Welcome to the “My Place” page
 My name is Scott
I run the Rope and Wire website.
My original idea for this page was to give those living in the country the opportunity to tell others about the things that made their farm or ranch so special.
Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that either no one likes to brag or no one lives on a farm or a ranch. Whatever the case, no one submitted an article so I felt it was high time to try something different.
So for now this will be literally “My Place.” I’ll use this page to post a western blog or short articles. They will either be mine, or possibly one from a contributing R&W community member.
The theme will remain Western but the content will change weekly, or there about.
If you click on any of the links to past blog's, you can return to this page by clicking on the My Place button across from my picture.
I hope you enjoy it but if not, might I suggest you “stroll the grounds.” Read a story or watch a movie.
Thanks for visiting.
Scott
The Stagecoach
My wife and I took a trip to Twin Falls, Idaho a while back. It’s about six hundred miles from Eugene, Oregon where we make our home. We loaded up the car early in the morning and headed out of town. It was chilly so we turned on the car’s heater as well as the ones we have in our seats. We stopped off at a drive up coffee hut and ordered two coffee drinks to go. My wife likes vanilla latte’s and I’m partial to a good mocha, which is basically hot chocolate with a shot of espresso.
We hit the freeway and traveled at seventy miles an hour. We took an hour or so for a good lunch at a nice restaurant. By the afternoon it started to get warm so we turned on the air conditioning. We made it to our destination in less than 12 hours. It was a long day and we were glad to be in Twin Falls and out of the car.
Now contrast this with the same trip by stagecoach around 150 years ago.
Lets say there even was such a thing as a stage that went from Eugene to Twin Falls.
You could be traveling with up to eight other passengers inside the stage. There could be as many as another dozen passengers on top, the luggage was secured to the back in what was called a boot. When the boot was full the remainder would have been put up topside. There is no doubt you needed to travel light.
The stage did have leather seats. Three of them in fact, bench style. But there was virtually no legroom. If you were lucky enough to get one of the end seats you had a backrest. If you ended up in the center seat all you had were leather straps to hold onto. Either way, you were lucky if you had much more than a foot of bench space.
Coffee drinks to go? I don’t think so. Heated seats? No way. Heat on cold mornings? Well, with nine people crammed into one stage, heat may not have been a problem in the morning.
And what about air conditioning during the heat of the day? Well, you still had nine people crammed into the stage so heat was probably still an issue as well as stagnant air, dust and possibly body odor. Sorry, no air conditioning on this ride.
How about a nice lunch? Well there was the occasional stage stop where the horses were changed out but the food was notoriously bad.
Oh yes, time. By car we made it in twelve hours.
You would have needed plenty of time to reach your destination by stage. Most stages traveled between five and ten miles per hour. So, lets do some math. If you left town at first light and you traveled for twelve hours per day at five to ten miles per hour, you would have to endure this ‘adventure’ for five to ten full days.
And what about a motel 6 at the end of each long day? More than likely it was a sheltered corner of some corral or possibly even the street.
Stagecoaches are pretty cool to look at up close. There is some great craftsmanship involved in building one. To be perfectly honest, the stagecoach played an important part in the evolution of transportation in this country. Some people wish we would return to this simpler time. Back when everyone rode horses and stagecoaches were the most advanced mode of transportation. It might be better for the environment and maybe even fun in a novel sort of way. But to travel by stage? Dream on. It was no picnic. I think I would almost rather walk.
Oh, I almost forgot, when traveling by stage, if the road was rough, you did walk. And if the stage needed a push, you did that too.
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