Dr.Dan March, 1854

Dear Diary,                                                                                                                  March 5, 1854



Today, my family made the decision to go to the West. The Americans finally realized that it was the right time to have the Manifest Destiny. My wife and I think that the trip to the West will be difficult, with many obstacles in our way. I asured her that the Industrial Revolution had happend so, the technology was much better now. My daughter is worried about not having water for a long period of time, and also not having food. My wife is worried about not having fire wood, because we need fire wood on the trip for cooking and heat. I was also worried about that to, I was also worried about radicals they frightend me. I was also worried about the weather, because what if it starts to snow and we are not prepared? What if it is raining for days or weeks without end, and the camp site over flows with water? Anything could happen on this extremely, dangerous journey. I think that my wife has more worries than I do my self, but lets let her keep that to her self. What excites my family the most is the new start to our lives, in the West the new soil will be wonderful for our crops, the new frontier, the new people that we have yet to met.

When we were selecting items for our trip, it was a very difficult proses, because we had to leave a lot of stuff behind that we cared dearly for. This was also very time consuming. The manufactoring of our bagage was very hard, and confusing. My family was sad that we had to leave many of our clothes behind, and most of our food and water. Our family brang our horse, our two oxen's, and our first aid kits. I am a doctor so we must have our first aid kits at all times when we are traviling. My daughter wanted to bring almost all of her stuff like her mirror, her snow bots, her woven basket. We had to leave a lot of that stuff behind. My wife on the other hand barely packed anything, she only packet her woven basket, her blanket, and her spinning wheel. Unfortunately we had to leave a lot of that stuff behind too. I only needed a first aid kit, a pair of boots, clothing, and my pistol.

When my family left our home for the last time, it was very hard to say goodbye to the old house. We said goodbye, and headed to fort Independence. The whole way there my daughter was upset about leaving. My wife was in tears. I was almost in tears my self, but I didn't want my wife and daughter too get even more upset about this whole thing. On the way there we meet up with some of our friends that were going with us. The people that we meet up with were Walter and Kathleen Sanders, their two daughters, and their son. One other family that we meet up with were Nate Page and his son. We all went to fort Independence together, and when we arrived there we saw Paul and Ruby Bryant, and their two sons, their daughter, their grandfather, their male slave, and their female slave. We also saw Juan Hernandez. We were all ready to head off on our long, hard journey to the West!!