Trekking it

Trek, trek, trek....where do I even begin?

For the past 8 months, our young women (12-18 year old girls at church) have been preparing to dress up in pioneer clothes and pull a handcart through the desert for 5 days. Oh.  The young men were also invited. ;)  We have been sewing, hiking, sewing some more, learning some mean square dancing skills and exercising a lot of faith that trek would be worth it.  It was.  It was beyond worth it.

I was lucky enough to have my dad as my trekking buddy while we "instigated music along the trail".  (really, that was our job.)  It was great getting to spend a week with my dad at a point in my life where I appreciate him much more than I did in those teenage years.  Through all of our prep, we have been prepared for some pretty roasty weather and an overall lack of shade.  We were NOT prepared for record highs, which left us with 106 degree weather.  Although I spent 7 years in Las Vegas, we are all a little soft after living in the very moderate western Oregon.  It was dang hot.  We consumed crazy amounts of water and gatorade while rarely needing to use the bathroom. (which was good with the port a potties feeling like horrible, stinky saunas)  Ok, so that was all of the bad part.

The good part?  Our youth are amazing.  All of these kids rose to the occasion.  They worked their tushies off, despite the record highs, the heavy handcarts and the sandy ground.  They showed an outpouring of compassion for their siblings (they were put into "families" for the week) and, quite frankly, any person that walked by.