We went to Shelley and Arthur’s church yesterday. That was a question we heard Shelley ask a young girl who appeared rather sad. Here’s the rest of the exchange:
Shelley
(Vibrantly and happily): “Is it Spring Break yet?”
Girl
(Extremely sadly): “Yes. It
started yesterday. But it only lasts a
week.”
Shelley
(Ever the optimist): “Well, that’s what everybody gets!”
It
was fun to worship with a different group of believers, but we sure missed
Seaside. We had only one person actually
speak to us. That was a lady who mistook
Chris for someone else. There was also
one guy who nodded at us, and I think he said hello. I sure said it back, I hope
convincingly. I think they might need to
learn how to take a risk to recognize visitors and actually speak to them. Hey, that would be a good theme for the
training: Risk to Recognize. Sorry, I
forgot I’m retired now. The highlight of
the worship experience was standing behind an older gentleman who was obviously
into the worship. He gently swayed and
danced and lifted his arms in praise. He
was quite the inspiration.
Most
of the day was spent in the car. We got from
Salt Lake City way in the North all the way down to Capital Reef National Park
in south central Utah. And since we were
a little ahead of schedule (Perhaps thanks to Utah’s 80 mph speed limit on
interstates), we drove right on into the park and did the scenic drive. I suppose it would have been more spectacular
had this been our first park of the trip, but after Arches and Canyonlands,
these places are going to have to step up their game. This one tried. It also had a historical section with an old
cabin that sold local stuff. It was located
in an orchard of some kind. In fact they
had a sign in the visitor’s center that said you could eat all the fruit you
wanted … in the field. Couldn’t load it
up and take it home, though. Of course,
it was still way too early for fruit for us.
We enjoyed checking out the old cabin and an old one-room
schoolhouse. Chris sent a picture of
that one to our favorite schoolteacher, KayLynn. My favorite excursion of the day, though, was
over to the pictographs. There’s a
different name for them that sounds like pterodactyl or something, but I can’t
remember it. But I did like the pictures
that tell a story. Imagine that. The fun thing here involved the repeated warnings
we saw not to vandalize the historic cliffs.
Seems people had been adding their own graffiti to that of the early Indians. The challenge game among us tourists of course
became trying to figure out which art was modern defacing and which was ancient
scrawling. Most of the time it was easy. The ancient stuff was halfway up the face of the
cliff. And the modern doodles were
obviously poor attempts to copy the existing markings. We all got a kick out of one, though. One picture was without a doubt, unmistakably,
none other than Charlie Brown. Pretty
good likeness.
We
splurged on dinner and went to a local steakhouse. Actually we had little choice. It was the only game in town in this tiny
little burg just outside the park. I had
the northern version of a chicken fried steak.
They called it country fried. Not
sure what country. It was not horrible,
but definitely NOT chicken fried steak.
Paper thin steak, covered with a thin layer of some kind of batter and
fried to a dark crisp. Oh, and served
with a peppercorn gravy. Definitely NOT
cream gravy. So glad I told them to put
it on the side. So … definitely NOT chicken
fried steak. And Chris had a big salad
that she said was the best she has had yet.
So supper served its purpose. We
were stuffed and ready to watch the women’s NCAA finals. Sad that U Conn lost. By the way. I like watching Paige Bueckers play.
Psalms
27: 4 says, “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty
of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”
Father,
help us be like Shelley and appreciate the gifts we receive in the moment. Amen.
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