The Lost Wagon Train, Book 1, Retta Barre’s Oregon Trail Series
Retta Barre’s Covered Wagon Family
Summer 1852 Retta Barre and her family plod west on the Oregon Trail. She’s not the first 12-year-old girl to travel the Oregon Trail, and she won’t be the last. However, she might be the most stubborn, curious, and humorous. Meanwhile, for what should be the grandest adventure of her life, the days sure rank dull. Only thick dust, pesky bugs, and picking up buffalo chips fill the long hours. Not exactly the stuff of the action-packed penny novels she loves to read.
But things change fast.
A simple trip into the prairie provides adventure and trouble. Soon Retta Barre is the talk of the wagon train. Her friends don’t want to miss her next caper. And Retta certainly won’t let them down.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt from The Lost Wagon Train
Retta felt her thigh muscles burn as she pushed her lace-up, high-top shoes into the dirt. First Joslyn, then Christen fell back. Soon she could see neither.
“Don’t turn around and look. I know I can win. I have fast legs and am not fat, Travis Lott. Just have strong bones.”
The pale blue prairie sky faded like an abandoned robin’s egg left out in the sun. Burlap rubbed through her dress and began to chafe her skin. Her mouth dropped open as she gasped for breath. As she approached, the wagons grew gradually larger. The white canvas and red spokes caked with yellow-brown dust made the horizon look fuzzy, like when she first woke up after sleeping with her arm across her eyes.
To the left, she spotted the green water barrel of Joslyn’s wagon. She knew her wagon was two ahead of it. She slanted across the cropped slough grass and kept focused on the wagon with a rear yellow flap.
“I told them I would win. I knew I could. And I have twice as much to carry!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LISTEN HERE — “Covered Wagon Families” audio podcast by Stephen Bly, sponsored by Bly Books Legacy Series:
Would appreciate so much if you would 1) SUBSCRIBE, 2) RATE, and/or 3) REVIEW this podcast.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHECK HERE for covered wagon stories:
Book 1, The Lost Wagon Train, Retta Barre’s Oregon Trail series, for kids 8-12 years old, by award-winning western author Stephen Bly. Oregon Trail Books: The Lost Wagon Train / Bly Books
Book 2, The Buffalo’s Last Stand Oregon Trail Books: The Buffalo’s Last Stand / Bly Books
Book 3, The Plain Prairie Princess Oregon Trail: The Plain Prairie Princess / Bly Books
I wish I could have met Stephen. He is one of my heroes and, in some ways, one of my mentors.I have learned much about writing, about the old West, and about being a Christian form reading and listening to him. Thank you, Janet, for continuing to share his wit and his wisdom with us through these podcasts.
Mark: The podcasts in many ways have been a family project with at least four of us with input into the process. A labor of love …