Vacation 2013 - Utah - Idaho - Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Colorado and back to Utah

OK, I did a poor job of keeping up this blog while we were on our mission in Salt Lake City the past 23 months.  I am going to try harder and at least describe our upcoming vacation.  I will publish our journal with accompanying pictures as appropriate.

Tuesday (July 23) – [Trip Day 1] Left about 9:30 in the morning – took a while to get the proverbial kitchen sink into the car.  The drive north was interesting.  It is amazing all the agriculture along the mountains going north from Salt Lake.  The land doesn’t look particularly arable but there is agriculture all the way to Rexburg.  Once we got past Plymouth, UT the route was a first time route until we got to Pocatello.  We had made the trip from there to Rexburg a couple of times in the past but had never stopped in Rexburg.  Our mission buddies, the Stegelmeiers lived here and had invited us to stay with them.  Their place is a couple of miles north of Rexburg proper out in agricultural land – surrounded by barley and a drive in movie.  After a late lunch they took us on a tour of Rexburg.  The big thing I wanted to see was the Teton Dam museum where they show a movie of the disaster and have all kinds of pictures, etc. of it.  The Stegelmeier’s home was under 4 feet of water but was able to be saved.  By the time the water reached Rexburg it was up to 7 miles wide and 4 feet deep.  We saw houses floating down Main Street, etc.  There was over a billion dollars in damage and this was back in the 1970’s.   It is amazing to see this town today – you would never guess all the destruction that was here less than 40 years ago.  Later we had a great Mexican dinner at Gringos in downtown Rexburg – it was excellent.  Then we toured the campus of BYU-Idaho.  Back when it was Ricks College it had 1500 or so students.  Now as BYU-I it has over 16,000 students and is still growing.  Most every building is less than 40 years old.  The campus is clean, neat and very impressive.  There are literally thousands of apartments within a couple of blocks of the campus so I would imagine that most of the students are able to walk to class.  All in all it is a first rate institution.  The temple in Rexburg is right behind the campus and on about the highest point of ground in the town – no flood here!  From the Stegelmeier’s front window you can see it all lit up at night – it is a beautiful site. It is big and resembles the Nauvoo temple in shape and height.