The Trip to end the 50's decade: Monticello Temple, Mesa Verde, Four Corners and Monument Valley

Today is my birthday and I am now 60. There is no denying that time is marching on for me. However, I had a really wonderful weekend before my birthday and so I am not feeling too badly about it all. Paul and I went on a really great weekend outing and so I am basking in the glow of good things. We left Friday at about 6:15 PM for the long drive to Monticello. I was very excited that the time had finally arrived for going to Monticello, which represented the last operating temple in Utah that I hadn't visited yet. Paul had been working on some family names and we had done preliminary work for a number of them the previous week, so we set off with some alternatives for getting the most work done as possible. The Monticello Temple is a very small compact temple and it was really interesting to be inside, they do have an organized timetable because it is small. There were endowment sessions at 8:00 AM and 10:15 AM. We had originally thought to do two endowment sessions and then a sealing session, but the second endowment session and the sealing session were at the same time, so we ended up passing out some of the endowment cards to other patrons so that we could get all the endowments we needed to have ready for the sealing session. We did one endowment session and then a sealing session. And it was a very nice experience. A few words about the Monticello Temple. It is located about 60 miles south of Moab, sits on a rise on the west side of the town, which was the side that we entered on. We arrived in the dark and it was one of the first visible sites as we rounded the road into the city. Patrons to this temple come from the Four Corners region—a large group of youth from Grand Junction was doing baptisms when we were leaving. The Monticello Utah Temple was the first of the new generation of temples as conceived by President Gordon B. Hinckley. It was the eleventh temple built in Utah and was constructed in just eight months. The Monticello Utah Temple originally supported a white angel Moroni statue atop its spire. Recognizing the problem that the statue seemed to "disappear" on cloudy days, officials directed the statue to be replaced with a taller, gold-leafed Moroni about a year after dedication. The white statue was gold leafed and installed atop the Columbus Ohio Temple. Once the smallest temple of the Church, the Monticello Utah Temple was originally just 7,000 square feet and accommodated a single ordinance room and a single sealing room. Just four years after its dedication, the Monticello Utah Temple was rededicated in 2002 after an expansion project that added a second ordinance room, second sealing room, entrance canopy, waiting room, additional offices, and a laundry. Even so it is still very compact. There is no chapel. Paul and I went straight from the dressing room into the endowment room. It is a two stage endowment set-up and a small, but very beautiful celestial room. The sealing rooms are right off the endowment room and the dressing rooms are in the same hall as the sealing room. The dressing room was a vision of organization, very small, but well contained. There were about ten dressing locker stalls, and then exits on every side, one to initiatory, one to the new name, one to the ladies room, one to the entrance. It was very interesting to see how efficiently this small space was laid out. I was so happy to have had the chance to visit there. And now so happy that I have achieved this particular goal. I have visited every operating temple in Utah. –not in one year, but in two years. When we finished in the Monticello Temple it was just before noon and we hopped into the car and headed into Colorado. We were heading for Cortez and Mesa Verde National Park. Paul remembers with some fondness a family trip to Mesa Verde when he was in elementary school, maybe about 10 years old. And when we realized how close we were going to be to Cortez when in Monticello, we made the decision to head off to there to explore the locale. From Monticello, we headed to Cortez, Colorado which was less than an hour drive and really a very pretty drive. We had a reservation for a hotel in Cortez, but didn’t even stop, just continuing straight into Mesa Verde National Park. Not only is this a national park but also an UNESCO World Heritage Site It is the largest archaeological preserve in the United States. The park was created in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt to protect some of the best-preserved cliff dwellings in the world, or as he said, "preserve the works of man". It is the only cultural National Park set aside by the National Park System. It features numerous ruins of homes and villages built by the Ancient Pueblo peoples, sometimes called the Anasazi. There are over 4000 archaeological sites and over 600 cliff dwellings of the Pueblo people at the site. We were there during off season, but were still able to see a lot of the features. The Spruce Tree Village is open all year round so we were able to take a steep switchback to see it, but some of the other sites which had trails to them, were closed until next April. The park entrance from Cortez has a beautiful visitor’s center and museum where we stopped at first. This is where you would normally buy tickets to the areas of the park which were closed this time of year. There were examples of the Anasazi pottery and their famous baskets. It was a very impressive building. Then there was a long winding drive to the top of the mesa and then another stretch to get to the area of the park where there are the most dwellings and villages. We had a perfect day, pleasant sweater weather, lots of sun, and practically no other visitors. We parked in large parking lots or parking area with one of two cars in them. It was like having the park to ourselves. We were able to visit some of the more popular places from afar. There were points of view that we could observe from, even though we were not able to take trails down to walk in the ruins and villages. Cliff Palace, Balcony House and Long House require extra tickets, but were not open, but we visited and saw what we could see. We also went to the Visitor’s Center which is by the Spruce Tree Village. It is called the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum. A very interesting building built in the 1930’s by the WPA. There were two major fires in the park, one in 2000 and one in 2002 which did a lot of damage. This land has not recovered as well as Yellowstone Park. I asked one of the rangers about it and he said that about ½ of the park was burned. And he said that both of them were such hot fires that not only was all the vegetation burned but the seeds, too. So there are no new trees starting to come up, yet. He said that it would just move in from the outside and maybe some bird plantings, but that it isn’t coming back anytime soon. There is green grass on the ground, and lots of snags, but no new little trees coming up. Paul and I wandered around in the park until closing time, checking out ruins and designated sites. We took a couple of short hikes to view points, and generally had a very nice time. We returned to Cortez, and checked into our hotel, and Paul asked the desk about a recommendation for a restaurant for dinner for the two of us. We had eaten the continental breakfast in the hotel in Monticello in the morning, and then had just snacked in the car for the rest of the day and so we were ready for a nice dinner. We were directed to a local restaurant called J. Fargo’s. It was a combination family restaurant and bar, with the family portion on the left side of the front door and the bar on the right. I told Paul I didn't want to go in if there was smoking, because I didn’t want to smell like smoke when we went to church the next day, but fortunately that wasn’t a problem. It was no smoking. We both had the same meal, steak and shrimp and the steak was one of the best I have had for a long time, very tender and delicious. I skipped the dessert, but had one bite of Paul’s coconut cream pie which had roasted coconut with just a hint of cinnamon on the top. Very delicious. Returned to our hotel and turned in early as it had been a long day. We looked up the address of the church in Cortez so that we could attend our Sunday meetings and when we followed them in the morning, we ended up in a residential neighborhood with no church building to be seen anywhere. We were going to give it up, but we stopped at a gas station and Paul got another set of directions and we managed to find the building and only arrived a few minutes late. The same woman who was one of the officiating sisters in our endowment session in the Monticello temple the day before was conducting the music in the Cortez Ward the next day. That was kind of interesting, realizing that she drove from Cortez to Monticello to serve in the temple. After church we headed off for Four Corners. I don’t know why I was so interested in going there, but it was something that I wanted to visit so we headed off there. It is truly in the middle of nowhere. And then additionally 18 miles off the main road—if you can call it the main road (a two lane state road.) It is on the Ute Indian Reservation and when we pulled up, they wanted $5.00 each for an entrance fee. We offered a credit, a debit and a check, but it was cash only---so we had to drive 5 more miles to the nearest ATM and then 5 miles back. And it is kind of a little deal. But I had my picture taken while being in four states at the same time. (K.C. points out that with GPS Satellite imaging they have determined that the site of this monument is not really at exactly the four corners point, but I am choosing to believe that I was actually in four states at the same time.) We took some pictures and walked around the site and checked out the souvenirs—didn't buy anything and then left. We drove out of our way some more to go home through Monument Valley. Paul had always had this idea of taking the horses to Monument Valley and riding and having pictures taken of him in this iconic location, but we found it a bit disappointing. It is also managed by the Indian Nation and is on the reservation and the locals have put up double wide trailers from which they sell artifacts and handmade jewelry and bead work so that they obstruct the most beautiful vistas. Everywhere you look there are white double wide trailers, single wides and also other mobile home structures. It is kind of sad really. Paul has no interest in bring the horses to this area anymore. It was interesting to see this valley though. It was very spectacular and beautiful. As a point of fact, the entire four corners area is full of the most interesting topography. We really enjoyed the drive and looking at the red rock and formations everywhere. From Moab to the Four Corners region there is the most spectacular land. We drove back through Monticello and Moab and then Price to get home and arrived home on Sunday evening at about 8:30 p.m. It was really a wonderful trip and I had a terrific time, visiting places that I had never been to before, and enjoying time with Paul and completing a two year old goal.

Healthy Sandy, Keys, Jordan River Temple Day, Birthdays....

For the past three years I have been participating in an initiative which Sandy City generated called Healthy Sandy: Shape Up Sandy. It is a pretty interesting concept. The city structured a program which runs for eight weeks. Each Monday evening there is a “walk” usually a mile or more, which you make at your own speed and time table either before 6:00 p.m. or after. Right at 6:00 p.m. there is a “talk” which lasts about 10 or so minutes. The city has a sign-in card and you keep track of your walks and whether you attended the talk. During the week there is also a bonus walk, which you can do on your own time—and they want you to track your eating. On the first meeting they have the fire department come and take blood pressure readings for the participants and then again on the eighth week. It is really just a healthy living incentive program. There are a lot of little extra incentives—each week there is an inexpensive give-away; things like a pedometer, water bottle, aprons and t-shirts with the Healthy Sandy logo on them, measuring tape, portion control plates, etc. Each week you get points for completing the various activities. You get points for the weekly walk, more points for the bonus walk, points for tracking your eating, points for staying for the talk, etc. On the last week, your points are totaled and there is a drawing for lots of “prizes” for the participants. The prizes are donated by various businesses and are quite random—some are health related items, or exercise related items, and some are just things—cleaning tools and supplies, game items (badminton rackets, bocce sets, nerf ball stuff, etc. The first year I participated I won a month’s membership to Curves. The second year I got a small Coleman cooler, we use it for car trips. Well, this long exposition leads up to the story of the week. This Monday was the last week of the fall, Shape Up Sandy session. It is the first time that they have done a fall session and so instead of just having a couple of tables of prizes, they had an expensive and deluxe prize, in addition to all the regular prizes that they offered. The big prize was an adult, three wheeled bicycle. And the grand prize winner of the whole session was me. I was actually no more deserving than anyone else who had completed the program, but my name was the one drawn out of the box. And I won the bike—which from the very beginning I had no interest in. I was hope for something like the George Foreman Grill, or one of the outdoor games that I could give as gifts to my children. I was kind of horrified that I won. And then I had to come up in front and have my picture taken next to the bike—and all the while I was thinking—what am I going to do with this, I don’t want to ride this anywhere where anyone I know will see me, and how am I going to get it home. It was way too big to fit in my car. I was there with a friend who was doing the program with me, and she just kept laughing and shaking her head at me. When the drawing portion of the evening was over, I went up to the bike and looked at what I had to deal with. While I was standing there, looking at it, a sweet, chubby woman, maybe ten or fifteen years older than I came up and looked wistfully at the bike. She said, “Do you know how much these cost?—My doctor recommended one of these to me, because I kept falling off my regular bike. But I just can’t afford one—they cost about $500.00. [Actually they cost about $400.00—on Amazon at least plus shipping]. And then I realized I had an ideal solution. I said to the woman—“Do you want this bike? You can have it!” I wasn't any more deserving than she was and she really wanted it. She was flabbergasted and amazed and thrilled. She got on it and rode it around the room and was just delighted. And I felt such a lightness of being to have gotten rid of it so easily. She traded her two pound weights that she won for my bike and both of us were happy. So that is how I won a nice bike and then gave it away in fifteen minutes or less. Another grand adventure occurred this week. It is the first time that this has ever happened to me. I was charged with putting on a luncheon for the Student Center and Main Office Staffs. (We have a group luncheon every quarter to celebrate the birthdays of those people who have their birthday during that quarter. It is a voluntary event and we have a committee who chooses the date, plans the menu, assigns the food, and generally organizes the event. I was the chairman of our group. So on Tuesday afternoon, I headed over to the grocery store to buy some of the items that I would need for our luncheon. (A counselor and I were working together on Taco Soup and I was buying all the canned goods for both of us—I also was buying some odds and ends for us and I didn't want to have to figure out how much she owed me when the dust settled, so I had them totaled on different tickets.) When I got out to the car, I began shuffling items from one bag to another so that I could leave some things in the trunk for the next day and bring some things in. I spent a few minutes fiddling around in the trunk and then I closed the trunk lid. ---only to discover that I had closed my keys in the trunk of my locked car. Now the whole car was locked, trunk, too, and my keys were just inches away, but completely inaccessible. What to do? (Aside from feeling extremely foolish and stupid and absent-minded.) Now, I am standing in the parking lot with my trunk full of my goods, and no way to drive home. Luckily, I knew that Paul was home, he and I had spoken while I was in the grocery store, so I called him and threw myself on his mercy and he came to the store, which wasn't too far from the house and brought another key, opened up the trunk to free my captive keys and I was back in business. Wiser to be sure than before I had this experience—how fortunate that I wasn't far from home and unable to connect with Paul. Paul has been researching some family names and we planned on going to the Temple on Saturday to begin working on these names. (The genealogical department of the church has made some commercial genealogical sites available without membership fees to members of the church with accounts on the church’s site—which has made new information available. Paul and I have both joined some of these sites. Paul especially likes myheritage.com. We decided to go to the Jordan River Temple because it was more convenient to the horses and we could go to the Temple and the pasture in the same trip. So Saturday morning we got up and got going, arriving at the temple at about 9:15 AM. We were planning on doing baptisms, confirmations, initiatories and a couple of sealings. When we arrived at the temple one of the brothers at the recommend desk asked us if we were interested in doing sealings and we said we were planning on doing some anyway so we got dressed in our ceremonial clothing and went straight to a sealing session. We were able to do the two sealings that Paul had identified as well as a bunch of temple names. We were in the sealing session for about an hour. When we finished with the sealings we headed to the baptistery. We actually did quite a few clothing changes and during the day I had three different lockers. Paul had printed temple cards on seven sisters and five brothers—so I had seven baptisms, confirmations and initiatories to do and he had five for each. Paul baptized me for the seven and then was baptized for his five. (Interestingly, the standard count for baptisms, confirmations and initiatories is five and I show up with seven –it is a big deal. The workers allow me to do all seven, telling me each time that the only reason they can allow me to do all seven is because they are not that busy at the particular moment when I arrive—and it was really true. When we arrived at the baptistery it was almost empty, but by the time that I was done and had showered, dried my hair and gotten redressed, the baptistery was full of people. It was interesting and a real blessing for Paul and me. After we finished with the baptisms and confirmations—(Paul got to do the confirmations on me, and then was confirmed by an ordinance worker for the five men he was working on.) we headed down to the cafeteria for lunch, and then back to the dressing rooms for the initiatory work. The same thing that happened in the baptistery happened in the initiatory. There was no one there when I arrived, and they agreed to let me do all seven sisters names. When I finished and came out, there were about eight sisters waiting to do initiatory work. It was nice to get all the names done in one visit and not have to come back for the last two names. By this time we had decided that we would also stay and do an endowment session, since we were moving forward with these names. And so we attended an endowment session, too. I was kind of hoping to get to see temple film #3, but as it turned out it was a #2 day for us. We were anxious to get all the preliminary work done for these names since we are going to Monticello this weekend and we wanted to work on family names when we were there. Getting an endowment session in on Saturday was kind of an extra since we hadn’t planned on doing it when we left home, but we had the unique experience of doing some of all the vicarious work available on the same day. Paul counted up the number of ordinances that we had done and we had done 40 different ordinances in one day. That was pretty satisfying. We left the temple at about 4:30 PM having spent the day in the temple. We got a phone call from Philip on Saturday when we were in the temple, but he called again on Sunday morning and we got to talk with him. He and his family have arrived safe and sound in Kiev, Ukraine. They are really satisfied with everything. The plane trip went well and the children were well behaved and traveled well. They were met by their sponsor and delivered to their apartment, shown around the town, taken to a grocery store—all the things you need to do in the first few hours of arrival. They are nine hours ahead of us—so it will be tricky to connect with them on a regular phone call basis, but it was really nice to talk to him. He put Jonathan on the phone and for about four minutes Jonathan talked without pause about their new home, room by room and each piece of furniture, about the neighborhood and his first ride on the metro, about the airplane and the balloons that he and Andrew got…on and on. Paul and I just couldn’t keep from laughing as he chatted away about the family adventure that they are on. Philip hopes to get him into the local preschool this week. They have made arrangements for him to be in a local Ukrainian speaking preschool, which will be both challenging and interesting for him. (I went through this with K.C. when we first arrived in Belgium. It turned out to be a wonderful experience for him and he did really well—we have no regrets—but it was a tough first two weeks when he was overwhelmed by so much French—it will probably be easier for Jonathan because he has already been attending preschool in Washington D.C.—going to school won’t be a challenge, just the language thing….hmmm. I have been thinking about this little family a lot this weekend because I have been getting their Christmas package ready for them. I did a lot of shopping this last week and over the weekend, I wrapped and then packed the mailing boxes. Philip is going to email me his new address this week and then the Christmas packages will head on their way to Kiev. It is a bit of a birthday season for us in November. Yesterday was Kortney’s birthday. She turned 25, and tomorrow is Jono’s birthday. He will be 26. And next week is my birthday. And I will be super old. (It will be my 60th birthday—I just want to know how that happened. I’m not feeling that good about this new decade.)