The "Lost Sea Expedition" is Bernie's voyage in a mule wagon through the center of the USA - across what was millions of years ago a sea.

The 2008 Lost Sea Route

In 2007, mule Polly and I set off in our wagon looking for the remains of the Lost Sea. The plan was to travel from Neptune, Saskatchewan to Mexico learning about the great body of water that flooded North America's heartland millions of years ago.


Lost Sea Belemnites

The Lost Sea, or Western Interior Seaway, was a warm, shallow sea that covered the Great Plains in the Late Cretaceous 70 million years ago. Teeming with 20-foot sharks, 40-foot mosasaurs and squid-like belemnites, it vanished millions of years ago. One theory is that the western edge of the Plains was thrust up by geographic activity. This forced the water out, leaving the Plains covered with marine fossils.


Mule Polly and the Lost Sea wagon

So how far did mule Polly and I travel last year? Okay, we didn't quite make it to Mexico. From April to October 2007, we traveled 600 miles from Neptune, Saskatchewan to Hill City, South Dakota. Then we returned (by trailer) to North Carolina for the launch of the "Too Proud to Ride a Cow" book, the account of an earlier 13-month Atlantic to Pacific mule journey.

Here's the map of how far mule Polly and I got in 2007.


Progress 2007

Now flash forward to 2008. It's April 16. The tax return's been signed. The "Too Proud" book's up and running. The Great Plains have thawed out. Next week Polly and I return to Hill City, South Dakota for Part II of the Lost Sea Expedition. Here's a map of the route we'd like to follow to Mexico.



Our next Lost Sea destination? From South Dakota, I'll steer the wagon south to Kansas. There we'll learn more about Kansas sharks. Kansas sharks? Yep, remember, Kansas, too, was flooded by the shark-filled Lost Sea. Chief among them was the Squalicorax shark, also known as the Crow Shark.


Fossilized Squalicorax shark pectoral fin and vertebrae from Kansas
Smithsonian Institute
70 - 80 mya (million years ago)

See you soon on that dusty Lost Sea!

Spring training at RiverEarth.com
Outside Raeford, NC

With the February days growing ever-longer, mule Polly and I contemplate getting fit for Leg II of our Canada to Mexico mule wagon journey. Last year, we traveled from Neptune, Saskatchwan to Hill City, SD.

Then winter struck. Polly and I came home to North Carolina to do the program tour for the new "Too Proud to Ride a Cow" book.

And I got lazy.

Now it's time for Polly and I to get back in shape.

Somewhere in my dormancy, I started playing the dulcimer. About the same time, a friend told me of an old feed mill where they played bluegrass on Friday nights. Hmmmm..... My brain may have been winter addled but the notion of taking a road trip with mule Polly and my dulcimer suddenly made sense.

So last weekend I hitched Polly to the Lost Sea wagon for a road trip to Fords Bluegrass Mill in Hamlet, NC. Nothing like a little dobro and fiddle to get us in shape for the upcoming voyage.
Along for the outing were my long time wagon training friends Tash and Kenny.


Tight trail to bluegrass


Big puddle, open road

Traveling the sand roads that traverse the Hoffman Gamelands north of Hamlet, NC was a gentle reminder that wagon travel, though romantic, is filled with puddles, lightening, and dry axles (some wagon wheels rely on heavy grease for lubrication. Loose the grease, well, you get the picture...).


Tash checks the axle grease on his Army wagon

Two days later, we arrived at Fords Mill Bluegrass.


Welcome to Fords Mill Bluegrass

In its early days, Fords Mill really had been a feed mill. Built by current owner James Ford to sell feed and farming supplies to local farmers, the mill operated for decades.

Then James Ford retired. In 2002, he converted the mill into his own Friday night bluegrass concert hall.


James Ford

The plan was simple. Bring in 3 to 5 bands, always on a Friday night, and let folks come for a listen. As a perk, James would be able to play his 1929 American Standard bass.

Now for those of you who haven't been close to a bass, suffice to say, this instrument is large. It's nicknames denote heft: bull fiddle, double bass, upright bass. It's so big, it's nice to have someone open doors for you when you show up with this behemoth relative to the fiddle.



It's so big, that when it's played solo, you can feel what ever you're made of vibrate inside you.


The hand that built the Mill

It's so big, according to James, "that if there's a bluegrass band playing out here in the summer, on the porch, it's the only instrument you can hear up the road."

To hear James and his bass, click the link below (though you'll have to hit the "Back" button on your browser to return to RiverEarth.com.
audio/james_ford.mp3

Want to see and hear James Ford play some live bluegrass on that 1929 bass? Here's how to find him:

Fords Mill Bluegrass
Hamlet, NC
Fridays at 7:30 pm
Contact:James Ford
ph 910 895 6253

Tash has something to tell you

Tash has something to tell you

When I bought mule Polly from my buddy Tash, he assured me she was a great mule for pulling a wagon across the Lost Sea. Then he informed me using Polly as a pack mule wasn't such a hot idea. Seems Tash and Polly had done some work with the US Army teaching soldiers how to work with mules.

Polly hadn't co-operated.

To listen to Ronald's version of the story - click here.

Point taken, Tash. Point taken, Polly...