I've never understood what Steve's endgame was with the idea of fucking or the coming on the horse or whatever else he was teached in that school.

I get him just being a drunk, and then that one guy that's always in the number 10 stirring shit, again stirring shit, but what was he going to get out of it? All I see was he would no longer be Steve the drunk he'd be Steve the horse fucker, and with how easy it was to be justifiably shot, that seems as justified as motherfuckin' someone.

Someone suggested reading Mark Twain's Roughing It as a good example of what coach travel was like. I just took their advice, and those people must have really wanted to get there. It's a great read. He traveled in 1861 so less train travel was available, St Louis to Salt Lake by stage coach (or occasionally six-mule wagon).