The Journey: a story of determination and survival on the Oregon Trail

The Journey is another book in Melanie Dobson’s Legacy of Love series. This story is just one of the many people who took the trip from Missouri to the Willamette Valley known as the Oregon Trail. Samantha Waldron is only 18 but she already suffered so much loss. After her mother’s death after a long illness, her father, Hiriam, decided to take the family on the planned trek across the plains. Along with her brother, 7 year old Micah, Samantha and her family join the wagon train and set out on an uncertain journey in the hopes for new opportunities. After much tragedy and heartache, Samantha makes it to Fort Vancouver where she must stay for the winter before continuing on to the valley. There she meets British Alexander Clarke. Alexander was raised with a great sense of duty but at the same time yearns for something else. He knows once spring comes he is to return to England, take his place in the family business and marry the woman he has promised to marry. As many men vie for Samantha’s attention and affection, only Alex has intrigued her but she cannot have him. Will Samantha make it to the valley? Will Alex find the belonging he has been looking for? 

The people who gathered all they had and left all they knew behind to travel across the plains in hopes of a new and better life has always intrigued me. Would I have the same courage and determination as Samantha and her wagon train to make it to the valley? Would I even survive? I enjoyed Samantha’s tenacity and spunk from the very beginning. A young woman who has been taught to stand up for herself and yet finds resistance from those who don’t care to hear her thoughts and opinions. Alex is a character I had to grow to love. From the beginning, he was a bit of an ass with a poor opinion of Americans. However, as he sees Samantha and all she went through, he realizes that Americans are built of stronger stuff than he realized. One of my favorite scenes is when Samantha is at the dinner table and the men are questioning her journey and after she details all she went through, they ask how did she accomplish all that? I love her answer. She says “We had no choice but to keep walking. We simply put one foot in front of the other for two thousand miles.” The Journey is a great inspirational story that will leave you in awe of what people went through to seek a better life. I highly recommend The Journey. 

The Journey is available in eBook.