The girls from the Beverly Glen ward drove to a privately owned cabin near Brian Head, Utah, about 20 miles from Parawon. The sixteen Young Women, seven adult leaders and assistants, and two Priesthood men left the church parking lot at 7 a.m. with plans to stop in Cedar City for gas and restroom. The girls bought more snacks!
We had just gotten back on I-15 headed north toward Parawon, when I saw Sister Smith, camp director, pulling off the lane of the road onto the shoulder, going very slowing with a blown rear left tire. I called to Steve, who was driving: "That's Sister Smith. Pull over!" We had to back up a few hundred yards to the overpass and wider shoulder and parked our truck with three girls in it. Steve hurried back to the crippled SUV.
He had her drive slowly about 100 feet to the underpass and safer shoulder to change the blown tire. He was so smart in asking me to get two pieces of wood to help elevate the jack since the car was not on level ground. Sister Smith had called her husband's cell phone to tell him about the blown tire and get him to turn around and come back to help.
I was so smart in selecting the pieces of wood that I put in the back of the truck in case we needed them to burn. I knew exactly where I had placed them at the edge of the bed. I even knew exactly where the shovel was, so we didn't have to untie the tarp over the load. Brother Smith arrived and with his help, he and Steve changed the tire, we loaded up the back of Sister Smith's car and got back on the freeway. Parawon was only 12 miles north, where we took the exit to Hwy 143, following it to the outskirts of Brian Head, turning west and north to the Anderson's cabin.
The girls and leaders pitched three tents and Steve and I unloaded our stuff at the four bedroom, three bath cabin. We got the king sized bed and three other ladies settled in their rooms. I helped Carol Hardy with the food. I was her assistant. I became very proficient at using the least amount of water (the cabin has two tanks that hold water that is pumped in from a stream so we had to ratio water usage.)
While I helped with food unloading and storage at the cabin, Steve helped set up the tents with Brother Smith. They had the girls gather some wood for the evening campfire and we made foil dinners that baked in the hot coals. The temperatures at night went into the mid-forties, but we were warm and toasty in the cabin.
Thursday we took the girls on a five mile hike, though Steve and I and Sister Kundanani turned back after we had given our "life lessons". It was just enough walking up hill for the guy with the bad back and sore knee, and me, the oldest woman at camp, and the sister who just had laser treatments on her varicose veins on Monday. That evening I presented my fireside. The girls were very attentive and as I neared the end of my presentation, I had my song to sing, I glanced out the window and saw three deer in the grassy meadow just outside the window. I said: "Speaking of "in the moment." There is one right now. Look at the deer outside." All the girls jumped up and hurried to see. Some of them had heard about the deer, knew there were deer around, but had not seen any as yet. It was truly an "in the moment" situation. I think it went over well.
Friday we cleaned up the camp, with the girls helping a little but Steve and Brother Smith used their skills and tools as lumberjacks. By the end of the day, there were three huge piles of logs from trees that had fallen on two buildings/sheds in the camp. They rigged an A frame with two logs lashed together to support the trees as they cut the log off the roof. They repaired the roofs of the two buildings too. Brother and Sister Anderson were floored that Steve would have done so much around the camp. We left it better than we found it. The distance from the cabin to the camping pavilion was a short quarter mile walk. We both walked it many times. We got our workouts in walking!
Friday evening Steve and I assembled and cooked the main dish dutch oven of chicken, sliced potatoes and mini carrots with Lipton soup mix blended with one large can of Cream of Chicken Soup poured over the small sized chicken breast as well as a dessert peach dutch oven or dump cake. We put it in the ashes with burning wood on top for an hour. When we checked it, it was still raw in the middle so we put it back in the fire for another fifteen minutes with more hot logs on top. The smell was so delicious when we started to serve we didn't need to call the girls to dinner! We had a fireside presented by Sister Anderson, the owner of the cabin, at the cabin, then returned to the fire pit for testimony meeting and the reading of the letters from the girl's parents. There was a lot of spirit there. Those girls all love their bishop! We feel their love.
They had taken down the tents and packed the trailer with the big stuff in the afternoon so the girls all slept in the loft in the cabin in their sleeping bags and mats. I was so tired I got ready for bed while they were eating scones at the campsite, put in my earplugs and went to sleep with the light on. Steve was tending the water pump, filled the big tanks in the basement until 1 a.m. I didn't even hear him coming and going. Saturday morning we packed the truck and cleaned out the cabin and were headed down the mountain by 9 a.m., arriving home by 12:30 p.m.
How did Steve do with his sore back? It was amazing how much lifting and turning and straining he did, but each night he said his back was "just tired". Maybe scouts and girl's camp is just the right physical therapy for a 61 year old man with a strained back?
My counsel for this session: always leave something better than you found it, and that especially means bathrooms!
3 comments:
Loved it! That sounds like a really neat experience. Thanks for the recap.
Sounds like fun. Do you guys just do a ward girls' camp then? Or is it stake?
This year was for the ward. Next summer will be the stake girl's camp, so I don't know where or if we will be involved. It was very enjoyable, except being out of cell phone rang.
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