoid the rain, added to which I discovered I had lost my essential flip-top phone somewhere on the trail.  But the Slaters very kindly agreed to drop me off at the Fairbury's Walmart to replace it on their way to church the following day Sunday April 17th

I was very spoilt in Powell, as not only did Jan feed the waif and stray, but the next evening Joyce Holes, the owner of my shed hotel, returned and took me in for supper, shower and a chat. Here she is with one of her wonderful handmade quilts....

Monday April 18th and Mike Slater's birthday. The birthday boy and wife Jan on the right, daughter Brenda and son-in-law Kevin on the left..

Heavy rain overnight and a wet morning...

....but it cleared up enough for me to set out again in the afternoon, though my tarpaulin had to be employed and be roped up with a diamond hitch - it was the first time I have attempted one for a while but it held OK...

We were now travelling up the gentle valley of the Little Blue river towards the River Platte, and there were fairly frequent markers and monuments denoting the line of several converging trails which used this natural routeway. This marker from top to bottom shows the Oregon Trail (wagon symbol), California Trail (yoke symbol) and Pony Express Trail (galloping horse and rider)...

'The Little School on the Oregon Trail', which is located on 717th Rd near Alexandria...

...and is being renovated by the Nebraska Historical Society.  The tall marker on the  left denotes the Oregon Trail, and also refers to Big Sandy Crossing which lay one and half miles east and half a mile north.  The smaller marker on the right commemorates the Pony Express Centennial Reride on this route.  A glimpse of the Little Blue river from the aptly named and pretty River road...