Dear Family,
Welcome aboard Bryan Jon McKay! We called Lloyd this morning and he tells us that the above Senor was born 3 am on the 17th, weight 7lbs. Carol is due home from the hospital to-day. Both are fine. We are not quite sure we got the name right as it is easy to misunderstand over the phone, but we believe we have. Congratulations Carol and Lloyd.
We left our beautiful camp on the McKenzie River on Monday last. Mother hated to leave. After Bend, we drove through some very desolate country, almost all day long. We stopped at a little town called Vale in Oregon near the Idaho border and as there were no camping places for miles in either direction we were forced to stay in a Motel, I think it was called the Williams; anyway, we sure got gyped. We thought we were going to fall through the floor; the bed was sway backed, the shower was as tall as my navel and we could not sleep because it was so hot.
The next night we stayed in a forest camp, in the Caribeau Forest near Pocatello Idaho. It was a nice little camp and we were relieved to get back in our own beds, (which have foam rubber mattresses, by- the way and are very comfortable.
Along the Snake River in Idaho we began to see evidence of Mormon settlement. Many places now abandoned indicated that Mormons had been there by the groves of poplar trees that are still standing. The small towns too showed the Brigham Young influence by Main Streets wide enough to turn a six horse team around.
As we would go through a town, approaching a church, Mother would say, I’ll bet that is a Mormon church. She was usually right, but she pointed out one building in Twin Falls, that didn’t seem right to me. It was a beautiful building, but it had a clock in the steeple. When we were close enough to read the plaque, we saw that it read UNION PACIFIC.
We went a long way around to reach the Flaming Gorge area, but I for one enjoyed the trip through Eastern Idaho more than I did the Flaming Gorge itself. The towns around Bear Lake (whose turquoise waters are beautiful), were predominately Mormon. When we turned on the radio in this area, we heard about the activity of the Relief Society, speakers scheduled for a coming conference etc.
We were disappointed when we reached the Flaming Gorge area. We had stretched our day. Tired and ready to camp, we could not find one. Beautiful camps along Sheep’s Creek were closed because of flood danger, (even though it had not rained in months). We heard that several campers had been drowned in this canyon several years ago, so they close the camps now every time they see a cloud. The road through this canyon is rough and unpaved. We were lucky to get through it without breaking our car or trailer. When we finally climbed out to the rim of the Gorge and found a camping place, we were too tired to enjoy the scenery.
We stayed a day here – resting. There are fish in the lake, but you need a boat to get them. Three Mormon brothers with a boat, (who had left their wives home for the first time in their lives), gave us a couple of Rainbow trout that were much too long to get in our 12” frying pan. We had to cut off the heads and tails to get them in the pan. One of them was a meal!
We arrived here last night, to find the McKays on a jaunt to Salt Lake, Fran’s brother graduated last night from BYU. It was probably a good thing they were not home. It gave us a chance to clean up before they saw us and did we need it!
Our plans are fluid! We believe we will go to Marion’s when we leave here, then on to L.A. to get acquainted with Bryan Jon.
Vayo Con Dios,
Dad
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