Week 43 - Hegsted's Mission
14-May-2023-Sunday
Happy Mother's Day. Pretty much the normal routine for our Sunday morning. After warm days, today was colder at least the wind felt chilly. The ride was beautiful. The Branch did something different for Mother's Day. It was like a testimony meeting, but an opportunity to talk about moms and how they are close to godliness. The branch did a good job of standing up to speak and it became a very nice meeting.
After Sacrament Meeting, the sisters went into a room where they were served a treat and had a short message about mothers. I played the piano in primary. I felt bad for the newly called 2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency who was in charge. Obviously he has not worked with primary children before, but he bravely stuck it out. I was proud of him and the kids were great. We left 15 minutes early to get back to the site for the first shift.
We had 5 people (3 groups) come in. We had a nonmember couple from Lebanon. She was more interested than he, but Dede gave them pretty much a complete tour with emphasis on the restoration board. We then had a single male. Again a nonmember. I think he was just lonely. His wife had been a member but quit attending. He did not know much, but was interested and again just seemed lonely. I took him for a bit until a member couple came in who wanted more information so Dede took over for him as her couple had just left. Thus we were able to balance out the 2 groups well. The member couple were so delightful. We gave them ideas of what to do in the area, and they chose to walk Patriarch Hill. We saw them as they were leaving and they thought it was great. Some people are so easy to give a tour to. These were definitely in that category. It would have been fun to spend the day with them.
Right before 3:30 the Ewers came over. They look exhausted. I am sure I do not comprehend what they have been through. And then their plane out of Boston to Lebanon had issues and so they had to wait for another plane. They got in very late last night. But oh how great it was to see them and talk to them. Other than exhausted, they were the same Ewers we have loved for months. I just hope we can help them re-adjust to missionary life.
This gorgeous tree was blooming in front of the president's home and I could not resist taking pictures. And the aroma from the blooms was also amazing.
We had the wonderful opportunity to meet with the Ewers this morning as a total (all ten of us) mission. They shared some of their experiences with their grandson. It appears that he was a light to many people, even in the hospital where no one knew him when he was conscious. The young man had been leaving hints with parents and other family members about leaving this world. This was not clear at the time, but became very clear with hind-site. It sounds like the Ewers became the rock for their family. In fact, the other children first found out what was really happening after they got home from the mission.
I was able to get some work done on the review today. It is hard as I always spend more time searching for pictures and then editing them than I think I should. It has to be done, so I should not complain. It is like plumbing. The 30 minute job always takes several hours. I am just not realistic enough.
We had three different groups. The first group from Salem, Utah got the first half of the tour from the Buswells and the end from us. Such wonderful people. They came to upstate New York to visit a son and then are hitting the New England states to fill her bucket list. The site was the major stopping point in VT.
The next couple were really interesting. They had served as MLS missionaries in the Syracuse mission and for a time were assigned to do tours at the Knight and Stowell homes. This ended when the missionary department pointed out to the mission president that it is not allowed to put missionaries in this situation. Sad. But they had great experiences which they shared with us. They were out in the East pulling a trailer from Utah to open up the homes so other volunteers could work there. They had not been to the our site, so they made that trip. They were a delight. We had one other nonmember visitor who just wanted to look around after I gave her a 5 minute overview. She is local, so I hope she comes back.
We are getting excited to have Anna come late tomorrow night. We work the morning shift and then the Ewers are supposed to take over at 2 pm. If they want, we do not need to leave until 4 pm. I am not sure how they are doing. I think better. I think getting away and back "to work" will be great therapy for them. But what do I know?????
16-May-2023-Tuesday
We packed and made ourselves ready to go to Boston and then worked the morning shift. We had several interesting visitors. The first man had been given the site address as the address of a woman who owns the Creamy Cart. We have not heard of her, but he did not seem too upset. Probably experiences this often. We provided him with an abbreviated tour and he ended by saying it was providential that he was able to come our way. This seemed a good outcome. We had another group whom had brought their mother for her 92nd birthday. The son and daughter both BYU graduates are no longer active. The son was an artist and interested in the site art. The daughter just wanted to leave, until he called her out. It was an interesting experience.
President Ewer came over about 2:30 as they had a Zoom meeting with SL-Historic leaders. We had been working on instructions to run the theater which included graphics. We wanted to show this to him, but he seemed concerned that we get going to pick up Anna, so we left. The drive to Boston was uneventful. We stopped at an ice cream, fried food shop that Sam and Sara found to eat. Food was okay, and we had way too much ice cream. Getting to the hotel near dark, we were stuck until 11:40 when we left to pick up Anna. She was finally able to come out about 12:10. Short hop back to the hotel, but it was a late night.
17-May-2023-Wednesday PDAY
Considering the time to bed, we were up and moving by 7:30. We hoped to get out by 8:30 but were 20 minutes late after eating and all. The drive to the aquarium about 5 miles was posted at 25 minutes and took about 50 minutes. I cannot imagine working in Boston unless one used public transportation. We got into the aquarium and had seen quite a bit of it, when Dede received a message that our whale watching tour was cancelled due to high winds. We were sorely disappointed, but as the afternoon progressed, the wind became stronger and stronger and we had to admit, it was the right move. However we wanted to take Anna out whale watching. Darn.
We left the car parked and walked to the Boston Tea Party Museum. Dede and I had done this earlier, but we went back and did it with Anna. I think I enjoyed it more the second time as I was more involved in the drama and knew to look for specific things, I had barely seen or comprehended the first time. From there we went to Quincy Market on the Freedom Trail for lunch. Anna and I had New England Chowder bread bowls while Dede had a roast beef sandwich. All was good. We picked up the car and went in search of light houses, by way of Topsfield to see the new monument dedicated to the Smith family there. To celebrate the Smith family we stopped at Richardson's and ate ice cream. Ice Cream from this store is sold at other ice cream sites and a small Sundae was more than I needed so I felt stuffed the remainder of the night.
For light houses, we first went to Salem, Mass., known for its witches, it was also a major harbor for many years and thus had three light houses. We drove to one and walked out on the jetty to it and could see the other two. Nathaniel Hawthorne worked out of the custom's house and wrote Scarlet Letter here. Also there is a home known as the home of 7 gables there.
From there we went to Gloucester, where we had gone out on a whale watching cruise with the Mitchels' last week. Drove to a a light house we had seen and then out on a man made granite breaker that had a small light house. Both of these had been manned as Gloucester was also a major port. I cannot imagine walking the granite breaker with ice from the heavy seas frozen to the granite to light the furthest little light house. In the wind (no breakers) it was a jaunt (2260 feet) when we went into the wind and we had sunshine.
With the walking we were did not get to the next light houses on our list, so started toward home, but not before eating at another fried fish house. I was still full from ice cream, but managed to eat half of a very large meal. The amount of seating there was amazing, both inside and out, but we got there at closing on a cold evening and it was almost empty.
We then drove home arriving about 10:30 and were grateful to get to bed.
Pictures:
18-May-2023-Thursday
Happy Birthday Anna. We are so glad that not only were you born, but that you chose to celebrate your birthday with us in Vermont. Today was chilly, but sunny and with little wind, so it was pleasant. We slept in after getting to bed about midnight again.
First stop was Gile Lookout Trailhead near Norwich (Norwich is where the Smith family lived before heading to New York.). Dede and I had hiked the trail previously and today we took Anna. The trail is a good climb, but not too far. At the top is an old metal tower used as a look out for forest fires. It amazes me that they still allow people to hike there and climb the tower. In fact they have made repairs to the tower to keep it open. One can easily see into New Hampshire and Maine. We could see Killington, so close to seeing into New York.
The site was slow, so I worked on changing the schedule. We asked the Buswells to trade PDAYs next week so we can take Anna on a whale watching tour out of Gloucester. We would then drop off Anna very early to fly home and we could do a sealing session before leaving to do our shift at work that afternoon.
Our shift was slow with two ladies coming in for a short tour. One is graduating from the Law School on Saturday. She had never been here, and needed a place to brings her mother. It was nearly at the end of the shift. We also had Anna for the last half an hour. That made up for a slow start to the shift. I did take the golf cart down to Dairy Hill Road to look for the foundation of the home and/or barn from the farm set up by Junius for the first 50 years of the site. Not much left, but I was glad to find something in a meadow hay field.
We took Anna to the New Tailand Restaurant for her birthday meal. Then it was shopping and home to write and bed.
19-May-2023-Friday
Another great day with family in VT. So glad Anna would come.
We had a busy morning at the site. In fact we did not have a break to eat. Not huge amounts of people, but we were steady and always were leading at least one tour, if not two. I will describe a few that really impressed me. Dede had a young couple that she took through. We first saw them sitting very close together near the flag pole looking over the site. They did not seem to want a tour, but Dede did her magic and pretty soon they were very involved. At the restoration board (I had just come in from another tour) she was explaining the BoM and giving it to the young lady. She asked the young man if he wanted one and he said, oh I have one. I have been a member all my life. I should be careful about judging based on looks. Anyway I think he had been nervous to push the young woman too much, but when she showed excitement, he warmed up. I took them below to the foundations. Part of the reason they did not want to stay long is they had a rental truck as they had been helping someone move. But he said, this is worth it if they charge me more. That was exciting.
Dede had a couple who were finishing their mission at Cornell U., doing a CES mission. They took off early because the students had left and since they had never been to the JSB site, they came our way. They wanted detailed history and again Dede did great. Meanwhile I had a couple who had both been to the site in the past. Thus I caught them up with the other couple, so we could take everyone down to the foundations at once. My couple have moved to Sterling ID., and live right across the street from Collette Wahlen. He is the recorder in the temple on Friday and Saturday second shift and he said they have done 2500 ordinances since moving to the Pocatello Temple area. Such a small world and they were so delightful.
We ended the day with two friends who were having a girls outing. They were fun and delightful. It really makes the time fly, when you are busy like we were. I also had a mom and daughter, the daughter is graduating from the Law School Saturday and her mother was there for the graduation so they came up for a short but good tour.
After shift, I borrowed a Gator and took Anna and Dede all over the back county of the site. Dede has seen most of this, but it was new for Anna and fun to share with her. Anna was a good sport and listened and acted interested. We then drove toward Tunbridge doing covered bridges and looking at the wooden quilt blocks hanging on walls, usually barns in Chelsea. Went through South Royalton and then came home to a great pork-chop and gravy dinner. It is so great to have the world's greatest cook as your missionary (and eternal) companion.
It is now time to play a game and get ready for bed. Tomorrow we will go to Barre to hike and visit Hope Cemetery.
Pictures from today. I love the cascade on White Water Brook and this foundation at the East edge of the property of a multi-story barn.
20-May-2023-Saturday
With Anna, we went to Barre to hike the Barre Town forest trails among the quarries. We have done this twice and both times walked a fairly long distance along street roads before starting on the trail. It is boring and steep and in the sunshine, warm. I had looked at the map and found we could do the entire hike by staying on trails and I am not sure it is not actually shorter. It also allowed us to visit three other former quarries we have never seen before. It was not as warm as yesterday and the path often follows a rail line, so it is not steep at all. Obviously need some pictures. I am showing a new quarry (for us) and walls and carvings made in the stone walls that lead up to the Grand View on the trail.
We drove around Hope Cemetery where they were putting up flags for Memorial Day on the graves that mark veterans. That was fun to see. Many people were involved. There must be a minimum size and cost for the headstones in this cemetery as they are amazing and large. We then went to eat at Ladder 1 restaurant, which was formerly fire station 1 in Barre, but is now a restaurant. Lots of memorabilia inside and the food was good.
We got to the site at 2:00 and finished a tour already started by Buswells. It was a nonmember couple from England. They were delightful and VT was the last state of the 50 for them to visit. We also had two gentlemen who had come for graduation at the law university and Dede shared with them the story of the monument. That was all the visitors. We dead-headed flowers and finished walking to complete our steps and worked on the blog to get last week's blog out and to edit this week's blog. A good day. Will stop and buy rhubarb and vanilla ice cream on the way home for dessert. Yum!
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