Trip #1, to North Carolina and the DC temple

We flew SW Air to Raleigh, flying out at 6 am our time Tuesday morning May 17th. (We had to leave home about 3:30 am.) The Shepards picked us up at RDU and we headed with them for Washington DC. They drive a nearly new Lincoln sedan that has a very comfortable ride. We got to the motel about 10:30 pm after our GPS (Gertie) took us on a scenic tour of the main part of Washington (Washington and Jefferson memorials, capitol, etc.–not our desire, but interesting). All of us were in the same motel and we saw all of the party, then went to bed.

In the morning, we left for the temple about 8am with the Shepards. We had a little trouble finding our way, but managed to arrive at about the scheduled time (8:30 am). We beat Todd and Tabatha, who also got lost. (Washington traffic and streets are difficult.) We were with them in the preparatory meetings with temple leaders, and attended the 10 am session. The sealing was at 12:30. First the officiator performed the sealing for Todd and Tabatha and then sealed her to her parents. We took time for a little visiting with all the group outside the temple and for pictures. Then we with the Shepards headed back for NC.

Shepards took us back to RDU where we picked up our rental car. It was a Ford Escape with about 9000 miles on it and a lot of fun to drive. For old times sake, we went by our favorite Andy’s in Apex, near the temple, for our dinner. It was 9:01 pm when we came in the door and they had just closed. But the manager, who was our old buddy, agreed to served us anyhow. (We went there almost weekly.) We had our favorite cheeseburgers, fries, and strawberry cheesecake frozen custard. He told us that Andy’s has decided to expand nationwide and for $200,000 someone could become a franchisee and open an Andy’s in Utah. Could that really happen–they’re so much better than In-and-Out. We got to Shepard’s place about 11:30 pm and arranged to sleep in the next morning. Tuesday and Wednesday had been very long days.

After a very late breakfast, Wendy and I sat down and made a list of everyone we wanted to see. First, we called and visited Randall and Karen Brown. There we learned that Riley Gore was in the Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greensville with heart and breathing problems. We visited Randall’s turkey barns while there. We stopped at Nethercutts (she has been ill), then went out to Jeff and Dorothy Futreals. Dorothy had been receiving more treatment for cancer that morning and he had a long seige of illness through the winter. We were glad to they were feeling up to visit with us. While there we also saw Daryl as he stopped in to pick up Cade who was there with his grandparents. We were impressed with how personable and expressiver Cade was with us, and were glad that Daryl seems happy ion his new marriage. While in the area we also stopped to see James and Hannah Batts, who insisted that we again accompany them to lunch Saturday at the Wallace Western Sizzlin’.

On Friday we went first to see Riley Gore, who we had learned had returned home from the hospital the previous afternoon. He seemed pretty good and Judy was quite animated and excited to visit. Their son Lenny was also there. We spent some time with James and Connie and Chris Whaley. In the evening we drove with the Shepards to dinner at the River Front restaurant down on the coast at Snead’s Ferry.

On Saturday, we saw Linen Elston, and went to lunch with the Batts. We visited with Carl and June Owen who were helping Travis get ready for Jr.-Sr. Prom, then drove out to Kenansville to a party for the 6th birthday for Christian, a boy that Todd and Tabatha are preparing to adopt. The party was at Todd’s parents place. We met the older brother Joshua also, and saw many Pierce and Harrell relatives and friends, ate a barbecue dinner, watched Christian open presents (It might have out-done Christmas). After leaving we visited Startas and got reports on their missionary son and their daughter at West Point.

On Sunday we attended church at the Branch (more on that later), went out to the Whaleys where we ate and saw Connie and James, Maria and June-bug and most of their kids, Chris, and Connie’s sister Carol. We then dropped in on the Hendersons, and finaly Jason and Erin Kokinda and their kids and baby. We spent our last evening with the Shepards.

Monday morning we left for Raleigh where we dropped in at the Mission Office. We saw both President and Sister Cotterells, and Sister cooper, and met the new mission office staff and APs. President Cotterell invited us to sit in on the start of the weekly office meeting and to bear our testimonies. Leaving the Office, we drove to Wentworth to the Community College Library. Arriving about 1:30 pm, We saw Bob Carter, presented him with a copy of a Table of Contents for the Guy Lewis materials we had shared with the library and reviewed a five volume set of books on Lewis genealogy that Fred and Dorothy Lewis had given the library. We had planned on seeing Fred and Dorothy, but Fred was sick so we didn’t go there. Having a little time, we drove to the site of the Battle of Alamance, saw a movie abouit the battle, walked around the grounds and saw a 225 year old restored cabin. We drove back toward the RDU and got a room in Chapel Hill for the night.

On Tuesday, dropped off our car and boarded our plane at about 1:30 pm for Phoenix, flying by and over the midwest storms that have spawned so many tornados. The flight into Salt Lake at sundown was extraordinarily pretty, with the green valley, and snow covering the top halves of the mountains. We arrived home about 10 pm and all was well.