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.