Day 13, Sunday Sept 14, Kirtland, Ohio

The sister missionaries took our picture here in front of the Newell K. Whitney Store. We were taken into the store and shown the actual rooms where Joseph and Emma lived for several months; where the prophet received some very significant revelations now made record of in the Doctrine & Covenants and where he established the school of the prophets in one of the small rooms upstairs above the kitchen. It was such a sweet experience to be there together and to have this brief association with these two fine missionaries.

After leaving the Kirtland Ward Sacrament Meeting we drove the short distance to the Kirtland Historic Site, owned and maintained by the Church. We were greeted by both senior couples and these two delightful young sister missionaries of the Ohio Cleveland Mission. They took the time to guide us on an entire tour of the site, which included both restored saw mill and ashery, but also the original Newell K. Whitney store and home, where the prophet Joseph received revelations and conducted the School of the Prophets. This particular brick building you see in the background is a buisness building provided to Brother John Johnson in recognition of his very significant contributions, financial and otherwise, to the Church during this important Kirtland period.

We arrived in time to attend Sacrament meeting at the Kirtland Ward. Except for the humidity we have thought we were in any large congregation of Saints in our own community of Mesa. It was so satisfying be with these Kirtland church members and partake of the Sacrament and join in the singing of hymns. The talks by the youth speaker and the High Councilman (a black by the name of Johnson - a convert some 14 years, from Cleveland) were very uplifting, and while we didn't stay for the full block we left feeling so spirituallynourished.

Sunday morning, Sept 14, we checked out of our hotel in Willoughby and drove the short distance through a beautiful wooded residential area directly east arriving at what we thought was the LDS meetinghouse, hoping to attend Sacrament meeting with the Kirtland Ward. The building was nice but seemed a little small. In the foyer we found a young mother with her child. She told us services started at 11 (it was almost 1130) but said we could go on in. We asked if the sacrament had already been passed. She said they only have the sacrament once a month. Then we realized we were at the wrong church. She said the LDS ward building was just a couple of miles further north! As we continued on we came to the Kirtland Temple which sits very close to the road in the community of Kirtland.

After our time in Kirtland we continued on towards Erie, PA, finding lodging in a Marriott Residence Inn near the I-90 freeway in Erie as the winds picked up and the day became more stormy and overcast; the result of the Hurricane Ike's push up from Texas into the midwest and on to the Great Lakes.

Day 12, Sat. 9/13, Cleveland/Eastlake, Ohio

Our stay at the Radisson Friday night and Saturday morning was frustrated by interrupted satellite transmissions affecting numerous TV Channels on television's in the hotel. Our room was nice enough and the hotel personnel very helpful but they were unable to get the problem corrected. It was a time of continuous overcast, warm but rainy throughout Friday and Saturday. Two big weddings were taking place at the hotel's large convention area. This made it interesting for Terry as he was carrying our laundry back and forth to the guest laundry room on the far end of the building and having to thread his way through the crowd of wedding guests who were forced to congregate inside the hotel due to the rain.

Linda checked with a nearby Courtyard by Marriott hotel, got a better rate for Saturday night and we canceled with the Radisson, packed our bags and made a move in the Saturday afternoon rain to the Marriott two miles southeast in Willoughby, Ohio, putting us even a little closer to Kirtland. This turned out to be a nice move because we got a 10% off on a nice takeout order at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant across from the hotel and we had all the game channels on a nice, new wide flat screen TV in our room and were able to settle in and watch college football across America.

With some instructions from our son Jeffery, we were able to tune in to the BYU/UCLA game on the KSL radio feed on our laptop. Way to go BYU!! 59-0!!! What a blow-out!! Loved it! And how about USC putting it to Ohio State? Another good game.

We plan to attend the Euclid LDS Ward sacrament meeting Sunday morning after we check out of the hotel. It is located in Kirtland.

This was taken on our drive through the town of Lexington, Michigan. This is the Mayor's house where we stopped and had our conversation with the Mayor and he told us to try for a night at the Thomas Edison Inn, in Port Huron. He is the fellow in the blue shirt off on the far end of the drive way. Nice guy!