Okay this first picture has nothing to do with the pioneer trek. This is a sign that was posted at one of the parks we visited on our trip back home from Iowa. The sentence structure gave me a chuckle and I thought I would share; it states " After being fattened on prairie grasses, cowboys herded the livestock to the stockyard which was located north of the railroad tracks...." I bet if the cowboys fed the cows grasses instead of themselves they would have gotten more money for them.
Here is Ike and Daniel in semi authentic pioneer garb. Dusters, hats, khaki pants, button down cotton shirts, boots, leather gloves and all their possessions in a gunny sack.
Each boy was assigned a "family" that had a Ma and Pa as well at 7-9 other brother and sisters. They would not know who their family would be until the morning of departure.
The family's belongings were loaded into their handcart and they were off on their adventure. 20 miles in three days with 14 other handcart families.
They walked through extreme heat, rain, thunderstorms, and a lovely light show of the northern lights. They ate well and had lots of medical staff on hand. Daniel's legs locked up on him the second day when his body shorted out on electrolytes. He says his legs totally cramped up and he dropped to the ground. Doctor came and gave him some electrolyte gummies to munch on and he took a break from pushing and pulling the handcart and just walked for the rest of that day.
Ike fared better and got along really well with his Ma and Pa and brothers and sisters.
This is a picture of the handcarts as they came into the valley where we are all waiting.
Daniel's handcart family came in a few before Ike's. He was very dirty and very happy to be at the end of the trek.
Here is Ike's handcart family. He is in the back with the dark brown hat on. Yes, the girls had to dress traditional as well. Bloomers and all.
Ike striding by. You can see all the stuff they had on their handcart. They really limited the kids on what they can take to try and keep the weight of the handcart to a minimum.
My very dirty boys!! Ike is making a face for me...as usual.
Here is Daniel with his best friend, Jacob Forbush. They were not in the same family. In fact they try to make sure the kids are not paired up with anyone they know.
Both boys concluded that this was the hardest thing they have ever had to do. Some hills were so steep they had to use a rope to lower the carts and some hills were so steep they had to team up with other families to get the carts up and then run back down the hill to help the next family and keep doing that until all 14 carts were up the hill. Daniel slept for 12 hours the first night home. Then slept for another 3 the following day. Ike slept for his usual 7 hours that night and I think he grabbed a cat nap the following day. I think Daniel tanking on his electrolytes really set his recovery back.
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