Our 2013 Christmas Letter & Year End Wrapup

From our house to yours this Christmas 2013, May the music of Christmas fill the air!

.  We have enjoyed hosting our friends at our annual Sing and Eat ;the cantata at New Hope was performed; we have enjoyed The Promise at Live Oak First Baptist; several Christmas gatherings are now behind us.   Now we sit back, relax, and let Christmas happen.

  We have been gifted with another good year together.  We greeted 2013 on

a post Christmas cruise with Rob and Traci enjoying swimming the Caribbean and touring St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, and Grand Turk    we thoroughly enjoyed being pampered by the staff of the Ziederdam, spending long afternoons in the sunshine, and participating in every trivia contest that came along.  After coming home it was easier to get through the doldrums and cold days of January and February!

After the Easter cantata and spring share day at New Hope, we headed to  East Tennessee to enjoy time with friends and family,  watching the wild turkeys and deer, enjoying the good mountain music, and relishing springtime...  We have gained many new friends through our “church away from home” Shady Grove.  The redbuds and dogwoods were especially beautiful this year and we enjoyed time with cousins in Rogersville, Kingsport, Knoxville and Oar Ridge while we were “in the hollar.”     

After celebrating Leila Kate’s fourth birthday, We came home in May to warm weather, gardening, lawn mowing, and pool time.   In late May we returned to Greenville to celebrate Ava Grace’s seventh birthday at one of her (and her Uncle Rob’s) favorte places, Chucky Cheese.

In June we did crafts for VBS at New Hope.  We had an excellent Bible School with a really good turnout.  We made lots of fun things with the kids and enjoyed our time spent with them. 

The day after VBS was over, we flew out of Valdosta to our annual roadtrip

which was through the state of Utah. We flew into Las Vegas, rented a car, drove over to Glen Canyon Dam and entered Southern Utah.  By the time we walked back into our back door at home, we had traveled 7200 miles seeing seven national parks, a slew of state parks, Mormon monuments, mountains, the great salt lake, alfalfa fields, lavender fields, buttes, hoo doos, arches,   Klep also got to do research on genealogy at the library in Salt Lake City.  We also slipped up into the edge of Idaho. 

We came home to summer in all of its glory.  July slipped into August when we made a quick trip to Greenville and East Tennessee, returning home to finish out August and most of September.  The Rock Hill School was having a reunion the 21^st of September, so we packed up and headed back to the hills for an extended fall stay.  The highlight of our trip was when Kevin and Reagan brought the girls to East Tennessee for the first time.  It was a delight to see them run up and down the hills and climb into the loft of the old Klepper barn.  Fortunately the ghost of the headless man did not make an appearance while they were there.  We also enjoyed catching up with all our Tennessee kin and friends including a cousin get together at Fall Creek Falls State Park with some of my Hendrick cousins.  Sadly, we bid goodbye to our dear cousin Beth.

We came home after a stop in Greenville in early November to get ready for

Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Thanksgiving was full of fun, laughter, sharing, food and all the joy that surrounds the day.  Although it was too cold to sit outside on the porch after dinner, everyone did get out for a resounding round of limbo using some of our giant bamboo.

After all the cars exited the driveway the day after Thanksgiving, we switched gears and headed full

steam into party preparation for our “Christmas Sing and Eat.” Now the end of the year is right around the corner and we can reflect on life.

Funny, we never really thought we would be this old in years, but we find that the age really doesn’t mean a whole lot.  It just means that we have a whole lot more memories, experiences, and friends than we did a half century ago when we were just becoming adults.  It also means that we’ve seen a whole lot of good and a whole lot of bad.  We’ve experienced a whole lot of joy and a whole lot of sadness.  But, all in all, we find ourselves incredibly blessed in all of it.  The older we get, the more wisdom we find in the tenets of the Bible.  The older we get, the more we understand how absolutely glorious these lives we are given to

live are.  We pray rich blessings of joy and fulfillment on all of you.  After all, isn’t Christmas about the greatest gift of all?  The ultimate gift of Love wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

                Love to you all!

Utah Roadtrip: The Wrap-Up

After the intense heat at Zion, we were more than ready to find a cool place for a late-late lunch or and early dinner before falling into bed at the Hampton Inn in St. George, Utah.  We found an Olive Garden just down the street from the motel, enjoyed a healthy meal, and checked in and out!

Thursday morning, we headed toward the border, stopping once at an Indian Reservation for me to get one more little piece of Indian jewelry before we headed on south.  I enjoyed watching the older women making things as I made my choice. 

As we crossed into Arizona, the air hazed over, probably some from the forest fire that continues to rage.  We continued to the Welcome station for Nevada at Mesquite.  We had time to do at least one "tourist" thing in Nevada.  When we were there in 1969, Klep had wanted to go to Hoover Dam, but we didn't because of time and our route.  Now there is a new bridge that my engineer also wanted to see.  By the time we got through North Las Vegas and to the Hoover Dam in Boulder City, the temperature was already over 110.

We were amazed with the number of people who were spending their fourth of July to visit Hoover Dam.  There were serveral tour buses parked in the rather large lot and the rest of the lot was full of private vehicles.  We opted not to add ourselves to the hoards of people, so we drove back by the lake and headed to our final destination, Las Vegas.

Late afternoon was spent printing off boarding passes for the trip home, finding a donation box for the trip pillows, cleaning out the rental car, packing the suitcases, getting liquids and gels ready for TSA, and disposing of the leftover bottled water and ice chest.  The desk clerk at Hampton Inn was glad to take both.  We found a restaurant open on the 4th and had supper.  It was actually pretty good Chinese.  Klep's Kung poa chicken was full hot.  Since we had an early flight Friday morning, we considered finding some show to go to, but decided against it.  We were asleep early.

Friday morning we were out of the hotel shortly after six.  We returned the red Dodge Journey to Avis, rode the shuttle to the air port, and stood in line for 45 minutes as we cleared security.  Our flight was a little late leaving, and we weren't able to make up any time because of the weather front that we entered somewhere around the Mississippi River.  Our flight out of Atlanta was over an hour late leaving.  By the time we lifted off from Atlanta, the weather had pretty much cleared over Georgia.  We had s very quick flight to Valdosta where the flight attendant gave me a set of wings for my birthday which arrived shortly after we landed.

By the time we opened the back door and walked into the house, we had traveled over 7200 miles.  We saw a lot of beautiful sights and some glorious rock formations.  Many times, we get home from a trip (like Alaska) and think we would like to go back.  This time, we feel like we pretty much saw what Utah had to offer.  We are glad we went.  We had a wonderful time, but we do not feel we want to go again.
Favorite accommodations:  Cabin at Bryce

Utah Roadtrip: Zion, The Promised Land

When Utah identifies a road as scenic, it means that the road will be narrow, will contain switchbacks that will give you whiplash if you go over five miles an hour, and will either pass between sheer stone walls or on a drop off to never never land.  Such is highway 9 entering Zion National Park.  We took a deep breath, repeated our motto from VBS, "Facing fears, trusting God," and made it to Zion to marvel at the enormity of it all.  Even the heat was enormous which limited our activity.  Neither of us were eager to walk around in 106 degrees.

We liked the names of three of the high peaks, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Patriarchs.  Most of these names were given by the early Mormon settlers who also named the area Zion after the name of the promised land.

 

Zion receives about fifteen inches of rain a year, but there is still some greenery in it.  The greenery growing up on the sheer cliffs is known as the hanging gardens.

As we left the park and headed toward St.George where we will overnight, we decided that Zion is massive and impressive, but for us, it wasn't the most interesting place we visited.

Utah Roadtrip: Life Elevated

One hour before sunset I sit on the porch of our log cabin in Bryce Canyon National Park. The tall ponderosa pines shade the porch as I admire the rustic structure all stone and logs with a wooden shake shingle roof that we will sleep in. Inside we can see the huge logs which support the roof. Unfortunately it will not be cool enough for us to use the fireplace.

Our elevation is almost nine thousand feet, so we will sleep with nature's air conditioning tonight. There is no television or wifi in the cabin, So after sunset, we will have a really good excuse to go to sleep.

As we drift off tonight we will have many beautiful sites to muse over. After we left our motel in Salina, we took I 70 to scenic road 24 to Capitol Reef National Park passing bluffs along the way with layers of white interspersed with deep reds. After turning on 24 we marveled at the soft brown rolling hills that looked as though they were covered with fawn suede.

We drove by corn fields, hay fields, fat cattle, and beautiful horses grazing in tall meadows as we climbed into Fish Lake National Forest. We climbed to nearly 8,000 feet, the terrain flattened, and enjoyed an area like an Alpine Meadow. By ten we were at the visitor's center having a helpful conversaation with a young ranger who hailed from Mobile, Alabama.

Some of the most spectacular red rock formations were before we even got to the visitor's center, but we also found spectacular views as we drove to Capitol Gorge where the formations were combinations of red, orange, yellow, white and grey. As we drove back to a restored Mormon settlement, the Gifford Farm, we saw the large domed white rock from which the park takes its name. It does look somewhat like the Capitol Dome.

We stopped at the Gifford House to enjoy a late morning snack of cherry pie and homemade ice cream. We also took time to pet the farm horse before continuing our scenic drive. Before we left the park we saw some more petroglyphs made by the Fremont Indians who inhabited the area centuries ago.

We headed toward Torrey to find our next scenic road, Utah12, to take us to Bryce. We stopped at Slacker’s Hamburger Shack for a really good burger and fries. The milkshakes were tempting, but we stayed strong!

Highway 12 was an adventure. It took us about three hours to drive the one hundred miles to Bryce. We passed through a lot of Dixie National Forest which is made up primarily of Ponderosa Pines and Aspens. At Larb Hollow, altitude 9,023 feet, we looked down on miles and miles of canyons, mesas, forest, and rock formations, all shades of red and orange with taller mountains behind them. This area gets twenty inches of rain a year because of the mountain ranges. As we drove along the eastern side of Boulder Mountain, we were almost ten thousand feet up. When we stopped to view the water pocket fold at Homestead Overlook light rain began to fall and the temperature dropped to 66 degrees.

As we drove through the area, ever so often we would cross a cattle guard. The cows have free range through here, so drivers have to watch for them.

As we got nearer to Bryce Canyon, we drove though areas that had steep drop offs, sometime on both sides of the road. Fortunately these stretches did not last for long.

While Klep was checking in at Bryce, I watched a chipmunk pose on one of the posts. Since then, we have seen several more.

After finding our cabin, we took the fifteen mile drive to Rainbow Point which was an excellent place to look out over the hoodoos and rock formations in this southern Utah canyon. One of the more famous is the poodle, a creamy white rock which looks very much like a poodle posing. A hoodoo is, basically a pillar of rock left by erosion. Geologists say that ten million years ago, some gigantic force within the earth pushed massive blocks that formed the plateaus that have gradually become the hoodoos. The ones at Rainbow Point remind me of dream sickles, a combination of vanilla and orange.

At Ponderosa we saw vistas of multicolored hoodoos framed by Ponderosa pines and the Table Plateau to the north. We also ran into a couple from North Carolina who shared their experiences hiking and camping overnight at Zion, our next stop. The woman was a UT grad. It is always nice to run into someone from the south. Earlier in the week I had heard a Utah talk show person (notice the restraint) who said that no one with a southern accent could be taken seriously about anything. My listening to that station was somewhat brief!

Natural Bridge was actually an arch formed by frost and wind, not water. Experts predict that it will fall; but they have no idea when.

At Farview Point, we were supposed to be able to see the plateau that formed the Grand Canyon’s north rim, but the sky was too hazy.

Back at our cabin, we sat outside enjoying the early evening until 8:30 pm when we walked to the rim to enjoy sunset, The sunset is a reflected glory because the rim of the canyon faces east. We

watched the magic light change the colors of the hoodoos as we got closer to sunset. Finally all that was left in the light was a plateau to the northeast that looked like a glowing line of Greek temples.

In the twilight we walked back to the cabin, feeling the heat of the day turn pleasantly cooler. Around ten the stars came out. Soon after my light went out.

Fifteen minutes after sunrise, I sit on the front porch of our cabin listening to the birds begin their day song in the cool, cool air. I trekked the hundred yards from our cabin to the rim at six to watch the glorious streaks of color light the sky above the dream sickle scape below, Finally after teasing for nearly twenty minutes, the huge orb broke the skyline, dashing the colors and dragging blue across the expanse. As I returned to my cabin, the little sliver of a moon was no longer visible above me.

Today we will continue with the last three view points over the canyon before dropping further down into the heat zone of Utah to enjoy the majestic splendors of Zion.

I must admit, in all fairness, that over the last couple of days, I have, at times, experienced Cathedral Syndrome. We first discovered this condition on a family vacation to Europe which included numerous trips to ancient and glorious cathedrals. When we arrived at Notre Dame, Kevin rolled his eyes, sat down, and said, “Oh no! Not another cathedral.” When this happens, we just shake our heads, clear our minds, and take another thousand photos!



　
　

Utah Roadtrip: Life Elevated

One hour before sunset I sit on the porch of our log cabin in Bryce Canyon National Park. The tall ponderosa pines shade the porch as I admire the rustic structure all stone and logs with a wooden shake shingle roof that we will sleep in. In side we can see the huge logs which support the roof. Unfortunately it will not be cool enough for us to use the fireplace.

Our elevation is almost nine thousand feet, so we will sleep with nature's air conditioning tonight. There is no television or wifi in the cabin, so after sunset, we will have a really good excuse to go to sleep.

As we drift off tonight we will have many beautiful sites to muse over. After we left our motel in Salina, we took I 70 to scenic road 24 to Capitol Reef National Park passing bluffs along the way with layers of white interspersed with deep reds. After turning on 24 we marveled at the soft brown rolling hills that looked as though they were covered with fawn suede.

We drove by Corn fields, hay fields, fat cattle, and beautiful horses grazing in tall meadows as we climbed into Fish Lake National Forest. We climbed to nearly 8,000 feet and enjoyed an area like an Alpine Meadow. By ten we were at the visitor's center having a helpful conversaation with a young ranger who hailed from Mobile, Alabama.

Some of the most spectacular red rock formations were before we even got to the visitor's center, but we also found spectacular views as we drove to Capitol Gorge where the formations were combinations of red, orange, yellow, white and grey. As we drove back to a restored Mormon settlement, The Gifford Farm we saw the large domed white rock from which the park takes its name. It does look somewhat like the Capitol Dome.

We stopped at the Gifford House to enjoy a late morning snack of cherry pie and homemade ice cream.

We also took time to pet the farm horse before continuing our scenic drive. Before we left the park we saw some more petroglyphs made by the Fremont Indians who inhabited the area centuries ago.

We headed toward Torrey to find our next scenic road, 12 to take us to Bryce. We stopped at Slacker’s Hamburger Shack for a really good burger and fries. The milkshakes were tempting, but we stayed strong!

Highway 12 was an adventure. It took us about three hours to drive the one hundred miles to Bryce. We passed through a lot of Dixie National Forest which is made up primarily of Ponderosa Pines and Aspens. At Larb Hollow, altitude 9,023 feet, we looked down on miles and miles of canyons, mesas, forest, and rock formations, all shades of red and orange with taller mountains behind them. This area gets twenty inches of rain a year because of the mountain ranges.

As we drove along the eastern side of Boulder Mountain, we were almost ten thousand feet up. When we stopped to view the water pocket fold at Homestead Overlook, light rain began to fall and the temperature dropped to 66 degrees.

As we drove through the area ever so often, we would cross a cattle guard. The cows have free range through here, so drivers have to watch for them.

As we got nearer to Bryce Canyon, we drove though areas that had steep drop offs, sometime on both sides of the road. Fortunately these stretches did not last for long.

While Klep was checking in at Bryce, I watched a chipmunk pose on one of the posts. Since then, we have seen several more.

After finding our cabin,we took the fifteen mile drive to Rainbow Point which was an excellent place to look out over the hoodoos and rock formations in this southern Utah canyon. One of the more famous is the poodle, a creamy white rock

which looks very much like a poodle posing. A hoodoo is, basically a pillar of rock left by erosion. Geologists say that ten million years ago, some gigantic force within the earth pushed massive blocks that formed the plateaus that have gradually become the hoodoos. The ones at Rainbow Point remind me of dream sickles, a combination of vanilla and orange.

At Ponderosa we saw vistas of multicolored hoodoos framed by Ponderosa pines and the Table Plateau to the north. We also ran into a couple from North Carolina who shared their experiences hiking and camping overnight at Zion, our next stop. The woman was a UT grad. It is always nice to run into someone from the south. Earlier in the week I had heard a Utah talk show person (notice the restraint) who said that no one with a southern accent could be taken seriously about anything. My listening to that station was somewhat brief!

Natural Bridge was actually an arch formed by frost and wind, not water. Experts predict that it will fall but they have no idea when.

At Farview Point, we were supposed to be able to see the plateau that formed the Grand Canyon’s north rim, but the sky was too hazy.

Back at our cabin, we sat outside enjoying the early evening until 8:30 pm. When we walked to the rim to enjoy sunset, The sunset is a reflected glory because the rim of the canyon faces east. We watched the magic light change the colors of the hoodoos as we got closer to sunset. Finally all that was left in the light was a plateau to the northeast that looked like a glowing line of Greek temples.

In the twilight we walked back to the cabin, feeling the heat of the day turn pleasant. Around ten the stars came out. Soon after my light went out.

Fifteen minutes after sunrise, I sit on the front porch of our cabin listening to the birds begin their day song in the cool, cool air. I trekked the hundred yards from our cabin to the rim at six to watch the glorious streaks of color light the sky above the dream sickle scape below, Finally after teasing for nearly twenty minutes, the huge orb broke the skyline, dashing the colors and dragging blue across the expanse. As I returned to my cabin, the little sliver of a moon was no longer visible above me.

Today we will continue with the last three view points over the canyon before dropping further down into the heat zone of Utah to enjoy the majestic splendors of Zion.

I must admit, in all fairness, that over the last couple of days, I have, at times, experienced Cathedral Syndrome. We first discovered this condition on a family vacation to Europe which included numerous trips to ancient and glorious cathedrals. When we arrived at Notre Dame, Kevin rolled his eyes, say down, and said, “Oh no! Not another cathedral.” When this happens, we just shake our heads, clear our minds, and take another thousand photos!



　

　

Utah Roadtrip: From North to South Central

Once we got past the sprawl of motels, fast food, and chain stores to the center of Logan, we found ourselves in a pretty little town with a viable downtown area.  It is the type place that would be nice to call home if it were a little further south.  As we angled our way back toward the interstate, we passed through other small towns, some with a decidedly Western flavor, wide valleys full of green fields of crops signs advertising fresh raspberries, beautiful lakes, horses, and cows as we traveled down to the Salt Lake Valley once again.  We accessed I 15 at Brigham City and moved south passing much of the territory that we had already covered.

By a little after one with the temp at 95 degrees, we were covering new territory south of Provo with wide expanses of crops in irrigated fields.  Ocassionally we were seeing orchards, horses, cows, and beehives.  All of a sudden we were amazed to see acre after acre of purple flowers.  We were passing the Young Living Lavender Farm! I have tried for years to grow
lavender and get it to bloom and here was acres of it!

About midafternoon we left the interstate and angled down to Salina, Utah where we had reservations for the night.  Since we were running ahead of schedule, we stopped at the visitor's center (a little tiny building with two seniors about our age) and got some advice on what to do the rest of the afternoon.  They suggested two sites:  Fremont Indian State Park and Museum and Cove Fort Historic Site.  They even told us about an excellent Mexican restaurant to try for dinner.

We got on I 70 and zipped the forty miles to Fremont Indian State Park where we learned that the Fremont Indians lived in the valleys along what is now I 70.  The Fremont Indians were agricultarists who lived in this area between 400 A.D. and 1300.   They ware thought to have been influenced by the Anasazi who introduced corn and pottery.  The Fremonts are known specifically for the art panels they created on the rocks which are visible to this day.  Many artifacts from their lives were discovered when construction of the interstate highway began.  The artifacts are on display in the museum and the art can be seen from various points in the park.

It is amazing that they could do the painting and the carving high up on the rocks with no modern conveniences!

 

After we left the museum, we drove down the road to Cove Fort, a historic site where the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints built a fort in 1867 which served as a way station, trading post, post office, telegraph office, and home to Ira Hinkley and his family.  We were greeted by Revo Robb who does volunteer work with he husband and 23 other couples at the site.  After the railways came in, there was no longer a need for the site, and the church sold it.  Nearly a hundred years later, the Hinkley family bought the site and donated it to the church to be restored and maintained as a historic site.  The fort is built of black volcanic rock and dark limestone.  The walls are a hundred feet long and eighteen feet high and are very thick.  The original doors made of pine and cedar are at the entrances of the fort.  The glass in the windows was made to match the one pane that had survived. There are twelve rooms in the fort which served many purposes. 

When we have better access to stronger wifi, I want Klep to write about all the things he learned when he toured the garden, barn, and outbuildings.

 

After we came back to Salina, we had supper at El Mexicano Restaurant where I had the best chilie rollenos that I had had in forty years.  It did not disappoint.  Tomorrow we resume our National Part Tour with Capital Reef National Park.



Utah Roadtrip: A Sunday Drive to Idaho

After a leisurely start to our day (I did my exercise and swam while Klep slept in), we checked out of the Downtown Hampton Inn in Salt Lake City and went to Heritage Baptist Church in north SLC where we enjoyed worship with about fifty others as we listened to a sermon on Psalm 7 entitled "A Rock and A Fortress."  Following service, we found I 15 and headed to Idaho through the urban sprawl which finally ended after Ogden.  Gradually we saw some limited farmland and some old abandoned homesteads.

The settlements became further and further apart as we left Utah and entered Idaho.

We were getting a little low on gas, so we pulled off at a Sinclair station that advertised itself quite truthfully as "In the middle of nowhere."

 

As we got further into Idaho, we noticed a difference in the rock structures from what we have been seeing this last week.  The valleys also got wider and farmland became more common.  We saw beautiful fields of potatoes, corn, lentils, and alfalfa.  After we got on I 86 headed toward Pocatella, we passed American Falls Lake where the Snake River begins.  

The road along here is part of the original Oregon trail. We continued to Pocatella where we found Uncle Jim's Family Restaurant where we enjoyed a belated lunch or an early supper.  There actually is an Uncle Jim, but he wasn't there today.  Klep had a Greek Salad with hot flat bread and I had chicken souvlaki pita with a tossed salad. 

                         

We completed our triangle by heading south through the lush valleys of southern Idaho exiting the interstate and taking hwy 91 to Logan, Utah where we will spend the night. Klep stopped along the way to pick some alfalfa to show me since this is not something I am familiar with.   We have now reduced the number of states that we have not visited to one.  It is a little too far to drive to Oregon this trip.

 

One of the things I have been wondering about is the number of homeless people that were in Salt Lake City panhandling.  I really didn't expect that, but I guess this is a fact of life in every city now.  By and large, I have been impressed with how clean all the neighborhoods that we have driven through have been whether they were lower or upper socio-economic.  It also surprised us how little we saw of farmland until we got to the northeastern section of the state.  Much of the flat land in the Salt Lake Valley is taken up with urban development.  Where the land is irrigated, we have seen some beautiful alfalfa hay.  We also had never realized the amount of the state --70% -- which is taken up by federal land. 

 

Tomorrow we head south where we will resume our National Park visits.  We will just have to wait and see what we will discover along the way.