Day Twelve

We asked our 80 year old guide to take our picture.

Attempt #2

This is as good as it's gonna get.

Tabernacle

Now it's true that Lester talks to everybody but most of those everybodys tend to be blond and look like Miss Dusseldorf.

And on the twelfth day he rested.

Jesus is just alright

I feel all out of sorts because we’ve been on such a daily regimen that it seems weird to have a day off. I wasn’t planning to make a blog entry today because I know most of my loyal readers are hardcore bikers but we had so much fun in Salt Lake City that I’d thought I’d share a few photos and stories.

It did feel good to sleep in and after fighting two busloads of Asians for a plate and piece of toast at breakfast I was ready for some culture. Somehow we ended up with a wonderfully religiously diverse group ready to change Mormon history. Picture this venturing into Temple Square. First we’ve got good Catholic John Hurley. We’ve also got strict scripture Baptist Lester Bridges. And then there’s me.

The guides are all young women (no males) from all over the globe doing missionary service. They are exceedingly polite, smart, and they’ve seen the likes of us three before I’m sure. I was interested to learn a lot about the history of the religion like the gold plates in upstate NY, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the Book of Mormon which is used in conjunction with the King James Version of the Bible. We talked about the role of women and the unique historic perspective espoused in the Book of Mormon. Occasionally it got a little awkward but never nasty even when Lester asked about the underwear and the multiple wives.

Only the faithful are allowed in the Temple but we toured the chapel, the tabernacle, and the Beehive House. I couldn’t figure out the beehive symbol on the highway signs the other day and I’m still unclear on the connection to beehives. It has something to do with Brigham Young but nothing to do with bee-keeping. Apparently Prophet Young used the beehive as a symbol of how everyone should work together for the good of the community. The ironic thing to me is that in a real beehive the queen bee controls everything which is totally contradictory to how the Mormons seem to operate.

Another weird thing regarding nature…we got a tour of the hi-tech Conference Center and the fourth “floor” is a beautiful roof garden with falling water and granite. Instead of soil they use a manmade product that is lighter than soil but here’s the really weird part…after they opened the building they found they had a “problem” with birds, insects, and squirrels up there so they installed a sophisticated system to keep those away allowing for a cleaner “natural” experience. They out-disneyed Disney…let’s only have the “good” part of nature…

We tried but never got over to Leatherby’s for ice cream so we settled for Ben & Jerry’s at the Gateway Mall. Definitely want to come back here but tomorrow we’re back to the bike routine and the good news is that Robb returns late tomorrow and will ride on Saturday.