Progress on the Barn, Trip to Hagerman's Cowboy Poets and Muscian Gathering, Visit to Twin Falls Temple

This weekend Paul and I drove to Hagerman, Idaho for a Cowboy Poetry weekend. This event has been going on for nine years, but this is the first time that Paul and I have attended and for being in a small town in a rather remote area of Idaho, it pulls in some high caliber performers and some respectable crowds. Paul was assigned to the evening show on Friday night and three sets during the day on Saturday. The logistics of this event were complicated by the fact that Paul wanted to do some work on the barn during the day on Friday. He took a personal day and went to Petersboro first thing on Friday morning. I went to work and then got off at 11:15. I drove to our property and was able to see the progress that Paul has made on the construction process. He has been preparing the footings and putting in the fourteen support beams. He finished the first three last Saturday and on Friday he had put in two more while working alone through the morning. I arrived at about 1:00 and got a tour of all his hard work, helped him pack up the tools and we headed off. It was about a three hour drive from Petersboro to Hagerman. I was personally interested in going to Hagerman because I wanted to go to the Twin Falls Temple during some free moment during the weekend. Paul knew that Hagerman was in the same area as Twin Falls, but didn’t know exactly how far away; he knew they were both in the Magic Valley area and so I expressed a desire to disappear during part of the event to go attend an endowment session in the temple. This was an area of Idaho that I knew practically nothing about, but it was really an interesting and geographically diverse area. We drove directly to Bliss, Idaho where we were staying in the Amber Inn Hotel. Bliss is 8 miles north of Hagerman and pretty much a tiny, tiny community. After checking in we drove to Hagerman—we were on the upper level of the Snake River Valley plain there, but dropped into a really interesting valley when we got to Hagerman. There were black lava rock formations on one side of the valley and smooth, green rolling hills on the other side. Bliss is right on Interstate 84, but Hagerman is off the main drag. Hagerman had three venues for their Cowboy Poetry and Musicians Gathering. They were an American Legion Hall, the Division 1 High School Gymnasium/Auditorium and a good sized enclosed Flea market building where they had set up a small sound stage. Paul performed in both the Legion Hall and the Auditorium. They had ticketed events on both Friday night and Saturday night and open/free to the public sets on Friday all day and Saturday all day. Paul performed on the Friday night show and afterwards many of the performers gathered together at the house where one of the bands was staying for visiting, camaraderie and a jam session. Between going to bed late, in preparation for leaving the next day, and working a half day and driving to Petersboro and then driving on to Hagerman and sitting through a three hour program, I was just exhausted, but the social hour and jam session was in Hagerman and our hotel was in Bliss. So I suggested to Paul that I just stay in the car and take a nap while he went in and jammed and fraternized. I was so tired that I fell sound asleep and slept for the whole time, about two hours, that Paul was jamming with the other guitar players. He had a really good time, sharing ideas and techniques and stuff with the other musicians and I caught up on some badly needed rest. In the morning we headed back to the venues and Paul did a set from 10:00-11:00. He had one at 12:00-1:00 and another one from 2:00-3:00. I didn't see the last two sets because I got in the car and headed off to Twin Falls. It was about 30 miles away. I didn't know how long it would take to get there and actually find the temple. I was unsure whether the temple would stick out and be visible or whether I would have trouble finding it, but I had googlemaps to help me and I really had very little challenge finding it. I could see it as I got off the freeway exit and I followed my directions, but could see it the whole time, too. This temple has very specific session times. One session every two hours-- so even though I arrived at about 12:00, I had to wait until 1:00 for the next session. This is a relatively small temple, but very pretty. The locker room and endowment rooms are on the second story, I suppose the baptistery is on the main floor somewhere, though I did not see it. The temple does not have a chapel, so patrons are ushered right into the first endowment room, which has a beautiful mural of the Shoshone Falls and the mesa landscape. Really quite wonderful. Because I had a considerable wait, I was really able to study and enjoy it. This temple has a two room endowment set-up and then passage into the celestial room which was also very lovely. I had a nice time and was glad that I had gone to the trouble of making time for this visit. I drove back to Hagerman and connected with Paul, who had been awash in cowboy poetry and music all day long. I got back at about 4:00. He wasn't performing in the Saturday evening show and kind of wanted a break. So we went back to our hotel, Paul changed out of his cowboy performing clothing and we went off for a date night. We drove back to Twin Falls, had dinner and stopped to see the Snake River gorge scenic view point. Then we went to see the new live action version of Cinderella, which we both enjoyed very much. Sunday morning at nine o’clock there was “Cowboy Church” which is a non-denominational Christian-ish meeting with poets and musicians performing their more “religious” pieces. That was a pleasant diversion and there were some very nice pieces of poetry and songs. Then at 10:00 we attended our LDS meetings at the Hagerman ward building. And then we got in the car and headed home. We had to stop in Petersboro to pick up the truck—we had gone in separate cars up to there and so Paul and I drove the last hour and a half separately. We had a very nice weekend, and now it is time to launch into a new week. I was trying to finish a book for my book club last Thursday, so I didn't get anything done except read in the evenings last week, this week I want to get back down in my sewing room, get some work on my quilts done and finish my ironing….. another week has begun.