California Roadtrip - Homeward Bound & A Mission Call!

Alone again!!  Hmm.. but first, the need to negotiate the last of the city freeway and find the way in the east direction to Las Vegas.  Los Angeles is vast. Very vast. Very busy and not the place for us to linger.  As we became immerged in the mountains, the skies cleared and we could see the ranges stretching far into the distance.  I discovered there are about 30 million people who live in Los Angeles.  It's hard to comprehend such a number!  Our journey reversed itself.  We passed the turn off to Lake Mead, followed the meandering road through the mountains, entered the cactus covered desert area, all the while listening to country music on the radio.  I lay the seat back flat and drifted off only to wake as the car slowed down and we were entering Las Vegas. 

Rick had found a Post Office so we could post to our granddaughter Zayla who is turning TWO!  We have been carrying her present with us for two weeks now!  I sure miss her sweet little cuddles, and love how she is talking now, her beautiful little voice.  I just want to hug her so tight, Chloe too.  My girls..

Las Vegas is hot! The blast of hot air hits you in a very familiar way.  However, we didn't linger except to grab a late lunch at 'In and Out'.  This was a new experience.  It's actually a hamburger place with only four items on the menu.  The burgers and fries are made fresh on the spot, and I was so surprised at how crowded it was!!  We had to wait for our order to be processed, and ate in the car as we where once more on our way.  Once again, I was impressed with the clean, modern city that Las Vegas is, and, you can see the mountains! There is no smog!!  But if I was to live here, I would have to have really good air conditioning in my home and car, and have a swimming pool!! Despite the heat, I think it's a beautiful city.

This is where our return journey differs from our original route.  From Las Vegas we headed towards St George, which is just over the Utah border in the south west boundary.  It's about 2 hours from Vegas, and was such a nice drive.  I was quite refreshed after my lengthy nap and there was just the two of us, the radio playing whatever it could pick up, mostly country.  We watched as the desert lands gave way to more hilly country and then we came to the small town of Mesquite nestled in mountain outcrops.  Would you believe it? There was a chapel!  There seriously didn't look like there was enough population to sustain it!  When you see chapels like this, you know you are in, or close to Utah!

We suddenly it seemed (probably because I had my nose in a book), that we were entering a canyon cut into the mountain.  The road seemed to disappear, like one of those crazy rides we left behind in California.  What an amazing road.  The mountains cut deeply, and rose almost vertically around us as we wound through them, then they opened up to lovely country, a mix of desert and oasis, with mountain ranges near and far into the distance.  Then again, we stumbled upon a town which had to be St George.  Sure enough, just as Sherry said, the Temple came into full view standing out very white against the wall of red rock behind it! 

We found our way to Sherry and Richard Jensen's home in St George and had a lovely time visiting with them along with Sherry's brother and wife.  Jerry persuaded us to stay overnight to break up our journey.  They are so genuinely kind to us.  They took us out to the Visitor's Center before it closed and to see the Temple.  This is a really beautiful Temple (as they all are).  But this Temple has so much history being the first one built since the Nauvoo Temple, the first since the saints entered the Salt Lake Valley.  It took about six years to build.  How faithful those first saints were when asked by Brigham Young to settle in this hot, distant location. But also how obedient, and then they had the priveledge to build a temple.  It really looks magnificent at night all lit up against the night sky!

Thursday, 29 July 2011

We made an early getaway, leaving by six in the morning and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise as we left St George,which is far more extensive than we first saw.  We passed valley after beautiful valley! I was so impressed as I imagined the south west of Utah to be more like the area between Grand Junction and Price, Utah.  A bit deserty and barren.  But these towns and farmlands were very peaceful and beautiful, with the intermitten mountains keeping us company.  We passed through historic towns settled by pioneers long ago, many of which possessed several chapels!  We are definitely in Utah!!

We continued on the I-15 until we met the junction for the I-70 and a sign that pointed Salt Lake that way, and Denver this way!!!  The final stretch for home!  (It's a long 5 hour stretch!)  What came next really surprised me.  We were back in mountain country again!  Pine covered slopes that covered many miles and which eventually opened up into rocky outcrop country that resembled a shallow Grand Canyon!  Before long, I swapped with Rick to have a strectch of driving.  He slept on and off and missed the amazing scenery.  Unfortunately, when we stopped, I discovered that my camera had finally given up the ghost.  The lense refuses to stay put and keeps retracting, so I was unable to capture any of these amazing rock formations.  I enjoyed this drive through this canyon area immensely!  It was just amazing! 

Sadly, these beautiful scenes had to slowly disperse and I was now driving with a sleeping husband into open dry plains again.  This is the stretch of area, that I imagined the rest of Utah to look like.  That's ok, we were getting closer to home with each mile.  As Rick awoke, we were just talking about Tom, when he rang!  Bishop had just called him and his call had arrived!!  This is really exciting stuff!  The call is at Bishop's home, so Tom couldn't pull a Jonny and open it before we could get there!  We organised to all meet at Bishop's at 5.30pm.. Suspense!!!

We stopped only briefly at Grand Junction where Rick took over the driving.  We actually made excellent time with clear roads.  This road is now very familiar to us, we have passed through several times now. The mountains look lovely in summer too, covered with green pines and green grass with the Colorado River flowing fast and free.  We saw quite a few people white water rafting.  It was interesting to note that at first they were paddling towards us, then after we passed the Continental Divide, they were paddling downstream in the same direction as us.  The rafts really pointed out the direction the Divide caused, one way towards the Pacific Ocean and the other way towards the Atlantic..

Once we got through the tunnels we called Tom, only about an hour away now, and soon after we caught sight of Denver city stretching out before us.. We arrived home about 3.15pm after an epic journey of about 3000 miles and approximately 4700 km.  We saw so much, it was really incredible.  But after all is said and done, there is 'no place like home!'

THE CALL:

We gathered around 5.30pm at the Bishop's home after first phoning Karlie and getting Michael on skype.  It was Saturday morning in Australia, and Chloe has a ballet lesson!  (She told me how she spilt her breakfast on her leotard!) Once at Bishop's we had to wait for him to return home and then had trouble getting Michael back on skype.  Meanwhile Rick had Karlie & Nathan back on the phone, but it was a bit of a circus while we waited, very noisy and hard to hear them.  I was conscience that they needed to go for Chloe's ballet lesson.  Finally we were all ready and Tom was opening his call to...... the Australia Melbourne Mission!!!

Tom reading his call out.  Karlie & Nathan are on the phone in Adelaide, and Michael is on skype from Brisbane

 I immediately felt soo good and relief!  Tom was ecstatic, so stoked.  Wow, to be called from America back to serve in Australia.  It's just so wonderful.. Interestingly enough, when Tom first submitted his papers, he had a dream he  would serve in Australia.  Then, lots of different countries were bandied about.  So many possibilities.  In our own ward, recently two were sent to Russia and one to Panama.  Then the night before his call came, he had a really vivid dream he was going to Carbo, Greece.  Melbourne happens to be the third largest Greek city..  This has been such a spiritual experience for us.  I feel overwhelmed, our third son has been called to serve, how blessed we are.  It was disappointing however, that Tom spent alot of time in his phone calls to Australia defending how he felt about serving in Melbourne which is only about 8 hours from our home However, he is so excited and has conducted himself magnificently.  This will be the perfect mission for him. I am so proud of this son of mine.  Congratulations Tom!!

The crowd gathered to share this moment with Tom.
 Back L-R: Rick, Conlan, Kelland & Bishop Alan Smith
Middle L-R: Kelsey, Cade, Donna & Paige Mercer, Me & Sarah
Front: Tom & Taylor (Skippy).