One Does Not Simply Drive Into Far West

Dear Uncle George,

May 16, 1907
Sent my instruments to Far West.  Just southwest and across the street from the temple block is the Reorganized Church.  I had dinner with Eldmer Entrakin while negatives were washing.  Would not make a charge.  Questioned John David Whitmer who never paid much attention to his father's testimony of the Book of Mormon until he was dead.  Then he thought more about it in one year than he had the the 20 years before.


May 16, 2013

It is stupid humid today.

One does not simply drive to Mordor...I mean Far West.  There are a whole lot of roads with random letters involved like "D" and "HH."  Some numbers thrown like 83, 35, 116, and the 459 curve to spice things up.




When you are in a Mini, the winding roads are actually quite soothing.  Unfortunately, it takes forever to figure out which road is which because they all look alike.

The speed that you build up, driving way faster than recommended is for naught since you have to slow down to use a divining rod to know which way to turn.

If I had one word to sum up Far West it is "fields."  Lots of fields.  At Far West's height of glory in 1836, over 5,000 Saints resided there.  Now...nothing.

There are some bathrooms (which thankfully are from this century, not 1836).  Given it took at 45 roads to arrive, the strawberry lemonade had stressed the old bladder to capacity.

Hey, I am a middle aged woman keeping it real.








The church has done a nice job in keeping the grounds pretty.  It may be so that you forget that you just spent a billion hours of your life to drive there to see a gated grass spot with four old stones.



So, apparently gated grass spots aren't big real estate movers because if you wanted to get food, you cannot.  If you needed gasoline for your ride, you cannot.  If you wanted to even get a drink of water, you cannot.  

Unlike when you were there kicking it with some of the most famous members of our church, there is nothing in the way of amenities.  Luxury items like food.  Or medical care.

The only thing around is Billy's Garage and I am not sure how he gets food, gas or a drink of water.  Probably eats a lot of grass.

I am a busy chick, so I like that it only takes about 1 1/2 minutes to see everything there is to see after 2 hours of driving.

Gotta go.  I have to warm up the diving rod.  




Love,
Valsy

PS/  This story is one of my favorite from Church History.  My takeaway:  You're not the boss of me.
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/far-west-temple/ 
Location: Kansas City, MO, USA

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