It was a long trip for a lone man, but well worth the waiting and every inconvenience with travel to Liberty Missouri Saturday and back home to Ogden Utah today. It seemed like everyone and her dog discovered “the world is better with you out in it” as Delta promotes. (Is there a competition to see who collects the most sky miles and cheap trips? Then I’m the biggest loser.) It made my next trip (first of summer on Highway 89 and Route 66) look so relaxing, I am unusually excited about enjoying another before my end of the road.
Arriving from Kansas City International to rest at a family-fun hotel in Liberty, I found four frolicking grandchildren and their parents, our youngest. To be near his parents and meet me halfway, they had driven from Georgia for the baptism of their second daughter. After Sunday stake conference, along with my brother and his wife, we all met at Excelsior Springs in a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where the devoted father of the eight-year-old conducted the service and performed the baptism by authority of the restored priesthood. His sweet parents and our “little darling” provided food, also appreciated by the young missionaries and bishop who kindly supported the special occasion. Knowing my forever companion, “Grandma” Kay, would certainly not miss the sacred ordinance, we were assured by the Spirit that she was there with us. Lots of love!
Sunday afternoon I accompanied my brother (director of our Independence Visitors’ Center), his wife, and a local historian on a tour of Far West. At the end of a rough road through a field, we visited the site of our ancestor Charles C. Rich’s cabin. Close by, inside a frame house from Sears, Roebuck and Company, were displayed historical documents and pictures like a mini museum — crude, but precious. On the way “home” that evening, the family visited Liberty Jail, where the Prophet Joseph Smith was unjustly confined from December 1838 to April 1839, and revelation was received for all mankind.
Early Monday morning I had breakfast with our young family and bid farewell. As they drove home, I spent the day in Independence with Elder & Sister Cannon, where I learned more of Church history, including good times and horrible persecution. Obviously, Missouri was not the end of the road for those saints or the Lord’s worldwide Church. Again, we are grateful.
By the way, UTA was the perfect end of my trip, driving me from SLC to my Ogden apartment — “the only way to fly”.
