LOOK WHAT ROLLED PAST OUR CAMP?

WHEREVER I CAMP---VERY QUICKLY--BECOMES THE CENTER OF MY WORLD.  Here is a particularly lovely, remote and somewhat mysterious campsite in the national forest of the highlands of Arizona.  When the temps reached 90's in Cottonwood, we hitched up and climbed up, up, up till we reached 6,500 ft elevation and a wonderfully cool environment.  So easy for us mobile people!  (we are keenly aware that "for every thousand feet you climb--4 degrees are left behind.  Keep on climbing and it for sure you'll reach the perfect temperture')

At first it's just CB and I

We invited more and more of our friends to join us,

and soon we  were a dozen strong temporary tribe.

Then one day these guys showed up nearby---assembling about fifty of these strange carts.  Can you guess what this was all about?

I knew instantly because I had pulled one  of them some years ago in Wyoming.

Soon, about 400 people showed up, most of them teenagers, camping in a nearby meadow. They are here to reenact a famous event in Mormon History:  the trek of the Mormon Handcart Pioneers.

It looked something like this as a caravan of approximately 100 carts traveled together.

About 3000 people in separate caravans of about a hundred carts made their way from Iowa or Nebraska (where the railroad ended) to Salt Lake City--a distance of about 1300 miles.  Hardships and bitter weather killed a few hundred.  Read about it here.

Each cart was pushed and pulled by a team of people.  Each individual ws allowed 17 pounds of personal stuff. The carts carried about 250 pounds each but were capable of 500 lbs when necessary.

I ran alongside several wagons asking questions like WHERE YA GOING?  They would answer: "Home" or "Salt Lake".  One group let me help push the cart.  I think these reenactors traveled about 25 miles.  (It cost $30,000 to pull it off---and they do it every 4 yrs)  

RANDY PHILOSOPHIZES:  The Mormons  added interest to our stay here---2 weeks. 

Additionally we twice loaded up a group and went to town and did a bold thing--which I'll detail in a separate post.

Most people know nothing about Mormonism but I have made a point of studying this strange religion.  The strangest thing about it is that it is a scientifically provable fraud dreamed up by Josep Smith in the 1830's BUT DESPITE THIS, A STRONG VIABLE CULTURE HAS BUILT UP AROUND IT.  It claims 15 million members but experts suspect that only about 5 million take it seriously.  Twice I have addressed ex-Mormon groups in Utah.  Ex Mormons get together and discuss the harm of being indoctrinated in it--how it damages their lives and how happy they are to have escaped. The groups call themselves simply LDX. 

To see the scientific evidence that Mormonism is a giant fraud click here .

To educate yourself on the subject click here

To be honest with you, I believe the religion I was brought up in -Southern Baptist- is also a giant fraud.