July 26 Friday – Sam and Orion leave St. Joseph for Nevada on the Overland Stage.

By eight o’clock [a.m.] everything was ready, and we were on the other side of the river. We jumped into the stage, the driver cracked his whip, and we bowled away and left “the States” behind us. It was a superb summer morning, and all the landscape was brilliant with sunshine [Ch 2, RI].

Left St. Joseph. Started on the plains about ten miles out. The plains here are simply prairie [Orion 769].