Final day in Kirtland

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Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Michigan City, IN
Another big driving day. We started off first thing by driving out to the Morley Farm, but only very briefly—we didn’t even get out of the bus! Then we went immediately to the Kirtland Temple. Several of the group went to the cemetery next door to look up ancestors or Church historical dignitaries. We got several pictures of the Temple exterior, spent a bunch of money at the RLDS visitors center gift shop, an then got our tour by our guide, David Bolton, a British student here for the summer. It was a pleasant tour, and while we couldn’t take pix inside the temple, we did spend some time inside while David guided us, and I snuck an audio recording of most of his words. We learned a little RLDS history, and a greater appreciation of the Temple itself.
Next stop was the John and Alice (Elsa) Johnson home in Hiram. Sis. Taglaferri took our half of the group on the tour, and she gave us a very sweet testimony. Apparently, the Sisters in the Cleveland are taken from normal proselyting in the summer months to work the historical sites (Johnson home and Kirtland). I never realized before that the room Joseph was taken from was actually the front bedroom, just a couple feet inside the front door. Also, that Sidney Rigdon at the time was living in the Johnson’s old cabin across the street, which is why we only find him halfway into the story.
Gordon gave us some very good information on Emma, and bore a neat testimony about her importance and faithfulness, as well as an application of her life to ours. We watched several DCCH seminary videos on the bus trips today, and even had a discussion about the pronunciation of the name, “Vilate”.
Lunch was on our own at a turnpike rest stop. Mona had some soup and bread—she loved the soup (cheese and broccoli) because it was very, very hot—she prefers it that way. We had a nice chat with Julia Bullock while eating, then back on the road. We stopped on the highway for a couple more rest stops, and unfortunately one unexpected stop, as the inner duallie tire on the rear passenger side blew out. It made a horrible noise just under our seat, and it also damaged the other (outside) tire. We tried driving slowly to find a tire shop (like we did yesterday in Canada!), but the highway patrol stopped us and said the remaining tire was in too poor a shape to continue with passengers inside. So, we got to wait for a tow/recovery man to come out with two new tires and replace them while we sat on the grass next to a highwayside field and watched him. He was very good at his job—which did not look very fun at all—and we got away after only about 1.5 hour delay. The bright side was that we made dinner on time, since the delay only ate up time we had set aside for shopping in Middlebury, an Amish tourist town.
We ate in Middlebury, at a HUGE Amish style restaurant, Das Dutchland Essenhaus. They feed you as much as you can eat. We had salad, yummy fried chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, fresh green beans, gravy, homemade bread, and pie (any kind we asked for). We all stuffed ourselves, and still had a few minutes to look at the gift shops as well. Then, back on the road to finish the trip to Michigan City. Tonight the hunter became the hunted, as Mona snuck the camera out of the case attached to my belt while I was sleeping and got the grossest shot of my ugly slack-jawed mug—without me every finding out!
Mona loves the hotel, as they have a nice exercise room right across from our room.

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