He decided on one which was particularly heavy, which he named Dave. Although Dave gave Meeker much difficulty, beginning with the drive home to Puyallup after the purchase, the animal eventually helped pull the wagon over . Although Meeker had not had a dog in his wagon in 1852, he knew that people liked them, and sought to add one to his crew. Jim, a large, friendly collie who became an expedition member and Meeker's companion for the next six years, had belonged to one of Meeker's neighbors, a Mr. James. Meeker was impressed by the way Jim drove James' chickens out of the area where the family grew berries, by moving slowly. Five dollars to one of James' children secured the purchase. Some of Meeker's friends tried to talk him out of the trip; one local minister warned against this "impracticable project", stating that it was "cruel to let this aged man start on this journey only to perish by exposure in the mountains". Meeker had taken an ox team and wagon to Portland's Lewis and Clark Exposition in 1905; en route he had kept his eyes open for places to set up suitable monuments on the Cowlitz Trail, on which pioneers had journeyed from the Columbia River to Puget Sound. He made arrangements with locals in towns along that trail to raise money to build monuments there. He gave lectures as a fundraiser, but raised little money. He took his team and wagon for daylong shakedown trips, despite the mocking of some who remembered him as Hop King. After several days camped on his lawn as practice for the trip, and then in other nearby locales, Meeker set out from Olympia on February 19, 1906. Return to the Trail (1906–1908) According to Larsen in his book on Meeker's journey east, The first stop after Olympia for "The Old Oregon Trail Monument Expedition" was Tenino, Washington, where Meeker went ahead by train on February 20, 1906, to make arrangements for the first monument of the trip. He still had no driver, and had his wagon pulled to Tenino by horses, with the oxen trailing behind. He appealed to a local quarry for a suitable stone, which was carved and was dedicated in Tenino at a ceremony on the 21st. He had less success as he journeyed south towards Portland; at none of the remaining Washington stops was a monument