Heritage Gateways

Official Sesquicentennial K-12 Education Project
sponsored by the Utah State Board of Education, the BYU-Public School Partnership and the Utah Education Network

Wendy Westergard Journals

July 7, 1997

Location: Granger, Wyoming - Between Green River Crossing and Miller Station.

Summary: Bre is recovering.

Journal entry: Today I stayed behind to help Bre. Usually if I stay behind I feel emotionally drained. When the wagons take off its like each of the wagons take a part of me with them. This time this didn't happen. I think a lot of it is because Bre carries a lot of the spirit with her.

While Bre tried to sleep in the morning I cleaned out a lot of the coolers in the back of the trailer. I did this so that a lot of the food for the authentic camp wouldn't go bad. The back needed to be reorganized so that we could find things. In moving the trailer a lot of things had fallen. We moved the trailer again to the command center of the train. This train would die without the command center. In this kind of activity communication and organization is the key to everything. If they did not run somewhat smoothly the train wouldn't work.

I realize more now of the work that is going on behind the scene after today. Art had shuttled me forward in the morning. He goes back and forth each day all day long. Many times he goes without meals trying to help others. Then when they arrive they have to play jigsaw puzzle. Making sure all the rigs fit in is a challenge.

I did a number of tasks that Bre needed done. It felt good to be doing something that she needed. I haven't done a lot of that on the trail for her because that hasn't been my role out here. It was nice to return for a while and feel of some use to her.

Around 5 o'clock we heard news of the train. We heard they had gone 35 miles today. I immediately got worried and expressed my worries to Bre and telling how the walkers needed some quick simple sugars. We rounded up anything that we could think of in her trailer. We brought juice and grapes. The walkers were extremely grateful. They may have walked anywhere between 22 and 35. There hasn't been a accurate reading. They amaze me.