The Arrowhead

The arrowhead is yet another one of the intriguing indian tools we have discovered on our journey. It is a stone carved in a triangle shape with a point at the end of it. It's commonly made of flint, obsidian, or cherts. It is like the tomahawk, except it is lashed forward instead of the direction to the side. They are lashed on the end of a long stick to make an arrow. The indian arrowheads though seem to be sharper and harder than our European ways of making them. They are also lashed to the end of spears to make deadley war weapons.

The Tomahawk

The tomahawk is a traditional indian tool commonly used in almost all tribes.  They are made of a sharp Stone slates that are commonly used in indian rituals.  These stone slates usually have a hole carved down the center so they can be used as pipes.  This stone shaft is lashed to the top of a rounded piece of whittled wood.  The types of wood are always made as hickory, maple, or ash in indian culture.  They are one of the most versatile tools commonly used for butchering animals, fighting, chopping large pieces of wood, pipes, and a lot more that I shall not go into.  These are perhaps the best tool that we have found the native americans to use.  I hope that we discover many more tools along the way for Jefferson will douse us in gifts and luxeries that will make our names go down and history............

"The Grizzily"

We were sailing calmly up the river after finally leaving Fort Mandan after a cold long winter when we encountered a tremendous looking animal. it was a brown creature with large teeth and facial parts. It also had the most peculiar ears. We shot one the first day as it was a very easy kill, but several days later we encountered a much larger one and it was a extreemley hard to kill......... Then as we were along the river our canoe capsized! Luckly Sacagwea came to the rescue as when happens whenever the canoe capsizes. Me and some of my best hunters went to go kill the large animal we now call a grizzly bear. The grizzly charged me and my men and we had to retreat back to the ships. we shot it with several slugs and we failed to kill him. The men on the shore though were ready and after many guns fired and blood shed, a slug hit it through the head and killed it. We've encountered them many times now and they are very respectable creatures and troublsome........... We believe these creatures our monsters sent to devour us and down us like an extra ration of whiskey.........

Sacagewea

Today is exactly one year after the expedition has started, and some dreadfull things have happened. The canoe had tipped over spilling our provisions, instruments, medicine, books, and even this very journal. I thought we were going to lose everything and have to call off the expedition. But then Sacagewea came plants, animals, languages, and some secrets to everything that not even my best men know............ So I have devised a plan to get her to come along with us on the expedition so that to our rescue by rescuing it all in waist deep water with her baby strapped to her back. She was traveling with her husband and owner Toussaint a french trapper. We are very interested in this young women. She is one of the most knowledgeable persons i've met. She knows all thewe may be able to travel home safer and swifter. First i will invite Toussaint to come along with us saying that he is one of the best trappers we've met. Then him owning sacagewea he will take her along with us. It is vital to our expedition that she comes with us for i fear the Teton Sioux will try and intercept us at every point possible............

The Dream Catcher

The Dream Catcher was quite an interesting "tool" of the Native Americans. They come from the Ojibway tribe. The dream catcher is a wooden circle with fine leather strings wove in it and feathers dangling from it. They are wove in a pattern so that there is a circle in the middle. This circle is where the good dreams go to and go into the feathers so they can be dreamed of again. The design is very complicated so that the bad dreams get caught in it so when the sun rises they burn and never come back. I find it's inspiration is probably a spider web. It seems to function in the same way as in catching and keeping everything good. So far on the journey i've found that the Native Americans can become very interesting and Hospitable persons if you treat them with respect. I hope to learn more from their interesting culture seeing that they may give us great ideas that could help us survive....................

~Meriwether Lewis

Week 3

This was quite an interesting week just happening to be filled with Rootbeer, Hills, and most importantly (according to Cameron's mom) Dr. Scholls Odor Destroyers. On Sunday when we were still were at Monticello some press members of The Daily Progress (Charlottesville Newspaper) came and interviewed and took pictures of us. Hope they didn't get one of us going across the lawn ;). Then on monday we go up to one of the newspaper dispenser things and what do you know right there on the front page was us riding or bikes! I find it one of my best accomplishments considering we beat Lance Armstrong to the front. Then Cameron's parents came over to give us a visit. Cameron's mom took one whiff of our shoes, made a wierd face and said they're repulsive! So to make the stank go away she sprayed it with Dr. Scholls Odor Destroyers. Obiviously feelong generous they took us out to dinner. Twice! I'm no math wiz but if my calculations are right Teenagers+Food+Teenagers Don't Pay for Food=Lots of $$$$$$ We went to 2 places to eat, an Old Famous Tavern from 1784 and a place called Sweetbones. I wanted to see if they lived up to their reputation so I lifted the bone towards my mouth when camerons parents gave me a funky look. I guess i'll never find out.......... After they left we went to a A&W restraunt. They hold Isaac's favorite Rootbeer so we had to make the stop. I was suprised John payed for his meal consedering he had a Deluxe Bacon Cheeseburger, Fries, Rootbeer, and the must have Rootbeer Float. I guess if enjoyed it, it counts.......... After bulging our stomachs for 2 days we started onto Blue Ridge Parkway. It reminds me of back home and Dragons Spine because of all of the hills. Then we come to the cookie lady. So since the dinasours of 1976 went extinct this nice old lady has served a house to stay in and cookies to wake up to. She will always bring bikers in and she was delighted to take us in. She has a normal looking house on the inside but like they say "Don't judge a book by it's cover". When you stepped in that house it was like a hole different world. There were postcards and thank you letters all over the place. Guess she's been doing it for a long time. Shes had that collection for 26 years and counting. I think it's great that she's doing things like that for cyclists so we gave her our 2nd peace medal. After that we stopped at this place called "Gerties Country Store & Deli. They have a wierd thing where you can camp in there backyard. They were really nice and gave us a warm welcome with a smile all the way through our stay. Then (it's a tradition at there place) we signed the wall of signing so the world can see that some teengers can ride there bikes across america. Now i'm just sitting in my tent writing and cooling off from the dreadfull 100 degree weather. Even though it sounds terrible, it sure was worth it after seeing the sights. I guess you can say this amazing week was full of Hospitality and Corny jokes in a journal but I'm sure somethings coming up our gonna be much greater and much harder....................

The Lakota

This Week we encountered the well known Natives the Teton Sioux. They are also called the Lakota, perhaps the most powerfull of the Native American Tribes. We thought we could easily befriend them but it turned out much harder than we imagined.... It started when we stopped to camp out on the South Side of the Missouri, very close to the mouth of the Bad River. Three younglings appeared on the other side of the river and swam over to come meet us. Luckily they knew sign language so we could comunicate with them. They told us they were Lakota's so to welcome them we gave them gifts of tobbaco for the band chiefs, and we arranged for a parley on the 24th. Then we sent Pvt. John Colter to go hunt for some food on horse-back. He killed four Elk and called for our help to get the carrcass'. I had some of the crew row the boats across the river when Pvt. John Colter signaled alarm, for the Sioux stole his horse. Then when 5 boys appeared on the shore we told them in sign-language that that we had come as friends and didn't want any trouble, and that we would fight back if neccessary. The next morning 3 of the head indians and lots of warriors came to have a meeting with us. The gave us a large amount of buffallo meat and we gave them a medal, hat, and a military cloak. They seemed unimpressed with our presents so they demanded more. We were afraid they might attack us so we invited the chiefs aboard to have a drink of whiskey with us. Then when we asked them to go back ashore they didn't want to leave, so we had to force them into a boat and row them back shore. When we got ashore I got mad at the chief who wanted more gifts. I refused and the Sioux knocked there bows aimed for us so I called for more men. Then I unsheathed my sword and signaled the boat to prepare for action. Since the chief saw the Cannon loaded he had his men back off. Then they came to our campground to patch things up and we smoked peace pipes. Some of the slaves of the Sioux saw us and warned us they were trying to attack us and end the expedition. We took a risk and stayed for another 2 days. As we were leaving one of their warriors grabbed our docking ropes. The chief didn't want us to leave but we had to so we had a standoff. This time we both prepared to fire at the same time, but they largley out numbered us. We manged to barley get away as we are now afloat upriver away from the Lakota..............

Week 2

Week Two,

This week was just as good as the last with plenty of new people and some interesting trails.  So far on the trip we've always been asking people if they knew where we could get a bed to sleep in and roof to go over so we asked this man at the YMCA if he knew any place we could stay, and he offered to let us stay in his the YMCA.  You may not think of this as that exciting, but he let us play basketball and volleyball, plus a place to sleep, internet, access and most importantly after going a week with out them, showers.  That had to been one of my favorite parts of this week.  But of course after we left I got 2 flats and it was way before my usual rise and shine time.  Oddly enough it took for people for us to fix a flat.  I assume we'll get better at it as we head further west....  Another cool person we met this week was a man named Vito at the Big Meadows campground.  He was thrilled by what we were doing and said we should keep journals to record our experience.  It got kind of annoying hearing it back home from my family but it was cool hearing it from a stranger.  I know Jacob wants me to put this in here we go.  We were at a lunch stop at a place called Red Hot & Blue Bar-B-Que and we got this BIG plate of ribs.  You can order them in three ways, wet, dry, or sweet.  They were some of the best I've ever had.  We also got this pitchers by the 32oz. full of water or soda.  I must say we've gotten to taste some great foods so far and I hope to taste some more....  After that we had to stock up on food for 3 days so we could climb up Skyline Drive in Shenadoah National Park.  The climb was by far the hardest part of the week so far.  We climbed 5000 feet the first day and 4500 the next for a total of a 9500 foot climb.  There were lost of steep ups and downs but we were strong and toughed it out.  It felt great when we got to the top because we could look down at the climb and say "I finished that in 2 days!"  The weather going up that though could change in a snap.  I remember, one second it looked like a foggy morning in Santa Barbara and then BOOM thunder went of and we could see lightning several miles away.  The rain was coming down so hard that you could only see the color of the BOB bag the person was carrying in front of you.  I wanted to take pictures but it would've ruined the cameras for good.  The last thing I have to tell you was our stop at Monticello the old home of Thomas Jefferson.  We were looking around and we saw the west lawn and John whispered to us how cool it would be if we could ride our bikes across it.  I guess the guy at the lawn heard us and lowered the little thing they use for the red carpet to keep the crowd back.  We looked at the guy like Are you serious? And he was really cool about it so now to add on my list off things i've done I can write "I rode across Thomas Jefferson's Lawn".  Then we were met by the President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Daniel Jordan.  He was fascinated that we were traveling across the country as Lewis&Clark did so he gave us this peace medals.  We're supposed to hand them out to those who we think have been extra helpful or hospitable on the way.  I think I'm gonna send some to some of the people we've already met along the way.  That's it for this week.  Goodbye.

Mess: 7C Contract

Agreement For Andrew Wakamiya

I Andrew Wakamiya have read the terms of my being a member of the Corps of ReDiscovery, 2009. I understand my responsibilities as a member of this expedition and sign on for a pay grade of B

Signed Andrew Wakamiya , this 9th of April, 2009

Week Uno

Even though it's the first week of our expedition, I can already tell it's going to be the best experience of my life.  This week was amazing.  5 miles into riding our bikes a couple and their child we're biking.  We asked them where they were headed, and they said across America because we read a book called "Hey Mom, Can I ride my bike across America?".  So we told John to stop and he told us we were only in 5 of the 5000 miles we had to go, but we convinced him.  So we introduced him to the family and they we're excited to meet the author and thanked us very much and that we would me them in Orogen.

Another cool thing that happened setting off from D.C. was when we went to Monticello and we rode our bikes across the lawn and got peace medals to hand out to those who will help us on our trip just like Lewis and Clark.

And my personal favorite was Ben's Chili Bowl.  It was the best chili.  We even saw the Mayor of D.C. himself there with several of his bodyguards.

Knowing that all this happened in 1 week lets me know that there's a lot intresting things in store for us.

The Crew

Dear John,

I'm sorry this came in this late, I messed up and didnt see it on the assignment page so here's the members of the crew and what they do. (heh a rhyme)

Austin: An Outdoorsmen who can sail ships and knows about plants.

Amanda: A cook who plays many musical instruments, works hard, and wants to discover some new fashion, art, and cooking recipies.

Brian: Knows a boat inside out, will eat anything (live cattapiller?) and cook anything. He also wants to find some new musical instruments and recipies.

Clay: Good with navagation and is a joker. Loves to make people laugh.

Quinn: Good at telling stories, cooking, and navagation, and wants to collect coins and shiny things.

Gabe: Will bring gentle art and fun, loves poems and hopes to collect some from the indians and natives we meet along the way.


Sammie: talent of talking, good with medicine and health related issues? hopes to learn about some medicine along the way from the natives.

Ryan: Can't get to link for some reason?

Alex: Likes to cook, dance, and be silly. She's really good with little kids and is always the first to ask are we there yet? on a trip.

Evy: good at the violin, acting, and story telling. She loves telling stories and learning about the animals and native american mythology.

Morgan: Wants to lead the group, and is a very good cook. Good at gymnastics and is good at communicating with others, and good with children.

Jake: good at directions, and great at swimming. Wants to collect survival knowlege from the native americans and hopes to learn the sign language that they use for trading.


Well thats it so I guess i should say something........... or not.