Temple Visit

 On Friday afternoon, Trish and I got to do a very special thing: we got to go to the open house at the newly completed Saratoga Springs Latter Day Saints Temple.

In the Mormon faith, when the new Temples are completed, there is a period of time when everyone is welcome to tour the entire building during an open house time.  Once the Temple is consecrated, it is only open to members of the LDS church, and then only to those who in good standing have a Certified Temple Recommend.

There were hundreds of people there when we visited. We had to get timed entry reservations ahead of time to keep the numbers of visitors spaced out.  After a brief informational video, we were taken to the Temple itself where we had shoe coverings placed over our shoes. The reason for this became obvious later as many of the carpets were pure white!

The main rooms we remember were: the baptism room, where the giant font is resting on the backs of twelve golden bulls; the celestial room, a beautiful room at the highest level where people can sit in quiet contemplation; and the sealing rooms (six in all),  where husbands and wives are sealed in marriage.  Imagine having six weddings going on at the same time!

The view from the front of the Temple was astounding as you stand there and look at the snow-capped mountains all the way across Jordan Lake.  To be looking at snow while standing in seventy-degree weather is fascinating.

At the peak of the top spire of the Temple is the golden figure of the Angel Moroni. Moroni is believed to be the son of Mormon and the Angel who delivered the golden plates inscribed with the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith as the beginning of Latter Saints faith history.

If you want to see more of what we got to see inside, the Temple interiors are no secret. Just Google “Mormon Temples” and there are many interior photos of the rooms in a number of beautiful Temples.

We are glad we got to do this. Not only was the stained glass no art work beautiful, it is always better to live with reality than imagination!

Ashton Gardens Tulip Festival

 Each September, Trish and I travel to the Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point in LEHI, Utah, for the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival.  This week and next we are back here for performance and workshop work.  It happens that we are here in the middle of the Garden’s Tulip Festival.

And it is not just tulips. This year more that 750,000 bulb flowers of many kinds were planted in the Gardens.  In one planting hour, a group of volunteers planted 41,089 bulbs, setting a Guinness World Record.

There are daffodils beyond daffodils, both in numbers and varieties…all shapes and sizes. There are hyacinths and grape hyacinths and other flowers we have never seen before. And then, there are so many tulip varieties that they defy imagination.

We plan on visiting several times while we are here as the thousands of tulips do not all bloom at the same time.  Each day unveils a new panoply of color and shape.  

If you ever get a chance to see this outdoor show, it is well worth making the trip.  We walked nearly three hours and still only covered about half of the garden.  Tomorrow will be another day!

Colorado National Monument

 In 1911, President William Howard Taft created the Colorado National Monument.  Tucked in the southwestern corner of Colorado, near Grand Junction, this Monument is an often overlooked member of our National Park System.

Today, as Trish and I traveled toward work in Utah, we visited this beautiful and impressive Monument.

Though established in 1911, the Monument was largely inaccessible until the 1930’s when the Civilian Conservation Corps began building the rim road.  They worked until WW II stopped their work, it was resumed after the war by the National Park Service and completed in 1950.  The road deserves its name as it, very frighteningly at times, runs right on the rim of the canyons.

The first time I visited this Monument, many years ago, I told myself that I would never drive that road again. But…knowing that I wanted Trish to see all that beauty, with deep prayers and focused thoughts, we did it again!  Now we are both glad we did!

Snowy Surprise

 Today Trish and I drove from Salina, Kansas, to Grand Junction, Colorado. (681 miles) we are on our way to Orem, Utah for a week of workshop and performance events.

As soon as we started up into the mountains west of Denver, we were surprised to be face to face with snow everywhere!

It came through here last night and we drove through the surviving rain across western Kansas on our way today.

Ski slopes were open and active.  We watched skiers at Breckinridge as we drove past the multitude of slopes there. After we passed the Eisenhower Tunnel, the snow got thicker.  This may be the last skiing snowstorm this year.

By the time we arrived in Grand Junction, all the snow was gone and we comfortably ate supper in outdoor seating where the temperature was in the high sixties.

There is a lot of public art in downtown Grand Junction.  We enjoyed taking. Good walk through town before resting for the night and more driving tomorrow.

Living at Home

 We have one car that we drive all over the United States, but, when we are at home, that vehicle never starts.  At home our vehicle for the island is a 1991 Suzuki Carry mini-truck.

This little right-hand drive truck is the perfect island vehicle.  It is 33 years old and has 26,000 miles on it! We use it to: haul our trash and recycling to the dump, go to the post office each day, shop at the store, often more than once each day, travel 100 yards to the bank, ride all around the island and out to the beach. It takes care of all our work!

Our deal is that if I drive, Trish throws all of the garbage into the container at the dump. The little truck is a five-speed manual transmission with right-hand drive. It is also four-wheel drive, a useful thing on the island. 

Each day, if we need to mail something or go to the store, we go out in the morning since the mail goes out at noon. Then in the afternoon, at three, we go: to the dump, to the post office, to the store, on a little ride around the village to see what has happened since yesterday. That may be a total of two or three miles a day. We fill up with gas twice a year!

Why would we want to live anywhere else? Every thing we need is in a half-mile of our house. 

The Folk School

 In 1925 Marguerite Bidstrup and Olive Dame Campbell founded The John C. Campbell Folk School in the tiny village of Brasstown, North Carolina.  Modeled on the Danish Folk School, The John C. Campbell Folk School, named for Olive’s late husband, an Episcopal priest-educator, has for nearly a hundred years offered non-credit adult courses in a huge variety of arts and crafts ranging from carving to cooking to spinning to blacksmithing.  Today about 7,000 people each year take weekly and week-end courses at the Folk School.

When I was Director of the Cherokee County United Methodist Parish from 1973-1978, I spent many hours and days at the Folk School as it was within the Parish.  I even helped run the community dance program there as a volunteer. In later years I taught storytelling courses and was on the staff for numerable summer and Christmas dance weeks.  Dances were held in the beautiful Keith House community room.

As Trish had never been to the Folk School, we had to stop by when we passed near on our way to the Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival.  Of course, our visit included time in the gift shop!

Unique Museum!

 Before we left Chattanooga, Trish and I went for a visit at the National Museum of Towing and Recovery.

The museum is in Chattanooga because this is the home of Holmes Wreckers, the first custom-built wreckers created in the world.  It is historically amazing and filled with beautifully restored towing and recovery vehicles.

Ernest Holmes invented and patented the first split-bar towing and recovery vehicle and started the business here.  The museum also honors all those people who have lost their lives working in the towing and recovery industry.

That these vehicles have survived is amazing and the state of their restoration and preservation is admirable.  They are truly functioning works of art as well as industry.

In addition, there is here a very large collection of toy wreckers from all over the world.  This one wall contains more than 1,500 toy wreckers of all sizes.

An hour here is time well spent if you are passing Chattanooga on I-24.  It is just off the Highway.

The Parthenon!

 Trish and I have been in Nashville this week for a couple of work events.  On one afternoon, we drove to Centennial Park to visit Nashville’s Parthenon.

In 1897 Nashville, then often called “the Athens of the South,” played host to a great exhibition celebrating the Centennial of the State of Tennessee.  The centerpiece was a wood and plaster replica of the Parthenon.  When the Exposition was over, people did not want toe Parthenon to be destroyed.

The wood and plaster version was replaced with a permanent stone and concrete version that today perfectly replicates the original temple in Athens.

Inside is perfectly replicated the forty-two foot statue of the Goddess Athena, created from historical records of the original. While the arms, face, and shoulders of the original were made of ivory, in this creation they are replicated by paint color.  The gold, however, is pure gold leaf that took years and many volunteers to apply.

Winged Nike, the Goddess of Victory, stands on Athena’s hand preparing to place the crown of her head.  It is an amazing piece of work!

Inside the Parthenon is an extensive art collection.

Centennial Park is located in the city near Vanderbilt University and it the location of festivals, concerts, and other outdoor events.

Reynolda House

 One of our days during the Easter weekend we went to the Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem.

The museum is in Reynolda House, the home built from 1914 to 1917 by R. J. Reynolds (founder of Reynolds Tobacco Company) and his wife, Katherine.  Tragically, R. J. had pancreatic cancer when they moved in and died in the following year.  His widow and descendants lived in the house for more than fifty years until it became the museum of the present day.

The main house contains the permanent collection, displayed as art in such a magnificent home would have been naturally displayed.  The house itself is a major part of why people visit there.

A new addition to the house showcases changing exhibits. Currently this gallery is displaying the work of Stephen Towns.  His work, which includes both painting and quilting, shows Black Americans’ pursuit of the American dream against the background of American labor.  It is both beautiful and moving.

Because we were there on a cold and rainy day, we did not get to explore the extensive gardens.  Another visit later in the year will be time for that.

Visiting Cash!

 Over the Easter weekend we got to stop in Greensboro to visit with our son, Jonathan, his wife, Kahran, and…most of all…our grandson, Cash!

Cash is one-and-a-half.  It was terribly rainy and cold outdoors, so, we all went to play together at the Greensboro Children’s Museum.

He quickly fell in love on the little sliding board with Trish and was soon doing it on his own before we saw what we was doing.  He loved playing in the water and in the full-size cars and trucks.

He and his dad both squeezed into the race car, but, he had to do all of the driving.

We had a great time!  This little guy is getting to be more and more fun with each visit.  We are looking forward to how he reacts to the ocean and the beach!

Easter Sunrise

 This morning Trish and I participated in the Easter Sunrise Service at the Home Moravian Church in Old Salem in Winston-Salem.  Events actually started last night with the Easter Evening service of preparation in the church.

Then at 6:15 this morning we gathered, along with hundreds of others, in Salem Square.  Following opening prayers and liturgy, we processed, led by the first of a total of six brass bands to the God’s Acre Cemetery.

The bands are positioned in six locations around the perimeter of the cemetery.  After everyone is silently gathered, they play antiphonally, alternating even phrases of hymns and chorales and gradually move closer and closer together around the site.

In the Moravian tradition, all of the grave markers are identical and people are buried in the order of their passing, not as family units.  This symbolizes the equality of all God’s people in death and resurrection.

Finally all of the bands are joined, more than two hundred musicians, just before sunrise.  There is then the liturgy of the sunrise and affirmation of resurrection as the combined band plays for hymns to be sung.

After closing prayers, we walked back as the sun painted the cemetery with gold on a beautifully crisp and  perfect day. The birds say to us all the way back!

What a way to celebrate this day!

Back in Jonesborough

 When we come to the National Storytelling Festival in October each year, many of the local residents are working so hard to make that weekend happen that they may see little or none of the Festival itself.  So, about twenty years ago, I started coming back to town in the springtime and performing at the Visitors Center for the (mostly) local audience.

The first years we did a single night, but, soon we had to move to two nights.  At the beginning of this week Trish and I were back there in town, staying with our dear friends, Sandy and Terry Countermine, so I could tell stories Monday and Tuesday evenings.

We were pretty much sold out for both evenings and it was a lot of fun.  

Jonesborough is one of those places we call “home” as this year will be my forty-fourth year to be on stage at the October Festival.  We have such good friends and memories associated with this dear place.

Besides the National Festival in October, we will be back at the Visitors Center in the spring of 2024!