I just gotta jump in here.....
I actually DID travel from Colorado to Mexico by mule-driven covered wagon train.
Here are a few notes from the trail:
The wagon train started in AZ with 17 wagons. Traveld up thru TX into Colorado mostly on paved roads, but as much as possible, on back roads and thru Indian Reservations. Arrived back in AZ at the border of Mexico after 1 yr, with 4 wagons, in bad shape. They shook apart on the PAVED roads.
We got bogged down in deep mud in Colo, finally had to call for tow trucks.
No way to get across "Wolf Pass" safely. A very deep/steep valley. Again, had to break the rules and truck everything over.
We stopped once a week at whatever local High School was near by to shower in the gym. Nevertheless, I got a badly infected thumb, and a horrendous case of Athletes Foot. Once a week is not enough! And Pioneers didn't even have once a week!!
Someone had to watch the mule line at night. They were tethered usually in a nice enough pasture area, but were often loose and scattered in the morning. A couple of times the lines became very tangled and we had mules panic. One night a mule was bitten by a brown jumping spider and died. No need for an alarm clock, they would start "calling" for breakfast at first light!
We had one run-away wagon, no one hurt, but wagon destroyed. Very dangerous.
On the Ute reservation, some Indian men and boys came into camp and offered to talk to us about their lives. The women made fresh fry-bread for the whole camp. A gift.
In the "Land of the Dine" (Navajo Reservation) Indians occasionally rode in by horseback, very friendly. One night they brought 2 truck loads of produce as a gift to us.
I did the camp laundry at Medicine Hat trading post in AZ. Using washing machines and dryers it took me 3 days. The trading post was the hub of the Rez. I was invited to a wedding, and blessing ceremony at Shiprock. I carried laundy for a very old lady one day, and she called me "daughter"
When given "leave" occasionally from the wagon train, (a van would take us to whatever town), most of the men would "whoop it up" and get very drunk in town. A few times had to be bailed out of jail.
Personal stories were our main source of entertainment on the trail. No electronics for entertainment. One morning I was sitting around the morning fire with a couple of teenage boys who had helped me feed the mules. It was first light, and there was a red glow on the horizen. The boys got into an argument about what the red glow was. One boy said it was pollution from town. The other said it was the sun coming up. Finally they asked me what I thought. I told them "Well, that red-ribbon has been around a long time, even before pollution from town. The old Cheyenne would say that it's the shining moccasines of the Dawn Boys, come to tell the stars it's time to end their journey across the sky, and time for Grandfather sun to don his shining headress and climb the blue stairs of the sky " They both looked at me in stunned silence!! I had to laugh, but Sunday morning we let those boys sleep in. One of them came running up to me looking like he just jumped out of his bedroll and he was very uspet. He found me finishing up my breakfast and breathlessly exclaimed "You forgot to wake us up to see the sky!!"
I was on the wagon train for 6 months. It was one of the great adventures of my life. It was tough even with modern conveniences, and I often thought about how double-tough our acestors had to be to make it.
Thanks for letting me share!