The roads were bad in many places, streams frequently high, bridges in some cases washed away, houses occasionally long distances apart and feed scarce, all of which rendered travel very difficult for one who was unacquainted with the country and had no definite idea of the course he should take. Once they had to make an extra long drive because of not being able to obtain feed for their horses, and while crossing a series of swamps had the wagon mire down so that the horses could not pull it out. Leaving his wife and children in the wagon, Thomas went ahead until he found a house, roused the owner out of bed and hired him to take a fresh team back to help pull the wagon out of the mud. Both teams failing to move the wagon, the goods were carried out to where the soil was firm. Even then they had great difficulty in getting the wagon out of the mire, and Thomas, while standing in the mud and trying to raise the hind axle with a pole, so strained his side that he was unable to travel for the next three weeks, during which time they were under constant expense. By the time he was able to resume his journey the season was so far advanced it was feared they would not be able to cross the plains that year. Thomas' sister had married some time before, and was living at Springfield, Illinois, and, on finding that it was too late to journey to Utah that year, he decided to go to Springfield and see his sister, as he feared he might never have another chance of doing so. They arrived there in June, and finding his sister and her husband living in the back part of a building that had formerly been used as a store, Thomas fitted up the front part as a restaurant, and made some money by operating it, but his health was quite poor and his leg very painful. At the commencement of the year 1863 Archibald Buchanan, his brother-in-law, rented a stall in the market and proposed for Thomas to go in partnership with him, Thomas to do the buying and he to do the selling. Thomas closed up the restaurant and accepted the proposition. They did well during the year, and were feeling very much encouraged, but they bought very heavily of poultry and other perishable stuff for the holiday trade, and a thaw set in and caused so much stuff to spoil on their hands, that they lost nearly all they had accumulated. A very sorrowful Christmas was spent as a result of their loss and disappointment, for they were counting upon what they had saved to migrate to Utah with. Thomas maintained hope in spite of the discouraging circumstances, and declared that he would go to Utah the following year if he had to walk all the way with a pack on his back, and his wife said she was willing to put up with any hardship she could to reach that goal.