Lots of visitors (Mike)

September 24th, 2010




We are busy moving into our apartment for the winter. It’s a nice little place, and will be comfortable this winter. We will be spending our first night here tonight. Dave and his family are coming here on their way to Disney Land, and will stay in our trailer tonight, and again on their way home. It will be good to see them again. We are heading back to Idaho to get our winter supplies and clothing. We will be back in Cove Fort on the second of October.

Yesterday, we had three hundred kids from Richfield here at the fort. They had a great time. At the end of the day, we counted over 500 visitors.

Wed, I had a grandfather, son, and grandson from Las Vegas, stop at the fort. We were super busy, so I started them in the video and went to help some other visitors, and as it turned out, I was the one who took them on the tour. I taught them about the gospel as we went on the tour. At the end they commented about the spirit they felt and wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon and some videos. They also wanted the Missionaries to come and teach them. The son said that he had lost faith in Christ, and it was time he got it back. The Grandfather said, “The Lord sent us here today.” He went on to say that he had missed the I-70 exit, and that he had made this trip many times and had never missed it before. Because they missed the turn, the fastest way back was by way of Cove Fort, so they stopped for a tour.

Kanab and the Cowboy Coral (Mike)

Saturday 18th, we traveled to Kanab and attended the funeral of Lynda’s aunt Ramona, who was the last of Grandpa Esplin’s family. As it turned out, in her later years, she had married the father in Law of Carol Graff, a girl that I dated in Collage for quite a while. She was one of the speakers in the funeral. It was good to see her again. We took Karl and Sue with us, and had a good time traveling with them.


We returned to Cove Fort just in time to leave again and go to Elsinore for dinner at the cowboy Corral, They serve a steak dinner for ten bucks with live entertainment and dancing. They had such a large crowd that they moved the entertainment onto the sidewalk and the dancing was in a coned off section of the street. It was a fun evening. All of the missionaries went over for the last time. Many of them are heading home today....the summer season is over. We’ll miss them.

As we were finishing our shift yesterday, we took a tour out that consisted of a young couple that had just been to St. George and had been to all of the historic sites there. They had already filled out referral cards there, so my streak of tours with cards ended with fifteen.

After finishing that tour, I saw some people in the parking lot, and went over to talk to them. It turned out to be Mary Kay and Richard Cody, the singers. They had their spouses with them and had just been playing some engagements in California. I had never met Richard....he is my cousin from Heber City. I talked to them about coming to Cove Fort Days next year. They didn’t commit yet, but I told them I would be sending them an invitation.

Twitchell Canyon Fire (Mike)

There is a controlled burn supposedly being watched over by the Forest Service. It has been going on all summer. They were trying to burn out insect killed trees and underbrush. The wind came up yesterday and things got out of control. We are hoping the wind doesn't change and send it our way. They now have many men and pieces of equipment including helicopters, trying to contain it before the wind returns this week end. They had to close I-70 yesterday, and overnight becaust of poor visibility.

We took an excursion out west of Kanosh to see the Warm Springs, and I was surprised to see how things have developed since I was a boy swimming out there fifty plus years ago. We used to ride horses there for a nice swim in the old days, and later in cars. The water is nice and warm in the main spring, and they have even added a diving platform. The other spring has been cleaned up and is good for soaking the joints in good hot water......even though all we can soak now are our feet , these guys in the picture are enjoying it.

 

Tours at the fort are still going great. Ten more couples are heading home this week end. That will leave us a bit short handed for a while until the tourist season drops of for the winter. I still have my string of fifteen tours in a row that produced a referral card.....that's unheard of, I don't suppose the string will last much longer.

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Beaver Mountain (Lynda's Birthday) (Mike)

September 8th, 2010




Had a fun day on the 6th. Started with Laundry! Yuck, Then the road trip began. Up Beaver canyon to Puffers Lake, and Lake Lebaron. I had memories of camping at Lebaron Lake with Dennis, and my mom and dad when I was about seven or eight years old. It is a beautiful place. We tried to fish…. fish weren't biting. A man asked me where we were from, I turned and he saw my missionary badge. He said oh you’re missionaries. I didn’t know missionaries could go fishing. I said oh, we can go fishing, we just aren’t allowed to catch any. The Scenery was spectacular and we saw about twenty head of deer, and many more deer hunter camps. Got to Richfield about 9:30. Wendy's drive in gave us a pretty good hamburger….nothing else was open at that hour. It was a fun day with my best friend. It was her birthday.

I took my ten mile bike ride this morning as the sun was rising. Fall is in the air and the birds are flocking….thousands of swallows are lining the power lines getting ready to go south. I saw a flock of blue jays as they flew and flashed brilliant blue in the rising sun.

Things are slowing down in the fort….only about a hundred people a day now. I noticed that I have gotten at least one referral….. member and non-member.... for my last ten tours in a row. So tours are still as productive as when we having hundreds of people visit. We can spend more time and be more personal with them.