Ma & Pa Training

Last weekend, Rod and I had our Ma & Pa Trek Training. We carpooled to Estrella Park where we camped out for the night and had some intensive training as to what our role will be on the Pioneer Trek in June. We are one of 11 couples that will serve as the Ma and Pa to about a dozen of the youth in each Trek Family. We were asked to dress in our pioneer clothing and come prepared to participate as the children in a trek family, led by our trainers who served as our Ma and Pa.

Julie and John McLean.

The Sharps, the McLeans, and the Beesons - all incredible couples from our ward that will be guiding their trek families.

Rod and I are making sure we have our buckets and sleeping gear. We enjoyed some getting acquainted activities during the evening as we learned certain skills about leading discussions with our Trek families. There are some amazing leaders that have organized this Pioneer Trek. I cannot believe all of the planning, praying, sweat and tears that have gone into this activity.

We slept under these tarps. The wind blew ALL NIGHT and it was a pretty sleepless night for most of us. It was very noisy as the wind whipped the heavy blue tarps around. There were also giant spiders that wanted sleep with us. My poor tent mates said I did sleep for a couple of hours (they could hear me snoring). Sorry, ladies!

Our camp cooks made some dutch oven breakfast burritos. They were wonderful! We had beef stew and biscuits the night before with several wonderful choices of cobbler. I do love dutch oven cooking!

Enjoying our breakfast before the work of the day started.

We had to put our hand cart together. The first thing to do was stand the cart on its end so the axel and wheels could be assembled. Our Trek Families will have to assemble their own carts, load their belongings in the way they think is best and then secure the load before they hit the trail.

They gave Tammie and Me some blue rubber gloves and told us we were the axel greasers. We greased up the axels before the wheels were put on. It was nice, black grease!

Wanna shake hands?

Our little light weight Suzy-Q stood in the cart to keep it from tipping back while the wheels were being installed.

All loaded up and ready for the journey. Make it nice and secure, John. It's still a little windy today.

Tammie thinks she can pull the cart all by herself!

And we are on the road!

We all took turns pulling or pushing in different spots. This gave us a chance to talk to new people and learn about our fellow travelers.

It wasn't too difficult on the paved road. We had a long rope tied to the cart. It helped to move it along as we each pulled on our handle on the rope. I know the pioneers did not enjoy the luxury of pavement!

This will be our second trek. We went to Martin's cove in Wyoming about 5 years ago as a Ma and Pa. I know this trek will be way different, and we are very excited to be involved in this marvelous experience. I have always loved my pioneer heritage as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was the Mormon Pioneers that blazed the trail and settled in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada and many other western states.

This is my turn to push. I almost had to run to keep up. There were lots of able-bodied modern pioneers helping with this handcart today. We had some very interesting activites once we arrived at our destination. I know I had to dig deep to share the feelings that I had during our activities. I am looking forward to our Trek in June. I know it will be a life-changing experience for all of the youth, and for all of the Ma and Pa couples as well. I wish I could share some of the activities, but I don't want to spoil the experience ahead for my young friends that read my blog. There will be many situations they will have to figure out for themselves. After the Trek, I will record these experiences.

Happy Trails!