Day two and the late arrival

We left the Motel 6 around 7:30 am so we could make it to Mount Rushmore by the time the park opened. We drove through the Black Hills of South Dakota to get there and it was just beautiful! I understand why they call them the Black Hills. From a distance the Ponderosa Pines covering them are so many that it gives the hills a black appearance.

While driving through we came across some animals such as deer, bison, and even a mountain goat as we got closer to Mt Rushmore!

It was really neat to see this national monument and hear the story and history behind it. It was a gorgeous day!

There were a ton of people around to help take a picture of us but the trick was finding one that could handle a camera decently and put us in focus. This guy did ok.

Of course it was just our luck as we started the tour walking down by the monument itself. The fog rolled in and covered it completely until right at the end when we got to the closest legal spot and this was the best picture I could get. Another 2 minutes after we started heading back it was completely clear again. Oh well, we still got a couple of good shots from a distance. It was a nice stop along our journey!

We continued on driving along I-90 through South Dakota which was pretty but very monotonous after a while. We made our way into Minnesota and decided we would keep driving as far as we could so we could be close enough to Sparta on Sunday to go to the branch that meets there at 10:00 am. We stopped around 2:00 in the morning about 30 miles away to get gas, unhook our Tacoma off the trailer, and fill the tires so I could drive it the rest of the way. Unfortunately, the gas station we stopped at was soon to be closing down and the guys working there (probably in their 20's) were on strike, drinking beer and vandalizing the premises. The air wouldn't work and they didn't care to help us fix it so we hooked the truck back up and drove another 10 miles to the next gas station. We filled the tires mostly before the time/money ran out. I got in the truck and it smelled SO HORRIBLY of diesel exhaust. Note to self: next time you haul a car/truck behind a stinky diesel, turn the air vent to recycled air instead of outside air and close the vents. If you don't, the car will reek for days and make everything inside reek as well...such as our suitcases and everything in them. We made it to Sparta at about 2:30 am and stopped at a hotel but they had no room. We called every hotel in town and there was no room. It wasn't any special weekend so I don't know why such a small town would have NO Vacancy. One hotel in West Salem had a room left so we drove 15 minutes back the way we came and parked the truck. The hotel only had the Jacuzzi King Suite available so we took it. Now I wonder if they say that to everyone who checks in at almost 3:00 in the morning. We got a few hours of sleep before I got up to get ready for church, packed up again, and headed back to Sparta. We parked at the same hotel we had come to the night before and made a reservation for that night and the following night but nothing more because they would be booked Tuesday on. We made it to church about 10 minutes late smelling of diesel exhaust and everyone staring because they knew we were either new or visiting. We even snuck in the back! How did they feel our presence there to turn around and smile at us? At least they were smiling! Several people came up to us after Sacrament. They were so excited that we were most likely going to be in the branch and lots of people gave us tips as to where to look for a place to live. Long story longer, we found a place Monday and signed papers Tuesday morning so we only needed the hotel for those two nights anyway. We moved in Tuesday and were able to get the moving van back early! We were definitely blessed. That's enough for this post. More updates to come!

The journey, day one...

We got everything all packed up into our more than big enough moving truck on Thursday. We loaded our Tacoma onto the trailer that evening so we would be ready to get up and go first thing Friday morning. It barely fit and we had to buy extra straps to tie it to the trailer because the straps they had didn't quite fit around the tires.



We said our goodbye's and off we went...very slowly pulling the load we had. We decided not to drive straight there but that we would make a few stops to see things and visit places one or both of us had never been.



Our first stop was the Martin's Cove visitor's center. We didn't hike out to the site where the Pioneers were but walked through the buildings at the visitor's center. We even found the names of Jaren's ancestors on a plaque that had names of the pioneers who came out in the handcart companies. Jaren's ancestors came in the Willie handcart company.




This is devil's gate that you could see from the visitor's center. The pioneers had to go around devil's gate because it was too narrow to fit through.



Just through the other side of Devil's gate you could see Independence Rock. We walked out there and walked a small ways up the rock but I was in flip-flops and they didn't make for very good climbing. We were also in somewhat of a hurry to keep going on our drive so we didn't explore the rock too much to look for names engraved by the pioneers or the "well preserved ruts" from the wagons I've heard about. We did see along the path what looked like the trail the pioneers took. It looked like there was two strips where the wheels wore away the plants and weeds.
It was nice to stop and see these areas that the pioneers travelled. It was especially a neat feeling after having recently done the trek. Now when we looked at the handcarts or looked at what they were crossing I understood better and had a greater appreciation for those early saints. It was hot and hard and very exhausting. They surely had the help of the Lord and his Angels to be able to trek daily for months. I am definitely grateful for their sacrifice!

Wisconsin

(Googled this picture of Wisconsin. Not sure if this is how it really looks!)

Yep, this is where we are off to next! Jaren will have a temporary assignment at Ft McCoy, WI for a year or two. It is a fairly small base and we will be living off-post. We will most likely be living in the small town closest to the post called Sparta. It has a population of about 16,000. To give you an idea of the size...Camas, WA has over 12,500 inhabitants and Brigham City, UT has over 17,400. We will be in the Sparta, WI branch in the Rochester, Minnesota stake . There are 7 wards and 5 branches total in the stake. We will be 2 hours and 45 minutes away from the closest temple which is St Paul, MN. This will definitely be a new adventure. Jaren did receive some other job offers in varying locations but we feel Wisconsin is where we need to go.

We left my parents house in Vancouver Sunday morning after the 4th of July celebration. It was hard to say goodbye. Being with my family while Jaren was gone has made me appreciate them a lot more. I must admit I cried for the better part of an hour after leaving. We camped with Jaren's parents Sunday night and went white water rafting the next morning one last time before we leave this area. It was a lot of fun though it was a little cold and windy. We are staying with the Glover's now for a couple of days. We plan on getting a moving truck Thursday afternoon and packing it up then starting our long journey to Sparta, WI on Friday morning. We are going to make stops along the way and will post about those when we have internet access. We don't have a place to live once we get out there. We will be looking for a place Monday and Tuesday (hopefully we find something to rent in those two days) then Jaren starts work on Wednesday.

It's definitely sad to leave our family and friends here to move so far away but we look forward to what new things we will get to experience there. We will have a small amount of family and friends within a 8-10 hour driving distance so holidays shouldn't be too bad. This may be just the first of the moving around we will do while Jaren is in the active duty Army. He plans on trying to get his schooling finished so he will be ready or almost ready to become a Chaplain when we leave Wisconsin. Well, that's about all for now. Thank you to all of our family and friends who have been so loving and supportive of us. We love you all so much!

Pioneer Trek

Jaren and I had the great privilege to be a "Ma" and "Pa" for our Stake youth pioneer trek last week. We left our Stake center in Vancouver Wednesday morning around 11:00 and arrived at our destination (some place in eastern Washington just north of Hermiston, OR) at about 2:00 pm. The church owns a bunch of property out there and we were going to push handcarts out there for a few days.



Here is a picture of the youth and 3 couples (including us) that volunteered as Ma's and Pa's from our ward. YEAH! Can't you tell how excited our youth look about going to be hot and sweaty and tired for the next 3 days!!



It was suggested that each person bring two pioneer outfits to use for the 4 days (Wed-Sat) we were there. The top picture is my light blue dress and this is my darker blue dress. I did not buy them and I did not make them. My very talented mother made both dresses and my bonnets. To the disapproval of Jaren, I don't sew and almost outright refuse to learn. My mom is an amazing seamstress so why should I screw my things up just for her to have to fix it? Right?



Here are a couple of our "boys" showing off our family flag with our last name, the "Glover's" of course, and all of our signatures.



Here is everyone in our family except Jaren because he was always behind the camera. We had three girls and six boys. They were such great youth! They all pulled and didn't complain too bad. It was hot but not as bad as it could have been and we had a bit of a breeze. It was VERY dusty. This is about the grassiest part but looks can be deceiving because it was infested with stickers that would constantly get stuck in your socks! The skirts weren't too bad, especially if the wind made them billow and gave you some fresh air on your legs. It was nice having a bonnet to keep the sun out of your eyes and my head from getting burnt. Unfortunately, my nose was not shaded by my bonnet and promptly burnt on our first major day of trekking then peeled the few days after getting home. The first day we travelled from about 2:45 until 5:30. We set up camp them waited for the stake to bring our food rations. We didn't get them until about 8:00 pm because they couldn't get into their preparation are until late. We slept on the very stickery and lumpy ground (in our tents with sleeping bags) and the wind sounded like it was blowing 100 miles an hour. I heard coyotes in the middle of the night making some of the strangest noises I've ever heard. Then sometime in the early morning I heard what sounded like a bunch of cattle being herded right through camp. I later found out there were cows but they weren't going right through camp. The second day we trekked for a few hours in the morning, pulled our handcarts up a steep hill, trekked some more and then the men were called off to fight in the Mexican War. The men assembled into an infantry march formation and hiked up a hill as we women waved goodbye. The men then came right back down to form a path up the hill. This is there the "women's pull" came in. Us women were supposed to pull these handcarts up the hill by ourselves. The men cheered us on and only stepped in if absolutely necessary. It was a steep hill of nothing but soft powdery sand which the wheels sank into. The wheels would also spray up the dust into our faces and mouths as we were breathing heavily from the strain. The hill was approximately 500 ft or so and the last 200 ft inclined even more. This was when the men had to step in. Even having 10-12 women pulling the handcarts up it was still SO difficult. Jaren said that only 2 of the 45 handcarts made it up without ANY help. It was a tough hill! Since we had to take the women from about 3 handcarts just to pull one up the hill, the guys had to come down toward the end to help us get the last ones because we were exhausted after one trip let alone 2! Jaren and some of our boys came down to help pull ours up and Jaren was hunched over gasping for air when we got to the top so I didn't feel so wimpy for doing the same. And I made it up the hill twice! A lot more took place but this post is too long already to go into more detail. It was fun that our "kids" would call us Ma and Pa throughout the trek experience and we enjoyed our time together as a "family" even though when we all first got there, we didn't know each other. They mixed everyone up so well that none of us were from the same ward. I didn't want to say goodbye when the time came. We will miss them!
Pushing a handcart, being in the sun all day and sleeping on the hard ground was hard work and not very fun! It makes me appreciate the pioneers A LOT more for what they went through for months and not just a few days and worse than what we endured. I would definitely do it again though! What a great experience! Happy 4th of July everyone!