Well, the Budweiser Clydesdales were definitely here! The parade was a bit bigger than I thought it would be including a couple of sets of horses, a bunch of antique cars, a tumbling group, and a herd of Harley Riders! We had a great time. It was a very pleasant way to spend the evening.

We had a wonderful four-day weekend camping in the Grand Teton National Park. We left on Friday, 17 June and returned yesterday afternoon. I think my brain is still wandering around somewhere in the park! Since getting back I’ve been working on the web log software. The last upgrade disabled the ability to upload pictures and getting most of that fixed took a whole bunch of the evening. I’ve got a number of pictures, so perhaps tomorrow night I can get some of them uploaded.

As said, we left Friday morning. Since it had been a while since we had used the motor home, getting everything hooked up and ready to leave was a bit of a challenge. As it turns out, I still didn’t get everything right. More on that later…. We drove up through Idaho Falls, then east through Swan Valley and up over the pass through Victor and down into Jackson Hole. It was a long, slow climb up the hill, but it’s a beautiful drive. We got to the campground at Colter Bay about 3 in the afternoon and began unhooking and setting up camp. The first problem was the Tracker, which was being towed behind the motor home, wouldn’t drive forward. I had put the transmission into neutral, but had not put the transfer case into neutral. So, I towed the Tracker a couple of hundred miles not completely out of gear and lost Drive and 2nd. Reverse and Low still worked, but that wasn’t enough gears for driving around the park. We ended up leaving the Tracker in the campground to mark our spot while we drove the motor home everyplace. That actually didn’t turn out too badly. The vehicle is only about 23 or 24 feet long and fits into most normal parking spots. It was nice having everything with us as we drove around visiting places and it was very comfortable for Bradica (the dog). In hindsight, we could have left the Tracker home and then moved to different campgrounds each night as we toured. Next time we’ll have to consider that option.

We spent Friday and Saturday going around the park and seeing all of the sights. The mountains are very impressive and we had a great time. Each day we were back at the campground around six and spent the rest of the evening at the campsite and just relaxing. Nina got a lot of letters put into order and into plastic sleeves. She had a great time reading me excerpts from letters back in the 1960’s when we were in Japan for the first time. Sunday morning we attended the morning Sacrament Meeting of the Jackson Lodge Summer Branch. There were quite a few people there and we had a very nice service. They picked people out of the congregation to say the prayers and administer and pass the sacrament. I was asked to help bless which was a nice experience. I think the last time I did that was about ten years ago. The speakers were a High Councilor from the Driggs Idaho Stake and a recently returned missionary. The branch as well as the ward in Jackson Hole are part of the Driggs Idaho Stake, something that I didn’t know. The branch holds a Sacrament Meeting on Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. and then a full block of meetings Sunday evening starting at 5:45 p.m. Nina suggested that the late afternoon block was to accommodate the members working in the Park and the morning session was to appease us tourists.

Sunday afternoon we took a very pleasant drive around the southern loop in Yellowstone — Fishing Bridge, Canyon, Norris, Old Faithful, and back to our campground. Monday morning we slept in, cleaned up the motorhome, hooked everything up (the right way this time, but too late), and drove back home. On the way back we went through Jackson and followed the Snake River through Hobart Junction, Alpine, past the large Palisades Reservoir, through Swan Lake, Idaho Falls, and back to Pocatello. We stopped for lunch at a Wendy’s in Idaho Falls and I called a transmission shop in Pocatello and made arrangements to drop the Tracker off there on our way home. Sometime in the next day or so they’ll call and let me know how much damage I did. I can wait….

So, we’re back home. We had a very nice break from everything. My workday started with a 7:00 a.m. meeting, so it was right back into the daily routine. Nina drove down to Salt Lake to meet up with Heather for a few hours. We’ve vacationed. We’re back (at least physically).

The other day Nina told me that the guest toilet was leaking. My initial inspection didn’t show what was leaking, but I also didn’t have the time to do a thorough check. Nina did, however, and the leak was on one of the three bolts holding the tank onto the bowl. So, tonight while Nina was up at the prison, my task was to fix the toilet. That required a trip to Home Depot, of course. I bought a kit to do the fix and have spent the rest of the evening figuring out how to take the tank off and apart, reassembling everything, putting it back together, and cleaning up the mess. I’m pretty sure that the bleach tablets that we’ve been putting in the tank caused the rubber gaskets to disintegrate causing the leak. I’ll need to check the other toilet out since it’s been getting the same treatment. But, no more water on the bathroom floor is a very good thing.

The other day a good friend from work as well as a good neighbor stopped by with a piece of paper where he had copied from another missionary a supposedly remarkable prediction from a book published in 1732. The prediction talked about the coming forth of prophets within the next hundred years and a people driven to live in a valley by a great lake. It also predicted the coming of a priesthood with apostles, prophets, teachers and deacons.

This was a very remarkable piece of paper. However, if such a prediction had indeed been published, the Church and the General Authorities would have been all over it and I would have certainly heard about it. So, I went on the Internet and did a search. One of the first websites that came up was called LDS Hoaxes and Myths and thoroughly debunked the prediction. I was surprised to see how many other myths, urban legends, and hoaxes were debunked on this website. I shouldn’t have been surprised that there were so many Mormon Urban Legends! Some people will make up the most preposterous of stuff. The website was a good find, however, and metaphorically flushed another myth!

The freshly mowed grass certainly looks nice. Tom came on Friday morning and mowed the yard. When I got home from work, I went out on the back deck just to admire the yard, nicely cut, without me having to do anything. I’m quite content. Thanks, Tom, and the yard really does look nice.

Today was a pleasant Saturday. It never really got warmer than the mid 70’s with a light breeze. The hot tub heater had stopped working on Thursday, the grandkids had been in it all week long, and the water was starting to look a little green. The problem with the heater had to do with a plugged filter. I learned that one of the two filters in the tub is for the constantly circulating water. The other one is used when the jets are turned on. The filter on the left is the one constantly circulating and was pretty plugged up. I replaced that filter and drained and refilled the tub. The other filter soaked overnight in a cleaning fluid and went back into the tub this morning. Everything is working correctly once again and the tub is up to temperature. Nina and I will be visiting the hot tub in an hour or so. The afternoon and evening thunderstorms seem to have moved out of the area and the wind has died down. It will be nice to relax for a while!

We’ve started a new tradition. We’ve decided that on the Saturday night before Fast Sunday we’ll go out to dinner somewhere. That way there’s no dishes or left overs hanging around on Sunday. Tonight we went to Applebee’s for dinner. Of all the restaurants, and there aren’t many here in Pocatello, Applebee’s is right at the top of the heap. That says something about our choices for eating out in this town! We should easily make it through all the restaurants we want to eat in in a few months and then we’ll have to start recycling. We had a nice dinner. We got there a little after 5 p.m., found a parking spot right in front, and were immediately seated. By the time we left at about 6 the restaurant was full and people were waiting to be seated. We were there at just the right time. I’m liking this tradition already — except I think we have to do it more than once for it to start feeling like tradition!