Trek Diaries

Danika is scheduled to go on our Stake Trek August 5th. We have one skirt & bonnet already, but we have to get another skirt, a shirt, and some bloomers made in the next week or two. This has got me thinking about when I went as a much younger person--the same age as Danika to be exact. Weird, huh? Well, I dug out my old slides--yes, slides--and had them converted to digital. It was really funny to look back on that adventure. Every summer we would come to Utah for the whole summer, so I did this with the Hyrum Stake. I really didn't know anyone at all, except I lucked out and our Bishop's wife was in my family.

Our "Family" (that's a lot of kids). Our Ma and Pa are on the left.

The terrain--somewhere near the Strawberry Reservoir, I think. We went back up into those hills. Notice those clouds? Yep, we got rained on. A lot. Even some hail.

The first day we pushed the carts into the night, and slept right on the ground under a light drizzle. It's all part of the experience, right? The next morning (pictured below), after a lovely bowl of cornmeal mush, we pushed on to base camp.

At base camp there was an old corral where we did all the group activities--including Sacrament meeting. They passed around pie tins with the bread, and communal tin cups for the water (yes, we all took a sip from the same cup--yuck). There I am, second from the left--a vision of loveliness, don't you think?

Our meals were pretty authentic. Cornmeal mush and oatmeal for breakfast (sprinkled with ash from the fire). Lunches were usually beans and ashcake--flour and water mixed until pasty and then made into a pancake and placed on the coals to cook. Just dust off the ash and squirt on some honey. Not too bad when your starving. Dinners were stews and such. So by our last full day we were all pretty hungry. That's when they brought in the turkeys. LIVE turkeys. They put them in the corral, and each family got to catch two. The kicker is that if you wanted to eat them, you had to kill them, pluck them, and prepare them to bake in a pit. Yeah. Talk about Lord of the Flies. But, it left an impression. And those turkeys did taste really good!

Chasing those gobblers

Cooking those gobblers

What's a pioneer activity without the quintessential stick pull?

I don't remember this girl's name, but the way she looks pretty much sums up how we all felt by the last day.

With all of the rain, we had a lot of mud and streams to wade through on our way back. I had mud up to my bloomers, which you can't really see, but I remember.

All in all, it was a sort of miserable experience, but I'm glad I went. And it gave me a new appreciation for the Pioneers.

I've been tagged...

Sahuaro High School class of 1988 (just had my 20-year reunion, but didn't go).

DID YOU DATE SOMEONE FROM HIGH SCHOOL? Yes, Mike was in my Seminary class. He was a senior, I was a sophomore. It was love at first sight...see how cute he was :)


WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU DRIVE? 1984 Toyota Corolla hatchback which pulled dangerously to one side.

WHAT WAS YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT IN HIGH SCHOOL? I have no idea. I've repressed the whole thing.

WERE YOU A PARTY ANIMAL? Heck no! I was a good Mormon girl. I never was offered anything either, even though some guys at my 16th birthday were snorting cocaine in my bathroom unbeknownst to me.

WERE YOU CONSIDERED A FLIRT? I don't think so. Ask Mike.

WERE YOU IN BAND, ORCHESTRA, OR CHOIR? None of the above. I'm a quitter. I played the flute in elementary and jr. high though.

WERE YOU A NERD? By whose standards?

WERE YOU ON ANY VARSITY TEAMS? Nope.

DID YOU EVER GET SUSPENDED OR EXPELLED? No, no, no. I was a good girl.

CAN YOU SING THE FIGHT SONG? Nope. Don't even know if we had one.

WHO WERE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHERS? Ms. Walters--Sr. English, hands down. Perhaps my Art History teachers as a close second. Everyone else pretty much stunk.

WHERE DID YOU SIT DURING LUNCH? With my friends Kristi, Shari, and Nicole. When I started driving I went home for lunch. This is Kristi, my best friend.

SCHOOL MASCOT? SHS Cougars

DID YOU GO TO THE HOMECOMING? WITH WHO? Never.

IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND DO IT ALL AGAIN, WOULD YOU? NEVER!

WHERE DID YOU GO ON SR. SKIP DAY? Don't have any recollection. I probably asked my mom if I could stay home that day. I really wasn't part of the whole school scene--I was a loner. However, I hated my Algebra class which was first period, so Kristi and I would go to the Seminary building (which was locked until 4th period) and hang out by the back door until our next class. Once we got caught by her dad, who was a counselor in the stake presidency. That was pretty embarrassing, and I never ditched again!

WERE YOU IN ANY CLUBS? Nope. Loner.

HAVE YOU GAINED SOME WEIGHT SINCE THEM? Uh...yeah! What kind of dumb question is that?

WHO WAS YOUR PROM DATE? Went with Mike to his senior prom. Almost didn't go to mine until my friend Scott Levin found out and asked me--I was his charity case.

WHAT CLIQUES WERE YOU IN? The "Mormon" one, I guess. But we all did our own thing. I hung out with Kristi and her sister my Freshman and Sophomore years, and then Mike during the 2nd half of Sophomore year. When Kristi moved and Mike left on his mission, I was buddies with Mike's little brother.

That was painful. Why do we fill these dumb things out? I don't even know how I tag anyone else. How about Rachel and Kysha?