Karen had the surface of a large folding table covered in Maps and several books.
She was presently engrossed in a map of Kansas an Nebraska as well as a large Book of the Plains tribes liberated from a public library. On the state maps she'd used a highlighter marker to begin laying out course of travel.

Karen was studying the migration routes of the buffalo and the native american tribes that had followed them. She knew that the others preferred the speed an comfort of motorized vehicles but she saw them instead as death traps which attracted marauders hoping for fuel, parts, supplies and slaves. She had a different view as she remembered her own exodus to homestead on horse back. She had avoided the marauders an wacks by simply never presenting herself on their favored hunting grounds of Roads and towns. 

When she'd first thought of escaping towards Evergreen she had worried over how she'd get there and began gathering maps. She'd found that her direct line of travel would take her north on a dwindling number of roads which would mean a concentrated area of danger very much like the river crossings of the African herds.

She disliked the odds and sought a way to gain an advantage she could exploit. That was when she remembered this book that someone had brought up from Oklahoma and it's descriptions of the vast Buffalo herds. It was then that she'd also remembered studying in geography that Kansas, Nebraska and the over states of the great plains owed their rich soils to the Buffalo which came down from Canada.

She was so busy trying to connect landmarks from the book to her maps that she didn't hear Jason come in till he asked 
"What's That?"

Karen looked up a bit startled at Jason then calmed down saying [B]"Maps.
I've been studying different routes we could take to get into Canada.[/B]

She sits down on a stool next to the table and sighs
[B]"I now wish I'd have brought my brother's books on celestial navigation an his sextant.
I know the others will want to use cars but even with good fuel mileage we'll need at least three refueling points just to get to the border[/B]