Looking for History and A New Sink

So I'm looking for the route most likely taken for westward bound settlers to go from Saint Louis, MO across towards the west. I know there were several different routes, but the northern ones usually went into northern Nebraska or southern Wyoming, then split off to continue west or go south. I'm trying to find out more specific information about the route. It's turning into something harder than I had thought. *sigh* But I will continue my hunt and I'm bound to have it nailed soon.

Any wagon could become a covered wagon and many were abandoned

along the route to the west when they were unable to keep

up under the daily abuse of the route.

I am also hunting for a list of common male names for the latter half of the 19th century. My main character has had his name for months, but his father keeps vacillating between two different ones and I'll need a larger cast of secondary and tertiary characters that need names. I know there are lists out there, but I haven't had a chance to look for them yet.

I downloaded WriteWay to try it out. There are actually a lot of special offers available for NaNo participants. Scrivner has a good offer and I already have been looking at their trial version, but I just need something relatively easy to slap my words into. I'll deal with supporting stuff later. WriteWay seemed a good alternative - a little less high powered than Scrivner, but with many of the same features.

I'm not sure if I'm getting this exact style, but this

is the color that I'm getting for my sink. It's quite nice.

My sink has finally arrived and we picked it up last night. We needed a special color that had to be done at the manufacturer and it took forever to get done and shipped. I haven't unpacked the box yet, I'll leave that to my DH and the plumber. I'll be phoning the plumber today to set up a time for him to come out and install the sink and the new faucet and drain. I really want a bathroom sink again, I've been using the upstairs sink since late August and it got old really quickly. I wanted a higher spout on my faucet but DH wanted a lower one and I wasn't in the mood to argue. We have the lower one *sigh*. When it's up I'll take a picture to share.