Published: September 14, 2008 12:40 am            

Yale teachers make 9,489-mile trip this summer

When you ask Melody Aufill and Donna McChesney, Yale Elementary teachers, what they did on their summer vacation, be prepared for an enthusiastic recounting of their 44-day, 9,489-mile road trip through 23 states. They received a Fund for Teachers grant in April to retrace the journeys of Bud and Temple Abernathy. From 1909 to 1911, the Abernathy brothers made trips from their home in southwest Oklahoma to Santa Fe, New York City and San Francisco. When they began, they were only nine and five years old. They traveled alone, most of the way on horseback.

Aufill and McChesney recently shared their story with selected slides from the thousands they took with the Stillwater Rotary Club. The teachers had read the book “Bud & Me, The True Adventures of the Abernathy Boys” with their classes. Their students’ enthusiasm and interest in the story encouraged their dream to retrace the boys’ travels. The purpose of their trip was to compare technology and travel from 1909 to current time, to research the boys’ travels and to create lesson plans to share with their students. They used the book as their travel guide to chart their itinerary and to try to experience as many of the boys’ adventures as possible.

Aufill and McChesney traveled by horseback from Guthrie to Frederick, a first-time experience for both, who had to learn to ride before their adventure. In Frederick, they attended the Abernathy family reunion where they met Temple’s daughter and granddaughter. They also got to sit in a replica of the Brush Runabout, the vehicle the boys drove back from New York City to Oklahoma in 1911 at ages 10 and six.

The rest of their trip was by car. Along their journey, the teachers visited presidential monuments in Washington, D.C., Mount Rushmore and Lincoln’s birthplace, the Smithsonian, Niagara Falls, the Badlands, Great Salt Lake, Grand Canyon and more. They even spent time in the desert where the boys almost died when their horses strayed off. They collected water from the Atlantic Ocean to pour into the Pacific Ocean just like the boys had done to celebrate their cross-country adventure.

Aufill and McChesney hope their experiences and enthusiasm will inspire their students to dream big dreams and to pursue them. They will read the book again this year with their new students, this time sharing their on-the-road adventures. During their travels, they documented their experiences with blogs and pictures to share with their friends, family and students. For more details about their summer adventure, check out http://abernathyadventures2008.blogspot.com.

        

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