Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, and Arizona!
Since I've decided to go to all the Temples in the United States, all of my vacation plans center around the idea of "How many Temples can I see in the shortest, most consise trip?" With that in mind, my wife and I headed for Utah for Christmas to see a few Temples and a few of the grandkids. There are currently 14 operating Temples in Utah, and I had already been to 9 of them. So during our first of 2 weeks vacation, we enjoyed Christmas with family, took the grandkids skiing, went to a Jazz game, and went to the Draper and the Oquirrh Mountain Temples.
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Skiing Brighton with Tom, Madi, Cade, and James |
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| Draper Utah Temple |
Oquirrh Mountain Temple
Gini only had 1 week vacation, so following Christmas, she flew back to San Diego, and I took off to find more Temples. The brand new Brigham City Temple was first.
Brigham City Temple
And then back to Boise. Remember, I had been to Boise before but the Temple was closed for renovation. It was just a short 300 miles to attend an evening session later that day.
Boise Idaho
Is this crazy or what?! Back to Utah to rest up a little before heading east to visit the Temple in Vernal Utah. This one is a renovated Vernal City Tabernacle and is beautiful. One note, this has maybe one of the smallest Celestial Rooms I've seen.
Vernal Utah
This trip was in early January 2013, and was bitter cold! Next stop, another 300 miles, south to Monticello Utah. This is one of the small floor plan Temples of the Church. They said President Hinckley called it a Templete. I was also told that it is the only small Temple with murals on the walls of the endowment room.
Monticello Utah
Let's see. Now where? Oh, I know. Albuquerque, New Mexico is only another 330 miles southeast from Monticello. I've got time, gasoline, and just enough craziness to go for it. At least the weather is getting warmer as I head south. I was able to do sealings there and even saw some people I knew there.
Albuquerque New Mexico
Now, I head back west. Snowflake Arizona is next. This one comes with a story of a tender mercy. Albuquerque is about 260 miles from Snowflake. I left Albuquerque in plenty of time to make it to the last session in the Snowflake Temple at 6:30 p.m. What I didn't anticipate was a large accident on the freeway that stopped traffic for hours. A big rig truck had overturned and there was no way I was going to make it to Snowflake by 6:30. While I was sitting, stuck in traffic, I noticed I was low on gas. So I made a U-turn on the freeway and headed back to find a gas station. I only drove a couple of miles to the nearest station, and after I filled up, I noticed a small two-lane road running parallel to the freeway. It was the old Highway 66! I got onto it and headed west. I was able to pass thousands of trucks and cars that were stuck for hours and miles and I made it to Snowflake in plenty of time. I did sealings there, and enjoyed the evening in Snowflake with some recently aquired In-laws. Sweet!
Here we are at the Snowflake Temple (on a different trip)
Ok. One more to go on this trip. The Gila Valley Temple is just a short 180 miles south of Snowflake so off I go. I do sealings there and meet friends of friends. The people in the small towns that have Temples, really love their Temples. Doing sealings also allows a time to visit with the local patrons and workers and really enjoy the Spirit of the work.
The Gila Valley Arizona Temple
So, there's another Temple trip. Over 3200 miles, in 2 weeks, and 9 more Temples crossed off my list. I need a vacation!
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