Fluency U3L3

If you ever feel like complaining when you are in a car

or bus and traffic is slow, think about this. For most of

America's history, people got around by walking. And

these weren't short walks to school or the store. They

were really, really long walks.

You probably know that the first Americans walked

here from Asia across a land bridge. Once they got here,

they kept on walking in every direction. They walked from

what is now Alaska to the southern tip of South America.

That's more than ten thousand miles. Of course, it took

hundreds of years, maybe even thousands, but they still

walked it. And don't forget, they also walked from the

Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.

Move ahead in time to the European explorers who

came to the Americas. They got here by ship. Then they

used one of three ways to travel. Some people rode

horses, others rode wagons, and the rest of the people

walked. By rest of the people, we mean most of the

people. The knights, leaders, and other important people

got to ride in horses or wagons. All the others got around

by walking.

The same thing is true with wagon trains. Television

and the movies make it seem as if people were usually

in the wagons. They weren't. There was too much stuff to

carry in the wagons. Many of the people walked beside

the wagons through freezing cold and blazing heat for

thousands of miles.