Week of Firsts

It seems like it has been a long week, but I checked and it has just been seven days.  I don’t know how to explain it but we have kept ourselves busy.  When we aren’t at the Fort we are home weeding the yard or working on computer projects.  This morning one of our missionary neighbors came over and said that we would win for the cleanest yard.  He is a rancher from the next valley over and I think he and his wife must sit in their trailer and just laugh at the “city slickers” trying to clear the weed patch.  We are at least doing our part in filling up the dumpsters with bags of weeds.

This week for P-day we drove over to Hwy 89 and drove down along the Sevier River.  There were a lot of geocaches along the way so I had to find as many as possible.  They were on the sides of mountains as well as on the banks of the river.  We stopped at Big Rock Candy Mountain that seems to be eroding away.  Back in the day, when the song of the same name was popular, the locals stuck a sign out in front of their hill/mountain and the name stuck.  They even have a Lemonade Springs along one of the trails.  We also drove into Marysvale that is an old mining town, but now seems to be a hub for ATV enthusiasts since the town is basically one huge RV park.  When I went into a craft shop, I got to talk to the clerk and it turns out she knows Brian and Carla Thompson who she grew up with in Phoenix (her and her husband are Lynn and Tracy Armstrong).  I am amazed how connections are made between people.  Speaking of that idea, one of the tours Stephen and I did this week was with a couple that had been visiting their grandchildren in Clovis, CA. 

We also had time one morning to ride bikes up to the top of Cove Creek.   It was a couple of miles ride on a dirt/gravel road.  Luckily we ran into a guy driving a grader who gave us more exact instructions. We had a nice conversation until he asked if I’d worked outside the home and I said yes and then he proceeded to tell us how having his wife at home all the time made all the difference in his family.  The good news is that we found the creek.  On the way back to the Fort I saw a white spot on the hill so I said I was going to go look at it – I thought it might be the limestone quarry I’ve been looking for.  It was strange in that the area looked like there had been some excavation and it smelled like sulfur.  It made for a long bike ride.

Possible lime kiln in the limestone quarry.

We were getting ready to close the fort Tuesday night when a guy stopped by and asked if he could video a song in the Fort.  I went down to listen to him and he was pretty good.  He wrote the song that he recorded.  It is called “This is the Place”.  Take a moment and go to this link at YouTube to listen to the performance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iVgklu4a40)

Stephen and I were out walking Friday morning when we saw a really strange bus pull into the Chevron Station.  We walked back quickly so I could get a closer look at it.  It turned out to be part of a German company called Rotel Tours (look at their Facebook page for some of the places they go).  Check out the 

pictures – the bus is ½ tour bus and ½ sleeper.  I actually asked the 

driver if they were planning to stop at Cove Fort but he said it wasn’t on the itinerary.  It gave me the idea that perhaps we should be contacting the various tour companies that drive by on I-15 and I-70 to see if they would like to bring their people to Cove Fort.  When I shared the idea with the Christensens, our site directors, they liked it, so now I am charged with trying to find

tour companies that would have tours passing through our area.

This week we got to take our first, and probably only, school tour through the fort.  Stephen had ten girls in his group and I had ten boys. It was fun to take them through and try to answer all of their questions.  The best part was when we went to the barn and I was showing the boys the salt licks from the Redmond area.  The next thing I knew they were over there licking them with their tongues.  They couldn’t hurt the salt but I could barely imagine the number of germs that they were ingesting.  Our other first for the week was that we both got our first referral cards.  Stephen actually got two, but I just got mine yesterday.  It was unexpected since the guy just wanted to walk through the fort.  He wound up going through all the rooms, all of the outbuildings, and when he was finally headed for the restroom, I mentioned that there was a movie and he wanted to see that as well.  It was a great feeling being able to answer his questions and share my testimony with him.  He even said he plans to return with his two teenage sons later this summer.  He gave me his contact information and now I get to follow up on it via email and make sure that he gets his questions answered. 

That’s it for now.  We still have just eight grandchildren but are hoping for word this week that the number has been bumped to nine.