Day 179, July 23, Twin Falls and Meridian, ID

 Six temples in four days. Whew! Was such a treat, and I was quite amazed at how different each temple was. Hadn’t anticipated enjoying this week nearly as much as I actually did.

Today was first the Twin Falls Temple, a newish and stunningly beautiful edifice both inside and out, then on to …







… the Meridian Idaho temple, as gorgeous as any we’ve ever attended. Oh my, it’s difficult to drag ourselves away from these bastions of peace and beauty where we are so deeply spiritually replenished.





 

The Idaho Falls creation room contained a massive, richly colored and breathtaking mural on all four walls of the nearby Shoshone Falls on the Snake River which I’d never seen before, so we made a quick detour there and added yet another potential kayak trip to our overflowing bucket list.
 


We’ve boondocked the last three nights in the desert or along river ways, wherever we could legally find a piece of flat lonely ground. It’s so cool to be out in the wilds under the big starry sky with a bright Milky Way arching across overhead. Falling asleep to the sound of crickets and coyotes and rippling water is my kind of living, especially snuggled next to my sweetheart in our precious Bambi. Life is good. 

We pulled in late last night to Aaron’s daughters ranch in the wee town of North Powder, OR. Originally, we’d planned to hike The Elkhorn Crest trail for a few days with one of Aaron’s friends, but he doesn’t think he’s up to a backpack trip after all. So we’ll hang out with the 4 grandkids on the ranch and with his other daughter and 3 grandkids in nearby Baker City for the week. Life on the ranch is always busy and loaded with entertainment depending on what work of raising cattle is currently demanded by the season. I’ve been here during calving season, planting season, and haying season. We’ll see what awaits us this delightful time of year. 



 
Good deeds: Looking for someone in need of a $25 Costco card, I choose one of the many less well-to-do Hispanic farm laborers abundant throughout southern Idaho. This particular gentleman was filling his dilapidated truck with gas. He was super excited with the gift card. like a child at Christmas. He kept animatedly asking “Me? Me? Why me?” Was such a joy to make him happy.
The man leading our session in the Meridian Temple obviously struggles with what I correctly assumed was MS. Kasper offered to help him as we exited the temple and retrieved his truck from the parking lot so he didn’t have so far to walk. The man commented, “Nobody’s ever done this before.” Whereupon I replied, “Well, you’ve never run into my Kasper before.”

We came across this brilliant painting in the foyer of the Pocatello Temple by Minerva Teichert entitied “Not Alone” depicting widow Mary Fielding Smith (one of my heroines) crossing the plains, defying the odds, the hosts of heaven defending her. Magnificent! 



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