During the summer of 2010, the two of us drove from South Georgia to Rushville, Indiana, for a 50th high school reunion (David’s). Afterward, we headed west to Independence, Missouri, the starting point for a three-week, 2,000-mile westward journey following the Oregon Trail to Oregon’s Willamette Valley. After arriving in Oregon City, we spent several weeks exploring the Northwest before heading back east along the route taken by Lewis and Clark as the Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis.

Retracing the return trip of Lewis and Clark was fun and educational, but the trip west following the Oregon Trail was magical and proved to be the best road trip of our lives. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark utilized rivers for most of their early 19th-century journey, leaving little physical trace of their presence.

Emigrants crossing the country four decades later left behind a trail of prominent swales, ruts and burial markers. Walking alongside ruts remaining from the long-ago passage of tens of thousands of pioneer wagons headed west is an experience not easily forgotten. At some locations, we seemed to sense the presence of pioneers on their westward journey.

Emigrants arriving along the Missouri River in the early 1840s were at the western edge of the United States, heading into Native American country. The pioneers generally assembled in mid- to late April to begin the four- to five-month trip. Later in the decade, emigrants also headed to the gold fields of California and to religious freedom in Utah. However, for the early pioneers, many of whom were attempting to escape bad economic times, it was the fertile land of Oregon that promised a new and better life.

Following the 2010 journey, we occasionally returned to drive sections of the Oregon Trail. During August 2015, we followed portions of the trail in Wyoming and much of Idaho, and in spring 2016 drove across Nebraska into southeastern Wyoming. These abbreviated journeys were enjoyable, but as each trip neared its conclusion we felt a strong desire to continue on.

We will again travel the entire trail, this time taking you along. We will begin at Courthouse Square in Independence, Missouri, where the early pioneers assembled for the journey west. After crossing the Missouri River, we will head across northeastern Kansas to meet and follow Nebraska’s Platte River Valley into Wyoming. From there we drive northwest to Casper before turning southwest to the Continental Divide at famed South Pass.

In Idaho, we will follow the Snake River to the location where many pioneer wagons executed a dangerous river crossing to head north toward the Blue Mountains of Oregon. Then it is west along the mighty Columbia River to The Dalles, where pioneers had to decide whether to put their wagons on rafts and head down the dangers Columbia River, or continue overland along the Barlow Road.

This will be a grand journey during which we will visit famous Oregon Trail landmarks including Alcove Springs, where the travelers rested; Chimney Rock, the trail’s most famous landmark; Register Cliff where pioneers scratched their names; and South Pass where wagon trains crossed the continental divide. We will explore forts, museums and interpretive centers, the most impressive of which is the National Historic Trail Interpretive Center outside Baker City, Oregon.

You will be along as our partners through a series of weekly columns blending the history of the Oregon Trail with the land and its people. We will include images of where the pioneers rested in Kansas, made their first grueling ascent up a steep hill in western Nebraska, crossed the continental divide in Wyoming, forded the dangerous Snake River in Idaho, and descended a steep grade to the mighty Columbia River.

Along the way we will explore nearby points of interest, including the national park unit that celebrates the Homestead Act and a Wyoming location with some of the world’s best preserved fossils. We will visit a fort operated by one of the era’s greatest mountain men, and a Presbyterian mission founded in 1836 by two adventurous missionaries. We also hope to visit Lewis and Clark’s winter home at Fort Clatsop.

We hope you choose to accompany us as we follow along the trail of some amazing Americans.