Odyssey Dreams is the story of six brave women and men: the runaway slave-girl and prophetic dreamer who escaped the chains and ignorance of the plantation; the socialite who wanted to raise a family without pretense and superficiality; the retired schoolteacher of mythology who wanted to live her own great adventure; the fur trapper turned guide after all the fur-bearing animals were decimated; the retired sea captain who could not thrive in the confinement of crowed, dirty cities; and, the native American shaman who was making his final trail. They began as strangers but they ended as heroes to one another. The Oregon Trail tested the spirit of every pioneer. It was the road to freedom, yet it was the also the path of death and despair. Many would perish from disease, some by river crossings and other accidents and a few by acts of violence. Still, they entered the vast untamed prairie until their numbers became a flood. These settlers risked everything to manifest their dreams. They wanted the freedom to be themselves, to clear free land and to build farms on fertile soil and to end their days with the sense that they had a purpose.