A simple rocking chair. It was amazing what luxury felt like out on the frontier. I sat there in the rocker on the roof deck of my clunky steamboat and enjoyed life as we chugged slowly upriver in the crisp autumn morning air. I had learned long before then to enjoy each and every savory moment when they happened and to embed them in my memory if I could. Attitude is everything when it comes to enjoying life; the coffee tastes better, the girls are prettier and your conversations with friends ever so much more fulfilling.

Now a rocking chair, despite all its rustic charm, is by no means better than a modern executive office chair; the modern chairs had all the bells and whistles built in on the assembly line. However everything I wanted could be had in 1820 but it would take a while before we had time to focus on things like that. Chairs, tables and beds were a significant concern to us right now when it came to furniture, but overall food, shelter and warmth were still our greatest priorities.

Even still, I enjoy a well made rocker when there is time to pass. I had three days left on this trip and I planned to spend that time well, doing nothing more that strengthening relationships with Capt. Sven and Doc Browne. Well I also intended to plot and plan quite a bit.

I really didn’t talk to Doc Browne much that day. It was obvious that he was incredibly embarrassed by the happenings of the morning. He spent a lot of time with his kids over the next few days and I got the feeling he got closer to them then he ever had before. By the third day, the brats were starting to display a lot more of his mannerisms than hers; that would help them – showing up in Rulo as the new kids with a ‘better than you’ attitude would have gone poorly for them.

It was a calm and peaceful day until evening came, evening meant we camped and also meant that the Harpy was out in public again. The screeching and squawking started up about thirty minutes after we made camp and continued on until sometime after full dark. I was not amused and decided right then and there that she had just booked herself into cargo class seating again.

Morning was as least quiet. To keep it that way I was having my coffee on the shore next to the gangway. I sincerely hoped that this went smoother this morning and surprisingly it did. When the Browne family came walking up carrying their gear I merely looked at her and pointed to the beached skiff, she stiffened for a moment but went quietly. She didn’t get soaked this morning so she was definitely better off than the previous day.

The shore party pushed us off and we slowly got underway, the day was drama free thus far and I intended to keep it that way. I made breakfast for Amos and myself and took some extra bread I had made down to the Browne family, they seemed to appreciate the fresh hot bread. Apparently Mrs. Browne needed some kitchen training and I knew just the woman to do that, in fact I could hardly wait to introduce her to Matilda.

I pulled the Doc aside, “Doc, as a favor to me please set up your family's tent at our camp fire tonight.”

“Why?”

“Well Doc, I’d like some peace and quiet these last nights before we get to Rulo. Once we get there I’m going to be busier than a bee in the spring time.” I answered with a smile, “And I figure that if you are sharing a fire with Amos and me, the night should be fairly quiet.”

That brought a grin to his face. “Any chance Sven will be there?”

“Probably. He sure does enjoy a bit of my whiskey at the end of the day. But he’s good company and keeps us all laughing, I figure it’s a fair trade.”

“Count me in!” his enthusiasm was quite real.

“One more thing” I added, “why don’t you and your kids try to catch some fish this morning. We can cook it up for dinner to go along with the prairie chicken Amos stumbled across this morning. Amos has all the gear you need to fish with and it looks to be a nice day for it”

I walked away feeling good about the conversation, I actually liked Doc quite a bit and I felt that he would become an important piece of Rulo as time went on. His wife on the other hand, well I’d like Matilda deal with her.

I retreated to the roof deck and into the rocking chair and enjoying the mood of the day, it was turning out to be a very relaxing. Relaxation was something I desperately needed before we got into the hustle and bustle of Rulo during harvest time. Even thinking about it was stressful and I knew for certain that Sonya would be dropping a inches deep pile of paperwork in front of me the moment I sat down.

The boat chugged steadily along and I could hear them shoveling charcoal into the boiler down below. That got me thinking about coal and its availability in my area, there was much of it but we weren’t looking to commercially export the stuff. Happy for the distraction I dug into my bag and pulled out my trusty book/mobile computer, a quick search showed me that sure enough there were some thin coal veins in our area. Just south of a future town which will be named Peru, in the Honey Creek Hills. That was about all the data that I had with me but we had a digital copy of the full geographic report back in Rulo, the broken link on my handheld told me so.

We needed that coal to run our small industrial base, charcoal was time consuming to produce and didn’t release as much energy as coal did. We needed that energy, in fact I rather preferred to have only a small mine – I wasn’t the least bit interested in destroying my home to make a few bucks. I recalled that there were a few low volume, low grade oil patches as well in our area. Again enough for our use but not viable for commercial extraction even in the future era of fracking. It was almost too good to be true, now I just needed to find a miner or two and somebody who knew something about drilling. This would all have to wait for the spring but it was cheery news nonetheless.

There would be some hearty fun around the campfire tonight.

It seems that good things happened whenever I had a rocking chair.