When I arrived at Gothenburg my first task was to locate
Margaret Clark, not an easy one since she's quite a busy person.
I searched much of Tuesday night with out success, and finally decided
to begin again on Wednesday morning.
I arrived about 8:30 am and began my search (she doesn't leave
many tracks to follow), and about 9 am I found Danny Whitaker.
He'd not seen Margaret, but had an idea where Wendy Westergard
was, so we went searching for her. Finally finding Wendy in the
primitive camp, I introduced my self, and the three of us (Danny
too) got aquainted. It was decided that I'd hang aroung a bit
and let Wendy get some things (like laundry) done, though I believe
she never got the chance that day.
About 20 minutes later I met Margaret, I'd talked to lots of
people to get help finding her, and all of a sudden there were
people hollering Jeff, or Margaret, and indicating the other of
the two. It was really kind of funny. It turned out that Margaret
was in a hurry to answer an emergency phone call (her nephew was
in a serious accident), but that we'd meet up in a few minutes.
Finally after learning that while her nephew's injuries were bad,
but that he'd be ok, we got to work.
Margaret is quite a person, she's balancing home concerns, reporting
duties to the news paper in Cedar City, Utah and sharing her feelings
with us on the web. She'll probably never tell you but she's doing
the re-enactment as primitively as she can, even avoiding asprins,
inspite of some pretty sore blisters. You should also know that
Danny's, Margaret's and Wendy's personalities all match the impressions
I had from reading their journal entries. I quite enjoyed meeting
them, and would jump at the chance to spend more time with them.
Thursday was Wendy's 20th birthday, and I began suggesting that
she be dunked in the watering trough on Wednedsay. Well they didn't
use the trough, but I understand she was dunked 15 times in the
lake. After leaving my car in Brady, Margaret and I travelled
back to Gothenburg so that I could walk the 15 miles back with
the train. On the way we saw Danny about three miles out of Gothenburg,
working on making a walking stick. The thing is he'd picked one
up the forked about a foot above the ground, and would have made
quite a large sling shot, rather than a good walking stick, we
had quite a laugh thinking about it.
I pulled one of the hand carts for about 12 miles of the 15,
to Brady. Wendy and her parents were right in front of us, along
with a family who has six kids, ranging from about 11 down to
2 years old. Man now that's dedication! I quite admire the parents
who have their children on the wagon train, especially the ones
with the hand carts.
Though the largest impression came from the determination, and
largly good attitude of the children. To travel that far, and
still be smiling, playing, and teasing was really neat! Every
so often Wendy would get the kids to sing a song, along with actions,
or she'd grab a cart and hurry in along the trail. Several times
I saw her pick up a small child, or help one find new determination
to walk after becoming tired.
Over all I'd say that while there are many diffrences in the
wagon train of today, and the one our ancestors were in; the love,
determination, desire for success, and spirit are the same.
If you get the chance to join, even for a day, do it! If not,
then believe not only the words your read, but the feeling behind
them. Because these are great people, and I'm happy to call them
friends.
