16-July-2023-Sunday
It was raining hard when we left for church. I must admit, I am a little more concerned about rain in VT, than I have been in the past after the flooding we experienced last week. It slowed considerably within 10 miles so the drive was enjoyable. However there was a section where the road had been washed out to a single lane due to the flooding and people were driving very cautiously. More cautiously than I thought was warranted, but I am probably wrong.
When we got to church there was a large family waiting outside. Although I wanted to practice the organ, I actually stopped to visit with them. Turns out they are from Zurich Switzerland where I served my mission. They spoke English well which is good, because I no longer speak German, although after they came to the site, I was starting to understand his Swiss German a bit. Amazing what the mind can do.
I think the chorister googled the hardest hymns to play on the organ and has them all lined up for the next few weeks. Good thing I do not have a huge ego about playing the organ and the Rutland Branch is just grateful to have an organist as the organ is not set up for autoplay. Sacrament Meeting was on Family History. The Vermont Stake is all about Family History. Sunday School was fantastic.
We had first shift and arrived to people waiting for a tour; a group of 8 joined by 2 other woman. The 8 were youth who had been to EFY at Palmyra, while the two women were from Utah. The two women wanted to know every little detail, while the EFY people were just exhausted.
Our Swiss family of 8 came in and at the same time a family of 6 from St George. Dede had taken the two sisters down below while I had the 14 people and was joined by 3 nonmembers from Boston. Suddenly the people just started showing up. Luckily it was 3 pm so the Buswells came in and took care of some groups. I kept the Swiss family and the other 6, and later took the Swiss family and then the other family below, while Dede took the three nonmembers and spent good quality time with them while the Buswells and Ewers handled the rest of the crowd. When we left shortly after 4 pm, it seemed to be slowing down, but it will be interesting to see tomorrow how it went. It would be nice to see a pick up of visitors. We have been busy, but we could always enjoy more.
17-July-2023-Monday
At the end of our devotional today, President and Sister Ewer announced changes to the site, which we will discuss next week.
After working on the review while Dede went into Lebanon to return Amazon stuff, we worked the second shift. Once back at the site, everything seemed normal again. We had two couples come in and we spent a great deal of time with them. We then had a 45 minutes break and ended the day with 12 people. We had the great family of 9 from Utah. Their license plate was live for the dash. They believe you should live for the dash every day. With all the kids they were great. When they loaded up on the golf cart, they screamed and squealed like it was a roller coaster. They truly do enjoy life. Their oldest son is serving a service mission. At the end of the cart ride, he said to me: "We have had a great time but you get to be here every day". That has led me to pause once again and realize how blessed Dede and I are to be on this particular mission. While the family was in with Dede, I spoke with a young man who really impressed me. His mom had brought him as a boy to see the Christmas lights and he was impressed by the Spirit. I asked if it was as good in the summer and he thought it was even better. At Christmas, he had missed the monument and so I spent a few minutes telling that story to him. The world has such fine young people and I am always encouraged to know that so many fine young people are looking for the truth and for the good feelings that can come with the Spirit.
This was the first clear, sunny day. With it the smoke from Canada came back. I woke up with a headache which has lingered all day and now I have hay fever from it. I guess I am ready for rain again. However, it rained an inch yesterday and the impact was definitely not long lasting. At least we are not having a heat wave like the rest of the country.
19-July-2023-Wednesday. PDAY
What a fun PDAY we had, we left at 7 am and got home that night about 10 pm too exhausted to write in the blog and just wanting a shower. What could be better than having a PDAY so filled that one is totally exhausted at the end of the day? We headed for the Cog Wheel train to go up Mt Washington, which is the highest peak in the Eastern USA. It is only about 6250 feet tall, so small compared to the West, but for the East very significant. We were informed that it sits at the confluence of 3 or 4 major and/or 25 minor weather systems and so with its height and position it experiences the worst weather in the USA. In fact the heaviest wind recorded with a human present was on top of the hill and it measured 231 mph. The brakeman / interpreter for the ride up and the one going down, spent a great deal of time explaining the weather pattern and how rare it was to get a clear day. Interestingly they kept mixing their facts. About 8 days a year, the visibility is perfect and one can see over 100 miles. About 40% of the time you are totally fogged in up top. Unless you listened hard, it sounded like it only 8 days a year could one see anything up top. In other words, they were preparing us for the bad weather they knew was going to be at the top. Regardless the ride up was fun and well worth the money. The cog wheel train is the first built in the world, the Swiss (Rigi Ban) would follow a year later. The average slope is 25 degrees (1 foot rise for each 4 feet traveled), but as at Jacob Ladders, pictured below, one is at 33 degrees (or 1 foot raise for each 3 feet traveled.). If you stand up straight , you are leaning way forward in the car as shown in the picture. It was hard to see out due to the trees up to Jacob's ladder and when we got above the taller trees in the sub-alpine and alpine regions (which start very low in altitude due to the bad weather, we ere enveloped in fog.
Since it was a train, we obviously made it to the top. We had an hour to explore and then had to catch our train down. It was a busy day and they could not guarantee you a ride if you missed your train back. You can see the fog, actually clouds. It was fun to watch from the observation deck. We were nearly at the top of the clouds and at times the sun would appear and just for a minute one could see the sun and the vista around. It reminded me of some of the inspiration I have received. Enough to move me forward and excite me, but not enough to clearly know what I was seeing. Did I mention that the Appalachian trail goes up and over Mt Washington? That must be a day when one hits that portion of the trail and looks forward to climbing 4400 feet. See pictures below. The keen observer will notice that I take the same picture within seconds of each other and the difference in what one can see. Perhaps most easily seen as our train came up the mountain.
When we reached the bottom of the mountain and we looked up, it was pretty obvious that the cloud had left the mountain. I had decided our best chance was to go in the morning as we had been seeing thunder storms almost every afternoon. Boy was I wrong. This left me very disappointed. Obviously I was focused on the end result and not the experience. I was also worried that I had somehow failed with my timing.
Regardless, it was merely 1 pm, so we had so much to do. Next stop was the Mt. Washington Hotel. This is the last grand hotel in the region. Our brake man said there had once been about 60 in the White Mountains occupied by the richest of the rich for months on end in the summer and sometimes in the winter for skiing. In fact there were two on top of Mt Washington. Then when travel became easier, the rich no longer needed to get out of the big cities for the summer and these grand hotels began to disappear as the peon traveler like me wanted cheaper accommodations. Regardless, this is the most visited site in the White Mountains. Historically Mt Washington Hotel hosted a summit where the the financiers of the world got together and created the World Bank, during WWll. Obviously without Germany and other Axis powers. It was like stepping back in time when we entered. Pictures below show the room where the signing took place called the Gold Room. Also a room called the Cave. During prohibition this was a speak easy for the rich and famous. Built such that the bar with all the booze could be raised into the ceiling and hidden. Everyone drank from china tea cups and so when raided by the feds, it turned into a non-formal dining room very quickly and thus was never shut down although raided a few times. Nephew Jake should appreciate the first room if not the second.
We next visited Franconia Notch State Park. What a beautiful place. They have a hike called the Flume and charge adults $21 to hike it. I think they would have done better selling tickets to everyone who entered the park $4 a person, but who am I. We then went to other places in the park and hiked, the basin and little flume. The Flume was a harder hike than I expected. I knew Sister Wilcox with her bad knee hiked it and I am very impressed with her. So many waterfalls, I will put in a few pictures, from all three hikes but they will not do justice for what we saw hiking.
By the time we finished hiking. Not that we saw everything there, but I was finished physically. I suggested we go eat, but Dede suggested we try to drive up Mt Washington. The road up the mountain closed at 6 pm and we got there at 5:50 pm. They told us it would take 30 minutes to get up and we would need to start down by 6:45. They were trying to discourage us. Since the traffic was light we got up in 15 minutes and were coming back down by 6:30 with plenty of time to take pictures all the way down. Now the question? What was better? Being on the mountain top in the cloud watching the fog coming in and out and catching a brief view of the vistas around, or coming up when it was mostly clear and being overwhelmed by everything one could see, but also realizing that the smoke was hurting the view? I am at a loss to know, but am glad I experienced both. Regardless a few pictures from the top on the second attempt.
20-July-2023-Thursday
Slept in and then spent two hours writing in the blog. It is not the writing as much as the getting the pictures. The computer was so slow. I then worked on the review. I started making some good changes which will surely improve the review. This has to do with the endnotes and annotations. So much fun.
We had a slower day at the site, but still enjoyed 10 or so people. We had a convert of two months and she was just plain fun. She was with another convert of many years and two sister missionaries. Meanwhile Dede had another great couple. I also visited briefly with a nonmember who was not excited to see me. Finally at the end of the day we had another couple come in so we got home about 7 again. So nice to have people come in.
During the slow period, I went below and measured the rock wall along the road toward the stone bridge. I also found another section of rock walls along this road which I had not seen before. This is good fun.
21-July-2023-Friday
Happy, Happy Birthday Ian. It was such fun to watch Ian open birthday gifts this morning via Zoom and realize how much we miss each of our grandchildren.
This morning was fun at the site. We had 3 couples all members who wanted to take all the time in the world and we so enjoyed each and their many questions. Each was different. Dede had a nonmember couple who asked interesting questions. Sometimes I wonder where some these questions come from. I had the privilege of leading 33 members from the Cambridge Portuguese speaking branch. It was such fun. They wanted to get out the rain from this morning and so they came and watched two Portuguese videos and then I led them on a tour. A former sister missionary had come out from Utah to take this trip to Camp Joseph with them. She served as my interpreter and many members of the branch helped her out. I think I mentioned before, Boston has the largest number of Brazilian people living anywhere outside of Brazil. It is hard to believe this branch is not a ward. Lots of men, but I am not sure of their priesthood status. I felt like singing the old primary children's song "hark, hark, hark, the children singing,,,there are children all around." This is how it felt, so many young children, so bright, and so many 6-8 year olds that were bilingual. The future of the church is so bright in America with these young people of different nationalities. I took two loads of people down in the golf cart as it quit raining. Such fun.
After our shift, we changed and went to Gilsum NH. This is where Lucy Mack was born and where her father Solomon Mack and his son Solomon Jr along with their wives are buried. We found the cemetery even though it is not listed on Google Maps. Hopefully I got it added. (Yes I did and added comments about Solomon for future visitors.) We then found the grave markers. The cemetery is fairly large with burials ranging over a few hundred years. Both coming and going to Gilsum we drove through fierce rain storms, but were lucky when we were there to not have rain. We first found a wonderful stone bridge. Solomon helped build the original stone bridge at the site. Then the cemetery and finally the area where Lucy was born. Good fun. Pictures:
The bridge in the picture is at the site of the original bridge built by Solomon and family. They also built the first dam across Connecticut River.. Next pictures of Solomons headstone (Lucy's father) and Solomon Jr. her brother.
Per the New England Sacred Places book, Lucy was born near the cemetery probably in this area. I am also including the cemetery vault which is close to the Mack headstones and a close up of Solomon's headstone.
Next we hiked to Porcupine Falls. A small set of falls, but the .4 mile trail was in great condition and well marked. From there we found Prentiss Covered Bridge. This bridge was redone in 2002, but is no longer on the working road. At 38 feet, it was a fairly short bridge. But the wood work and the rock work were superb. It was on the way to the Common Man Restaurant where we wanted to have dinner. We have heard good things of this restaurant and were not disappointed. The restaurant was in a former Mill building. The river outside was running hight with all the rain and there were two waterfalls to enjoy, plus they put plexiglass over the water running through the building to power the mill in the olden days. Finally a tribute to Coke just for Eric.
Walmart was our last stop and then we fought heavy rain most of the way home, but arrived at the apartment to no rain and could unload easily. All in all such a fun day, spent with such a fun wife. Who could ask for anything more?????
22-July-2023-Saturday
Another day is in the books. Spent most of the morning working on my review. Using annotated endnotes has allowed me to back and edit sections and take out detail that makes it hard to read and put it in the notes section. But it comes at a cost of rewriting.
We had a great day at the site. We were busy from the moment we arrived until 5:55 when I put the golf cart away and spent a few moments speaking to the Ewers. They looked absolutely drained. This has been hard on them. Our guests were mostly members, although Dede had two young women who were nonmembers and spent quality time with them. We had large groups of people and that is always so fun.
After work we ate fast so we could clean the car. Washed the mats and vacuumed before washing the car. But first, we stopped and had a Sundae at the Gorge. It was four scoops of coconut ice cream and hot fudge. Can I say out of this world????
We received an email from President Shelton. They will have the Sacrament and then let everyone go to help with flooded areas in Ludlow which was hit hard. We will only be able to stay an hour or so, but will show up in work clothes and then leave for the site.
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