The First Day We Didn't Drive Anywhere (almost)

Ok, so we did drive from our hotel to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.  It was only 5 blocks, so that doesn't count after we spent up to 15 hours in the car somedays.  Sad to say, though, that the brick wall genealogy quests I brought with me are still brick walls.  Roland isn't having any better luck.  Alot of what they have here is available on-line and alot of the people who come here seem to be beginners at searching family history.  The volunteer missionaries who staff the place are friendly and eager to help out, though.

It was so worth today's stop, though, to hear a 1/2 hour organ recital in the Tabernacle.  The organ is huge - having 206 ranks totaling 11,623 pipes played from a  five manual console.  The acoustics in the building are phenomenal.  The organist demonstrated by dropping a pin, literally, then a nail and we could hear them, with no amplification.  She also ripped newspaper and the sound was louder to us than it would be if we had done it ourselves.  Amazing!

Yesterday was a travel day.  We had stayed at Steve and Amy's house and finally got to meet almost 4 year old Kian and 6 year old Jaden.  They are adorable and full of fun energy! It was wonderful to see Steve after maybe 15 years or so...since we only realized we were near him the night before, it turned into a nice surprise all around.

 

About an hour after we left Steve's we were in Glenwood Springs and stopped at the hot springs.  We had been there before, with the kids, during our 2000 vacation.  The pools are heated with water from the hot springs on the mountain.  The therapy pool is 104 degrees and the larger "cooler" pool in 94.  It felt heavenly, even if it does smell a bit like the sulfur that naturally occurs in the water.

 

We stopped at a "point of interest"along the highway in Colorado and just happened to meet the author of a book that is coming out about the area.  He was there with a PBS videographer who was shooting a clip about the book.

Next "stop" was somewhat less planned when cattle were crossing (ok...mostly milling around, not crossing) the road.  With a little assertiveness we got through. 

At another point of interest along the way Roland stopped to make some phone calls, so Barbara did what Barbara does best.  Not a bad backdrop to sit and knit.  

 Even the oil companies set up points of interest along the Colorado highways.  This time it was up close to an oil well.

Interesting names of towns out here.  This town was called Dinosaur.  It bordered Dinosaur National Monument.  We didn't see any dinos or even fossils (the visitor's center that houses the fossils was under renovation), but we did see some interesting petroglyphs.  Roland got to feed the dinosaur here!

Tonight we are going to see if there is a lake around here...I hear there is.