That descent is far from the only nail-biter of this remarkable saga. En route, they synced their widely different communication skills so well (the intellectual author's and Nick's ebullience mixed with glitches stemming from verbal dyslexia) that they could survive a death-defying descent of a slate rock face by signaling each other with the touch of a hip. With a mantra of 'Let's do it!' they positively embraced it. We pushed mules almost two thousand miles to learn something more important.' Their real goal was 'learning to live with uncertainty.'Īnd the two did not just live with it. When they set out as adults with the mission to be 'the first wagon travelers in more than a century to make an authentic crossing of the Oregon Trail,' Buck writes, 'that was never the point for us. The Connecticut author and his brother had been endowed as young boys with what their dad called 'the pioneer spirit' as their large family undertook a covered-wagon trip from New Jersey to Gettysburg. Thanks to Buck's utterly engaging voice, infectious enthusiasm, unquenchable curiosity, dogged determination and especially his ability to convey the interaction of two brothers (and three mules), all of whom pull together despite their strong but profoundly different personalities, the saga becomes nothing short of irresistible.

But for readers, 'The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey' becomes more than that. To Rinker Buck, 'journey is all' when he and his brother Nick leap onto the seat of a covered wagon to take on a contemporary 'crazyass' crossing of the Oregon Trail.

The oregon trail buck