Next Monday my oldest daughter's class will walk 6 miles in groups of 4 friends on their version of "The Oregon Trail".
They'll pull a home made wagon made to look like the historical horse-drawn wagons, crossing over imaginary rivers (roads) and mountains (hills).
This evening after work I got together with the other 3 dads in my daughters group to assemble the wagon and make it look as realistic as possible. We had already made a trip to Home Depot last week to stock up on supplies, and with power tools in hand we were ready to build a wagon.
Our supplies consisted of:
- plastic wagon - 2 seater
- peg board for cutting out wheels - 1 sheet, 1-foot by 4-feet
- half-inch flexible PVC pipe for bending in arcs under the white sheet cover - 4 pieces.
- brackets to attach the PVC pipe to the wagon - 8
- old white sheet for the wagon cover
- 2" x 2" wood slats to form a frame to sit on top of the wagon sides, and to hold the PVC brackets - 4 pieces.
- handles to attach to the wagon for lifting it over rivers - 4
- screws and washers - too many to count
- cardboard for the sides, made to look like wood with cutouts for the wheels.
We also replaced the plastic wagon handle with a wooden version of our making, and the girls colored the cardboard sides and wheels to make them look like wood. An "Oregon or Bust" sign on the rear end completed the production, and they were ready to take it for a test drive.
This was a lot of fun and gave me a chance to meet one of my daughter's dads for the first time. It felt good to team up with a few other dads to build something together.
I wonder if that's how great it felt back in the olden days when a community got together and built each other's houses one at a time. Comradre, friendship, teamwork, and loyalty. Values to live by, and this fun little event gave us a brief taste of the good life.
