Yesterday we went back to Temple Square for an organ recital, and it was terrific! The organist was Andrew Unsworth, one of five full time organists for the Tabernacle and Conference Center. His selections were by Boyce, Mozart, Rheinberger, Vierne, Dupre and two arrangements of his own. They ranged from soft and delicate to “earthquake powerful”, and displayed the full range of the organ’s tones.
The Conference Center organ was designed in the American Romantic style, and its 7,708 pipes are mostly made of lead, tin, antimony and copper, but some are made of wood. The largest pipes of this organ are 42 feet tall; they really get your attention - you feel their power in your gut.
Last night, we visited our friends Rebecca and Jerry at home for a “working dinner”. Rebecca is also a medium, but she specializes in remote viewing. She is also a former policewoman, and has honed her mediumistic skills to help solving crimes. When Suzanne and Rebecca met back in Santa Fe, it was obvious that they were kindred spirits; so when Suzanne received a call recently asking for help with a murder case, she knew where to go. When we arrived, Jerry and I adjourned to the basement while the ladies got to work. After they spent an hour and a half doing the remote viewing session in tandem, we learned that they had both come up with similar evidence. We won’t know for awhile whether the case will be solved, but they put their best efforts into solving the mystery.
While they were busy upstairs, Jerry and I sampled some of Jerry’s home brew. Now, I have had home-brewed beer before, and it was rather mediocre. Jerry’s, on the other hand, was what you would expect to sample in a first class microbrewery. It helps that Jerry is German; when he came to the US, he was not overly impressed with the quality of American beers, so he decided to make his own. For the last 25 years, he has been brewing his own German style beer. I can attest to the fact that practice makes perfect! Jerry also impressed me with his two Frederic Remington bronzes, Mountain Man and Bronco Buster. (Here is the latter.) I have been a Remington fan since childhood, so it was a real treat to see one of his works in person.
On our drive through town, we happened to see a sign that took us aback. We did not go in... but the imagination could run wild...
Today we got underway after running on the Hill Air Force Base track, fueled The Bus (70 gallons @ $3.739/gal; still, much cheaper than in California) and got on the road toward Moab, Utah, a 260 mile trip through the mountains. Stopping every hour to change drivers, we drove past Salt Lake City and Provo on busy I-15, then turned onto US Hwy 6, which carried us through the Wasatch Mountains. The road followed a narrow canyon up to Soldier Summit, 7,477 ft, and then down into the Green River Valley. It’s mostly cattle ranches and mining up there, but when we saw a sign advertising 65 acres of barren high desert... um, rather it was non-forested, somewhat rocky pastureland; it made me think again for a few moments about living “off the grid” at 7,000 ft elevation. Running cattle, hunting deer and elk, fishing for trout, killing rattlesnakes and scorpions, the nearest sizable town 60 miles away... what an idyllic life... It took Suzanne about 3 nanoseconds to comment something like, “Forget it, sailor....” Sigh... I guess I’ll never be one of the Cattle Barons...
We arrived in Moab, which is located between Arches and Canyonlands National Parks on the Colorado River, very late in the day, so we haven’t been out yet to see the slickrock, the arches, the canyons, and the river. They will have to wait another day.
To see more of Frederic Remington's work, see http://www.frederic-remington.org/
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