Sadie and I had some very important things to do before Grandpa and I left......she is such a girly girl!
....and of course we had some serious coloring to do....she did a great job!
Then there was a group hug when Daddy came home for lunch (he works just around the corner...the flagpole blowing in the wind that I took yesterday was the family business) Then we said our goodbye's.....and traveled to what seems like another planet......
Aren't these mountains beautiful??? We headed south to St. George Utah, and the scenery along the way was breathtaking....We reached the summit at 7180 feet....can't tell you the summit of which mountain range, but we went through the gaument of colors.....brown, white, red rocks........mountains with trees.....you name it we saw it.
This area was awesome....there were ridges carved out by who knows what....wind? A river?
We stopped at Cove Fort one of our church's historic sights. We stopped here many years ago with the kids, but we thought it would be fun to see it again. In 1867 President Brigham Young sent Ira Nathaniel Hinckley to build this fort instead of a town, because of the scarcity of water to be a way station for pioneers traveling along the "Mormon Corridor." For more than 20 years the Fort served an important function, but as times changed so did the need for the fort. The land was leased out and eventually sold. Nearly one hundred years later in 1988 the Hinckley family purchased the Fort and gave it as a gift to the church as a historic sight.
There were 2 sides to the fort....one side had the kitchen & dining room, where they served the many travelers that passed through, a mail room, telegraph room and a bedroom for the boys. The Hinckley family had 3 boys and 4 girls. The other side had the girls rooms, guest rooms and parents room.
An interesting little fact...the mattresses were made of this blue striped material and filled with ticking and needed to be fluffed up from time to time....they would use the rolling pin on the top of headboard to roll out the lumps. Nothing was wasted, so when the fabric became too thin for a bed, boys pants were made out of it....and when the pants wore out, the fabric was torn into strips and made into rugs.
Richard is standing at a lookout...there was never any trouble with the indians....but it was there just in case. The lookout actually looked out to a huge garden as well as the blacksmiths shop and other things. There are 22 missionary couples that work daily at Cove Fort.....4 people are assigned just to take care of the garden. It was immaculate....not a weed to be had. The missionaries eat the food that is produced there.
The top is a pic that shows the date of when a bed quilt was made. The blue quilt is a linsy woolsey quilt...not sure if that's how its spelled, but wanted to share for the quilters in the family.
This was used to wrap yarn into balls.....I'm not sure if I'm telling it exactly right.... but after it had gone around the weasel 30 times it would "pop" to stop....thus, the saying "Pop goes the weasel"
There a several of these very large Black Locust trees in the courtyard. The life span for these trees is 80-90 years. These trees are 145 years old. They have them braced up in spots to help relieve the stresses they are under.
We headed out after our tour....about 135 miles from St. George. The landscape was constantly changing.
I have never seen SO MANY billboards. They were all along the way...I would say over 100...on BOTH sides of the road!
The red rock is just spectacular....you can see in the top picture how flat the top is....these are all as we neared St. George.
We got checked into our hotel and drove to Tuacahn where we would go to see
"Throughly Modern Millie" in just a few hours.
It was FABULOUS.......
STAY TUNED.....
3 comments:
All the mountains and red rock look beautiful! And i had never heard of cove fort before! Hanks for the education;)
I love the red rock in Utah. It is so beautiful in a stark sort of way. I'm glad you are forging on and having fun on your vacation. :) I got your message last night. Thanks for the phone number. I called mom and talked also to Tammy and briefly to Ronnie. Janie is there today. I'm glad for that. I talked to Ellouise briefly when I called to check on how she was doing today. She doesn't sound very good, but she has had blessings and you should keep enjoying your vacation. Others have things under control.
The pictures with the kids are sweet. I have never painted any of my granddaughter's fingernails so you are SPECIAL. I don't think I mentioned it but in one of these posts a few days ago you were my twin. You were wearing a white blouse and black pants. Did you feel like your seester?
Post a Comment