09 September 2-16
The month of September is here. We are due to finish our
mission in two weeks. Labor Day week end in Nauvoo was “wild” with thousands of
people celebrating the Grape Festival. There was a car show of extraordinary
proportions. There must have been over 300 hot rods and classic cars.
Kelly and Zilla Griev were visiting Nauvoo. They came by to
say hello to Dawn. Bro. Griev was the manager at Vicks’s grocery store in
Sacramento. Dawn worked under him.
We had a wonderful Bar BQ in honor of those leaving Nauvoo
Temple mission. The O’Briens, Ludwigs, Fellows and Russells are all finishing
up the next two weeks. Our schedule has been hectic since there are so many
meals in visiting all our friends and co-workers. We will miss those who have been
so incredible while working in the temple.
Finally the 14th of September arrived and Dawn
and I said good bye to our friends in Nauvoo and traveled south through
Missouri to St. Louis. We stayed at Quality Inn in Florissant, MO. We were
hoping to go to the temple but it was closed for cleaning.
Next we traveled to Memphis, TN and actually stayed in
Arkansas at the Roadway Inn in West Memphis, AR. Later that evening we drove 20
miles through Memphis to the temple. It was a small but beautiful temple and we
were the witness couple.
The next morning we traveled to New Orleans, LA where we
stayed at the Roadway Inn and Suites. Wow, what a switch. This place was old
and small rooms with minimum facilities. The two night we were there gave us
enough time to regroup and prepare to board the Dream cruiser. We attended
church in New Orleans the 18th of September . Then we arrived at the
NOLA port and parked our car on the 6th level of the parking garage
and went through check-in before boarding and locating our apartment on the 10th
level. Our room was large and had a balcony with view of the ocean. It was
delightful.
For the next 7 days we relaxed and enjoyed all the amenities
of the trip to Roatan Honduras. When we arrived at port in Roatan we met up
with our dive group (4 of us) at traveled to the Pristine Bay to dive with the
Black Pearl Divers. Mike our dive master was older and relaxed. No problems on
the first dive but the second dive Dawn lost her regulator at the end of the
dive at 20’ and panicked. We surfaced with her holding her breath (not a good
idea!). Fearful she would die she screamed she would never dive again.
The next day we arrived in Belize and grouped up with folks
going to the zoo. It was an hour bus ride to the Belize zoo. We were pleasantly
surprised by the quality of animal life and living in their native
environments. The most impressive animal was a black jaguar named ___________.
Finally we arrived in Cozumel after a nights travel through
rain. We were fearful of bad weather but it turned out to me perfect
conditions. Meeting with our hosts the Sand Dollar dive group we filled out our
forms and were boated to the dive shop. There were 17 divers on the Express
dive boat and 4 dive masters. The equipment was top of the line and brand new
(Scuba Pro). The instruction was terrific and the groups were small. Carlos was
our dive master and explained we would be diving at 50’ in a current along the
national park reef. Dawn and I were the first in the crystal clear water of 84
degrees. She did find and we had a marvelous time. Only a slight problem with
her scuba mask at the end of the second dive.
When we returned to port on Sunday and immediately started towards Tyler, TX on
our journey home. Driving through Dallas was difficult. We had heavy rain,
accidents and construction for 30 miles. We traveled 416 miles (6 ½ hours) and
stayed in the Comfort Suites (a very nice motel). That evening in a driving
rain we had sushi before retiring.
The next day on the 26th of September we drove to
Amorello, TX (7 hours 450 miles) and stayed at the SLEEP INN & SUITES WEST
MEDICAL CENTER. Again a wonderful place to stay with great breakfast.
The next morning the 27th of September we drove
to Westminster, CO near Denver (6 ½ hours 434 miles). On our way there we stopped
at the Denver temple and attended an endowment session. Then we visited Pauline
(our old neighbor in IF) before going to our motel. The traffic was difficult.
We stayed at the Quality Inn along hw 36.
Early on the 28th we left our motel and headed to
Ft. Collins on our way to Laramie, Wy on our way to SLC Utah. This was a big
travel day of (8 hours 521 miles). The most remarkable sight we encountered
were the numerous prong horned antelope through northern Colorado and all along
the Wyoming road way. Just a not to say we have encountered the following
animals dead along the highway: raccoons, opossum, armadillo, white tailed
deer, mule deer, antelope, rabbit, and a variety of unidentifiable.
How glad we were to arrive at Jon and Holly’s late afternoon
for dinner and relaxation. Driving those long distances leaves me pulsing with
vertigo and nervousness from traveling 85 mph in heavy truck traffic.
Just before we arrived home we had two events to attend. The
first event was the wedding reception of Mat Munsee who was a missionary in
Mozambique. He and his bride Lorie Anderson had their reception in Morgan
Valley outside of Ogden, Utah. We stayed with the Munsee’s before the Nauvoo
mission. Dawn had a ladies bike ride in the valley.
The death of Sandy Carden (Dawn’s cousin) led us to Salt
Lake City to her funeral. She was a teacher at the Cordon private school in SLC
for decades and was buried in Logan, Utah. We met many of Dawn’s family members
at the Blue Bird café before driving home to Idaho Falls.
Once home we have started an amazing project of buy a
condominium and fixing up our house for sale.
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| Grape Stomp 5K |
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| Ft Maddison rodeo with the Marshals |
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| Bro. McDonald playing the farewell on the bag pipes |
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| St.Louis Zoo |
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| The beautiful St. Louis arch |
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| Having breakfast at Shony's in Mississippi |
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| On board the trolley in New Orleans |
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| Coming to port in Cozumel Mexico |
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| At the Belize Zoo |
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| Favorite bird of Belize Tocan |
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| The black jaguar |
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| A splendid time at the zoo |
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| The Carnival Dream |
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| Mrs. Porter in Denver |
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| Sister Munsee at the reception |
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| Lunch after the funeral in Logan |
