September Saint George

We took a weekend off 18-20 September and went to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Saint George. Grandpa had a bit of a cold and I think he could have felt lots better. I felt a little bad about crashing in on them. Grandma's surgery was supposed to have been scheduled for 22 Sep. But, was postponed once again to the 30th.

The timing of the trip was a little convenient/inconvenient. I got a call Wednesday morning that someone in the ward had died. I got a second call after just a few minutes from Carolyn Preece (RS Pres.) that the widower was rather upset with the ward and it might be best if I didn't call for a while. I called later in the day and spoke to a daughter. It was apparent that it was best if I didn't deal with the planning of the funeral and if I wasn't the one to conduct. If I were to be in town, I would expect to attend. But, I felt my attendance would be a distraction for the family. So, it was somewhat convenient that we were going to be out of town. President Daw and Brent helped with the planning. And President Daw conducted.

I went over to the widower's house Thursday night to talk to him/make amends.

Thus, on a couple of accounts it was good to get out of town. We left Friday at midday so we could arrive with still some evening time in Saint George. Saturday morning Grandma took us to the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum. I wasn't expecting much and was completely impressed and excited with what we did see. There were probably 150-200 full body big game mounts of all sorts of animals in natural habitat dioramas. Mostly these were of the Elk, Caribou, Deer, Sheep, Goat variety. But, there were lots of others. Very many species. Saw some big game cats. But, no Tigers, no Rhinos, no Elephants. Just about everything else. Lots of very interesting and amazing horns, tusks, and antlers. It was a lesson in the power and love of God.

Later we drove up to Cedar City to see the Compleat Works of Shakespeare (Abridged.) We saw this once before about 10 years ago in Cedar. We were told that they had re-worked the script. It didn't matter. It was hilarious and the whole family enjoyed it immensely.

Once again the car served us perfectly. Got about 19-20 mpg while averaging 80 mph. Of course, we got stopped in a traffic jam right as we re-entered the Salt Lake Valley. A bale of hay had fallen onto the freeway. So they had it closed down to one lane while one guy with a broom swept and a handful of UHP's finest kicked the straw out of the way. They have no concern for facilitating the transport of the people. When we passed they were at the point where they could have just opened it up and let the cars "sweep" the remaining grass "away."