blog

Last Stretch to Home

| cnaglis63
Eden is a night sky town

We traveled to Eden, Utah and enjoyed a beautiful stay with Kathy and Brad. They were very hospitable and we again enjoyed a suite similar to the Kinnersley home. While we were catching up, Brad mentions that they have a new pet. Kathy says, “I’ll go get him.” I’m expecting a puppy and what comes out is a LAMB! The cutest little newborn lamb. They had been out voyaging in their side by side and stopped because this little lamb was running towards them, bawling and calling. He went straight to Brad and Kathy filmed the entire episode. They could see that he was dehydrated and needed immediate attention. So, they attempted to find his mom. She was no where to be found. They found other sheep and they wanted nothing to do with this little guy. Fearing that he would die if left alone, they decided to bring him to their home and save his life. Branner’s have a neighbor who is a vet and he looked him over and determined that he was in pretty good shape. Kathy and Brad bought him some milk replacer and a dog crate to keep him contained while in the house or traveling. Outside, they bought a little pen to give him time outside as well. The weather was warming up and this little lamb enjoyed some time in the pen with a ball to play with.

Kathy feeding Spartacus
Me loving on his cute mustache

They named him Spartacus (I asked if his name was Lamb Chops). He was pretty cute, especially while hopping and bucking around. They were getting up in the night to feed him and by the time we left, Kathy was feeding Spartacus at 10 pm and then he was good until 6 am. Eventually, they found a little hobby farm for him to live on and hopefully, Spartacus goes on to live a fulfilled life being loved on by four children. I checked up on his breed and he is noted for being intelligent, docile and alert. Romeldale are actually a rare sheep and their fleece is a fine wool.

He walks without a leash 🥰

On Monday, Erik and I decided to drive around the Ogden Valley. On the south end is Snow Basin (ski hill) and on the north end is Powder Mountain. It wasn’t very warm and we had drizzly weather. As we made our way up Powder Mountain, I noted the sign of a 16 percent grade! Our poor SUV was loaded so heavy and I started to hear the motor working hard. By the time we reached the first ski hill, we were at 8200 feet of elevation and it was snowing. I told Erik that we weren’t going higher and it was time to turn around. The longest ski run on this resort is 5 (km) or 3 miles. With 8,000 acres of skiing, it seems to be a great place to go. The road is quite twisty and we were imagining a truck needing a runaway ramp which was at the bottom of the mountain!

Powder Mountain

Tuesday came and we decided to go to Ogden to get some items from Costco. The weather was much nicer and we enjoyed a quick jaunt to get some beef sticks and simply look at all the different items for sale. Then it was on to Good Earth health food store to get some vitamins. The workers there were so knowledgeable and we were really impressed with the service we received.

Brad and Kathy had been having dental appointments while we were exploring. We drove past the Ogden temple and Tabernacle before heading back to Eden.

Wednesday, our plan was to get to Rexburg for the night and a session at the temple. We have never been to Rexburg Idaho and it had a rocky start with our hotel that we were supposed to be in. It was under renovation and rooms weren’t available. I had a feeling that we needed to cancel and move on. We found another hotel that turned out to be perfect for the night. Many rooms were full of construction workers. We soon found out as we needed a Walmart trip that the Teton River temple is being constructed in Rexburg. Between graduations and construction the hotels were sold out.

We went for supper at a smokehouse and enjoyed some smoked meat. I received news that my dad was not doing well and was in the hospital. The hospital decided to put him in Palliative care. I wasn’t ready for this as my mom just passed at the beginning of March. I was happy to go to the temple and take this care to the Lord.

At the Rexburg temple

The first thing we noticed about the Rexburg temple is that the average age of the workers and patrons is much lower than other temples. BYU Idaho is next to the Rexburg temple. These two temples will be the only ones in the world on the same street. Not side by side but still on the same street. Teton River temple is slightly ahead of schedule than the Lethbridge temple. We met the President on duty and his wife and they are friends with someone I knew from Calgary area. It’s such a small world!

Returning to the hotel, we headed to the pool and had the best pool yet in our journey; the water was the perfect temperature and Erik also went in the hot tub while I exercised in the pool. I was prepared for a lovely night of sleep. It was going well until 6:04 am when the fire alarms were going off. The fire detector had a flashing white light that was strobing us into the twilight zone while the screeching of the alarms was going full tilt. We were trying to decide if it was a real emergency. We heard the footsteps of guests above us but the hallway was quiet. The smell of burnt toast permeated the hotel. That had to have been some serious toast fire going on! Our next door neighbors checked out at the same time as us and said that they didn’t hear a thing! I guess that we were meant to be up and at ’em!

Carrying on north, we left Rexburg and headed up highway 20 towards West Yellowstone. We veered off onto highway 87 through the Targhee Pass which straddles the Continental Divide on the Idaho-Montana border. It sits at just over 7,000 feet. This passes by Henrys Lake first and it was surprising to see such a large mountain lake. The weather wasn’t favorable because it was cold and snowing.

Seeing the sign for Butte brought back some memories of living there while Erik was earning his Petroleum Engineering degree. We passed through Boulder Montana and headed north to Helena. Our original plan had us stopping in Helena for the night so that we could attend the temple but with my dad not well, we felt impressed to get all the way to Lethbridge and get more miles under our wheels. Seeing the Sweetgrass mountains makes a person feel like they are nearly home.

Crossing the border back into Canada was a non event and we were on our way. We turned our cars metrics back into metric from imperial. We made it to Lethbridge and decided to drive past the temple construction sight to see the progress. The information trailer wasn’t opened by the time we got there so we will go another time.

Lethbridge temple site

Getting to see our grandchildren, Henry and Penny was so fun. Penny is only 9 months old and doesn’t know us so she was a little shy. Later we were able to hold her and she was fine with us. I was finally able to give Penny her quilt that I made her. We toured the backyard the next morning to refill the hummingbird feeder and check out the trees. Then we learned that Lyndon has become a jam maker and has taken up canning. They grow grapes and cherries in their backyard.

Penny in her Buc-ees hat
Henry with his t-shirt

Now I got to drive my truck! Erik loaded the tires in the back of the truck and we were off for the final leg to our cottage. Once we arrived at the lake, we discovered that robins had taken over. The bird poop everywhere was incredible; just not in a good way that we were enjoying. Our plan was to take one day to do laundry and unload our vehicles and then to head to Bonnyville to see dad.

Made it home!
The robin mess
More mess

This journey home was 7, 410 kilometers, 85 hours and 20 minutes of driving!

By Sunday morning, we were back on the road with a much lighter car. We still have not been released by our Stake President but that will happen when we return from the Cold Lake area. Highway 28 from Edmonton to Cold Lake is not in great condition and I struggle to understand why this highway has not been twinned. There is a lot of traffic on this road!

We checked into our hotel in Bonnyville and then headed to the hospital to see how dad is doing. I was pleasantly surprised to see my youngest sister, Tanya and her husband, Kerry in dad’s room and we were able to catch up on the news. Dad’s struggling and we will be making some plans for and with him.

We surely know this as we face mountain after mountain. As we rely on the help of the Lord we can climb every mountain placed in front of us. It may feel that you have to conquer many obstacles in a day but remember that we place one foot in front of the other and deal with one crisis at a time. Everything will unfold the way it is meant to. God knows your needs and where you need to be. Listen carefully to that little voice that will lead you where you need to be.

What Day is It?

| cnaglis63

When your schedule changes and the days go by, you may start to wonder what day it really is. When there is no clear purpose in your days, one slides into the other, leaving you in a puddle of where am I and what am I doing? I experienced this the past week because the temple went into maintenance for two weeks. Two times per year, each temple has a two week break from normal duties to attend to bigger maintenance items. Erik went over to see if they needed his help and sure enough they did. Similar to the September maintenance period, he put his skills to use. He met the upholsterer again that came in September. As you know, every building has wear and tear from use or even non-use. The Palmyra temple floor plan was used 43 times to build temples around the world. This floor plan has now been retired. The standardized plan built a building that was 10,700 square feet. So, even though it is a small temple, we receive a lot of patrons and the building gets a lot of use.

Erik helped the upholsterer by breaking down four arm chairs that needed to be reupholstered. They weren’t on the original schedule to be done, but Erik & I noticed that the chairs had worn in places and shouldn’t be left in that state. With Erik’s help, the upholsterer was able to complete his scheduled work as well as these four chairs. We will have visible changes in the decor when we return on March 31.

In the meantime, I am trying to keep track of the days so that I don’t mess up my medication. I tried to motivate myself to sew but that didn’t pan out. I managed to cook our meals and get my exercise done each day but it was like my body needed a big rest. We received another invitation to try extending our mission for six months. The couple that they thought would come have been assigned elsewhere. Our offer to stay was turned down again. Personally, I know that we are needed somewhere else. We do need to do some regrouping upon returning home and get our next mission application ready. I am working on my A1C to lower it so that I will be able to serve again.

We had our first week at the Auburn Ward. It was lovely to see familiar faces that we have seen at the temple. It takes us approximately the same amount of time to get to the building in Auburn as it did to get to our Spanish Branch in Greece.

I started prepping food for our trip this week. I made the Grillo Dill Dip. Erik cut up tons of veggies to eat it with. Two types of muffins and some Chocolate Date Balls were also on the menu.

We loaded the car and hopefully we didn’t forget anything crucial. Our morning started with a remote (online) doctor’s appointment for me and then we had our prayer and started the journey. As we headed south, the route was a reminder of our journey to Nauvoo a year ago. You are cruising down the interstate and then the GPS sends you on a small farm road and we really thought that the GPS had lost it’s mind. No, it’s just in the middle of Podunk-nowhere! Today was the same experience and instead I relaxed and enjoyed the view of rural New York and Pennsylvania. As you journey into Pennsylvania you notice the rock formations have changed. Coal mining is a big deal in PA. As of 2022, there were still over 100 active mines. Anthracite is found in the northeast and is known as “hard coal”.

We drove down the east side of Canandaigua Lake as we wound south along little rural byways. It is unbelievably picturesque. Soon the leaves will be making their appearances and the views will change yet again. We saw maple sap collections with tanks near the road for easier pick up. Little road side stands selling maple syrup were also seen.

As we came into Corning, I was reminded that we never did get to the Corning Glass Museum in the past year. As we carried on, the temperature was dropping and as we looked south from atop of a crest of a hill, we saw white dusted trees in the distance. We hit the Blossburg pass and at 2270 feet of elevation and found snow melting on the road. The temperature was below 0C.

A large part of our journey took us along the Susquehanna river. I have talked about this river in the past and as we have seen more of it, we gain a greater appreciation for it’s history. We reached Harrisburg and were amazed at the mansions lining the river. We drove past the Governor’s mansion (Harrisburg is the state capital).

Located in the Dauphin Narrows stretch of the Susquehanna River, stands a mini Statue of Liberty that is a 25 foot tall replica of the original. Technically it is a replica of a replica. The current statue is the second little Lady Liberty to hold her torch high above the old railway piling in the middle of the river. The first was 18 foot tall and made of plywood and venetian blinds. It was erected in 1986 as a patriotic prank to commemorate the centennial of the original Statue of Liberty. No one knew who made it or how it got there, and no one would come forward to take the credit/blame.

This first replica was blown off her pedestal and destroyed in 1992, a surprisingly long run considering its construction materials. However, in the six years since she first appeared, the people of Dauphin Township had grown rather fond of her. Money was raised to erect a heavier, sturdier 25 foot version of the statue, this time constructed from metal. This one was put in place in 1997 by a helicopter and lashed to the piling. It still stands today. 

It wasn’t until years later in 2011 that local lawyer, Gene Stilp finally owned up to not only orchestrating the making of the statue but also taking the daring trip into the dangerous river water to climb the piling and help erect the statue. Little did he know his prank would become a permanent monument for the people of Harrisburg, PA.

Being a lawyer Stilp also pointed out that the statute of limitations for prosecuting the crime of illegal statue placement has long since passed. 

We saw so many law practices along our route, hahaha!

We were also impressed by the Jewish presence in Harrisburg. They immigrated in the 1840’s from Germany and England. Another wave of immigrants came in the late 19th century and early 20th century (they were from Lithuania). We drove past two big buildings and one was Temple Bethel El and the other may have been a community center. They have been vibrant community in Harrisburg.

This isn’t in the right order but, we stopped for gasoline at Hilsher’s General Store. I chose it because I was pretty sure that it was a Mennonite store (and it was)! It was at Port Trevorton, north of Harrisburg. It is over 20,000 square feet of fun; bakery, deli, meat processing, clothing/footwear, hardware, home decor, housewares, sporting goods, and toys. Erik picked up a slice of Shoo-fly pie and I bought a little bottle of Bronner’s baby soap along with dark chocolate almonds. I am a huge fan of the Mennonite stores. They make my heart sing!

We made it to Gettysburg and Erik had downloaded a driving tour of this historic site. I will tell you about it next blog post.

Despite not knowing what day it was last week, I know that I have a purpose. Keep smiling and keep your heart ready to hear your next steps or deeds that God has in store for you. We all don’t do great heroic things each day. It is in the little steps, day by day that we show our true selves. So, with that twinkle in your eye, carry on and be joyful.