Welcome to RiverEarth.com
Howdy. This is where I (Bernie Harberts) post about my travels by mule, boat and bike.
To join me for an authentic mule voyage, check out the Lost Sea Expedition, the Rocky Mountain PBS series about my 14 month mule voyage across America.
Stream the series on:
-Amazon
My wife Julia’s take on things at Considering Animals.com.
Happy Adventuring!
Bernie
Resting in Central City
2 bags of feed, a salt block and a patch of grass they couldn’t eat in a week. The mules are holed up in Central City, Nebraska, enjoying 2 days off after 2 weeks of almost uninterrupted walking.
Mule Lodging Log
97 days ago I rode mules Brick and Cracker out the front gate and headed West. I’ve kept a record of where I’ve slept every night since then. Also who I stayed with and how many miles I covered that day.
In 3 days I’ll have been gone from my home and wife Julia for 100 days. I sure miss Julia… Continue reading
Hordville Hello
Greetings from Hordville, Nebraska. The mules and I arrived here this morning (July 17, 2019) and set up a welcome camp under the linden tree by the rail road tracks. A wonderful place to duck the heat before things heated up this afternoon.
Temperatures have been in the 90s all this week with higher temps forecast. This limits the amount of time the mules… Continue reading
Road Kill Fish
Catfish hung on stop signs. Catfish flung on the shoulder. A dead chub on the highway. Lately mules Brick and Cracker and I have come across dead fish where you wouldn’t expect them – along the side of the road. I put them in to a post card-like arrangement I though you’d enjoy.
Right now… Continue reading
Sunday Shadow
Good Sunday morning to you friend. Daytime temps here in western Nebraska have been in the mid-90s so we start early. I try to be on the road with the mules before the sun comes up. I hope your Sunday’s going well and you got done in the morning cool whatever it is you had planned.
This morning the mules and I are east of Ashland, Nebraska. We’re heading toward Valparaiso.
Safari Park Day Off
A bag of corn, a bucket of water and a salt block. Oh, and a herd of elk. The mules are chillin’ on their day off. We’re guests of the Lee G Simmons Conservation Park and Wildlife Safari.
The Lee G Simmons Conservation Park and Wildlife Safari features… Continue reading
Nebraska Arrival
The mules and I have arrived in Nebraska!
We started the day outside Tabor, Iowa and worked our way through the rolling Iowa country over to the Missouri River. There we got a first hand look at the after-effects of the flooding that has plagued the mid-West all spring and in to summer.
Right now I’m settling the mules in… Continue reading
“Mules West” Article in Herald-Whig Newspaper (Quincy, Illinois)
A man and his mules journey across America
By Ethan Colbert / Photo Katelyn Metzger / Jun. 13, 2019
(NOTE: The following is a re-publishing of an article that originally ran in the Herald-Whig (Quincy, Illionois) on June 13, 2019 / Bernie Harberts)
Art’s Hamburger
I was grumpy when I rode in to New Boston because I’d taken a wrong turn with my mules and I wasn’t where I wanted to be. I was afoot and the extra 8 miles I’d walked in the heat put me in a crappy mood.
I plopped down across from the town bar and ate my sardine lunch in the shade of a tree.
A truck pulled up and… Continue reading
Turtle Crossing
They lumber heavy as tanks across the road in front of my mules: turtles. Snapping turtles, box turtles and sliders. This week, Cracker and Brick took a moment to admire a slider as it made its was leisurely across the road.
My blood pressure’s already pretty low but I felt it drop a few more points. Maybe I’ll look at… Continue reading