Life in the Old West

Our Pony Express “adventure” anniversary trip began at the Patee House Hotel-Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri, after a morning’s travel in trusty Old Blue (our ‘89 Ford station wagon) from Springfield, Missouri.

The Patee House Hotel (and the museum hosted there)  is one of only a handful of original structures still standing and occupied within the Pony Express’ St. Joseph-Fort Kearny Division. Opened in 1858 (two years before the Pony Express started), the Patee House was St. Joseph’s finest hotel in its day. It was turned into a museum of Western History in 1965. In addition to the story of the Pony Express, the museum offers an authentic glimpse of 1850s and 1860s life in this Missouri River town.

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Our adventures on the Pony Express trail, done a number of years ago for our 25th wedding anniversary, were great fun and very enlightening.

What else would you do to celebrate 25 years of marriage but try to trace some of the history and historic sites of the Old West? In our case, the year was 1992, we had just bought a new-to-us station wagon, and we had some vacation time to combine with a long weekend. At the time, I had been reading about Buffalo Bill Cody (William F. Cody, that is) and happened to read about his early years as one of the original Pony Express riders. Mrs. Hoppy and I immediately knew we had a fun trip to organize for our anniversary celebration.

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