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** This is the fifth installment on the Flight of Discovery, an aerial scientific expedition that retraced the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail from Indiana to the Pacific Ocean. It is summarized by Mike Harding, the Expedition Leader. A complete accounting of the 2004-2006 expeditions is recounted in his upcoming book, “On Wings of Gold: Triumph and Tragedy of the Flight of Discovery”.

Flight of Discovery – June 4, 2004: Fork in the Trail

A fair day. three men on the right flank passed a large Island on the St. Side Called Seeder Island: this Isd. has a great Deel of Ceedar on it. passed a small creek at 1 ms.15 yd. Wide which we named Nightengale Cree from a Bird of that description that Sang for us all last night: and is the first of the and I ever heard. Here the Sergt. at the helm run under a bending tree & broke the mast. From the Journal of William Clark. June 4, 1804

I’m entering these words into my journal a few days after the events that are described below. I won’t dwell on the details of the subsequent days of the Expedition but rely instead on the rest of the crew to fill in the gaps during my absence. It’s ironic how history can turn back on itself in subtle ways.

Late on Thursday evening Carol was injured in a car accident on the way home from the airport in San Diego. After safely flying the Bell 206 across the country to Indiana and through the Midwest to Washington, Missouri, she got t-boned in a taxi two blocks from our home. Go figure. She has a broken collarbone and nose, major contusions on her arms and legs, but she’s alive. The taxi driver is not so lucky and is paralyzed from the neck down. The drunk driver who ran the stop sign only suffered a broken cheekbone, of course.

We rallied the troops and divided my responsibilities among Mike Mann, Roger Fraser, Brian Forrest, and John Egan. The crew gave me a FOD t-shirt that everyone (including Sigfried) had signed to take back to Carol. Rather than go downstream to St. Louis, which I thought for myself to be important at the time, I decided personally to push on upstream to Kansas City and catch a flight at KCI; besides, there was no real difference in available departure times for San Diego between Kansas City and St. Louis. I booked a 2:45 p.m. flight.

Presentation at the Tent of Many Voices Signature Event in Jefferson City, MO. This was my last stop before flying back to San Diego for Carol’s recovery. The FOD proceeded on. June 4, 2004. Photo credit: Mike Harding, submitted.I flew in the Caravan with Mike and the Flight stopped at Jefferson City where we were well received by the local L & C Bicentennial Committee. They shuttled us to the National Park Service Corps II celebration site, which included many trading booths and exhibits. I gave a short, scheduled speech at the Tent of Many Voices; a travelling exhibit set up by the National Park Service for people to express their interest in various parts of the L & C adventure. We owe much appreciation to the NPS for looking after and feeding the Crew on a very stressful day.

As the rest of the Crew departed north along the river, Mike, Jeanette, and I winged our way direct to KCI. It was a strange experience hearing everyone’s good wishes to Carol over the air-to-air as we headed west; I didn’t know what awaited me in San Diego, and I doubted that neither Carol nor I would be rejoining this fine group for the remainder of the Journey.

The best news possible in San Diego when I arrived; I took Carol home that evening. Before leaving the hospital, I checked in on the taxi driver, Abdullah. We need to figure out how we can help him and his family since they are uninsured and rely totally on the income from his driving. After I put Carol to bed, I met with the neighbors at the accident site and thanked them for pulling Carol out of the wreckage.

When I came back to the house, Carol was sitting up in bed, propped up by pillows I’d placed behind her back. She’ll have to sleep sitting up for quite a while, and that means she’s not going to get much rest at all. She insists that I immediately rejoin the group, and we spent most of the evening talking about the expedition and less about the accident. But at this point I’m not interested in rejoining the group; I just want to focus on getting my wife healed – and possibly punching out the drunk that did this to her.

As I was winging westward on Southwest Airlines, the FOD was proceeding up the Missouri River. They passed the replica keelboat and pirogues of a St. Louis-based expedition. But rather than being oared and polled up the river, these vessels had diesel engines. Everyone is commemorating the Bicentennial in their own way.

Members of a St. Louis based reenactment group wave to the FOD aircraft as the Flight passes up the Missouri River. June 4, 2004. Photo credit: Mike Harding, submitted.The FOD Stopped at the home of Amelia Earhart in Atchison, Kansas. Although not related to Lewis & Clark, we had planned a visit there for our lady aviators to honor the most famous of all female pilots. Earhart started the “Ninety-Nines” in 1931 as the first all-women’s group of pilots. Appropriately, there were ninety-nine of them in the world at the time. FOD members Jill Baker and Kari Meadows are members of the San Diego Chapter.