On The Road Again - Part I

Dave had an assignment down south of Moab this morning, so because it was my regular day off (RDO) and an annual leave day (he obviously worked his scheduled time off) so he invited me to go with him. We got on the road about 9:30 a.m. Monday. According to the “talking” GPS unit, (which by the way I wished us girls had on our trip to Grand Junction), Moab is 4 hours from home (Kaysville). It was raining pretty much the whole way down to the Spanish Fork Canyon exit. Once we started heading up on Highway 6, the rain had stopped. I had called Mom before we got off the interstate to check on her and let her know we were on our way, and if it stopped raining we were going to stop in the canyon to go check out this cemetery us girls had noticed on our way up the canyon heading towards Grand Junction. Dave and I ended up stopping and I am so glad we did! It was well worth the 15 minutes we took off the road. It’s called “Mill Fork Cemetery”. What a history this place has! I “Google”ed on the name and added “Spanish Fork Canyon” to the search. Apparently some of the people (including children) met some violent deaths. There are 17 burials in the cemetery with some other information. This link tells of the tragic deaths of half of the known people buried in the cemetery: http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/249781/ It’s pretty interesting reading if you have time to sit down and look at it. The following link tells a little bit of the history of Mill Fork town: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Fork,_Utah. (You may have to copy and paste these addresses in your browser. I can’t seem to open them here). These are the directions on how to get there: Take the US 6 exit (#261) off I-15 heading east. Travel up Spanish Fork Canyon on US 6 for 24.3 miles. There is a dirt road on the north side of the hwy here. Turn up this road. It leads to a small parking area. The footbridge west of the parking area crosses a drainage ditch and the path on the other side leads to the cemetery. (East of railway marker, 1.4 mile up on a hill). Anyway, if you are interested, visit these two sites. I hope you find it as interesting as we did. This information was posted at the cemetery and we thought it was interesting. "Mill Fork, Utah": "As one looks upon Mill Fork today it is hard to visualize it as it was before the turn of the century. There were three saw mills inn Mill Fork Canyon. Here ties were cut out of Spruce, Pine or whatever was available. It helped supply ties for the Rio Grande Railroad and two branch lines. Also the lumber was used to build homes here at Mill Fork, and up and down the canyon. There were three Charcoal Kilns located along the highway just west of this cemetery. Men with teams and wagons cut Pinion Pine to burn in these kiln. One can walk for miles on the north side of the highway from Sheep Creekk to Tie Fork and count thousands of Pinion Pine stumps left standing. My mother, Hannah Chadwick Atwood told me many times of the upper Charcoal Kilns located about three or four miles east of here, near Garner Hollow. Father lived about one-half mile east of this cemetery along the side of the hill. I had two brothers born here. Many homes were built here in its early life. Some were located across the river to the south on the large flat. Others were built back in some of the side canyons. Some were rock dug-outs. There was a general store and tour section houses for the railroad employees. In 1885 a large water tank was built along the tracks. There was a reservoir located about three-fourth to one-half mile up Mill Fork Canyon that fed the tanks with gravity flow water. As a young man, I worked on the section and had to help maintain the reservoir. There were farms along the river where ever there was a level spot. Beautiful potatoes were grown up here, also hay and grain. Men worked on the section, for the Charcoal Kiln and other means to make a living. Mother said they had dances held in the school house between here and Sheep Creek to the west. A cousin of mine burned it down so he wouldn’t have to go to school. Mother said they made their own fun visiting eah other, and with house socials. About two hundred fifty people lived here and around Mill Fork at its peak. When I was a small boy I lived at Old Tucker. A school bus, driven by Merther Davis, picked up the children along the highway. In 1930-1935 there were at least twenty-five children riding this bus. Some were picked up here at Mill Fork to go to school at Thistle and Spanish Fork." “Mill Fork Cemetery References”: The Atwood section is on the north and the following buried here. Grandpa Aaron Chadwick, Grandma Ida Viola Winder Chadwick; Dads two sons, Durward Atwood and Thayne A. Atwood, two Cousins, Philex Chadwick, Olive F. LaDam and Parris Ballard, and his wife; Aunt Ida Viola Chadwick Ballard are also buried here. Note: “All work has been performed in the temple for these souls”. The south section belongs to the Elliott Family. In this part of the cemetery are Edson W. Elliott, Mary M. Elliott, Myrtle Elliott, Carol L. Elliott, and Mary E. Jensen. The section on the west contains thirteen or fourteen travelers killed in Indian Massacre. There is a possibility that others are also buried in this section. All information came from the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by Andrew Jensen, Assistant church Historian, Page 504 Mill Fork was a brethern of the Palmyra Stake Utah County in Spanish Fork, Utah. The cemetery is cared for and maintained by George D. Atwood and Family, and was given the charge to do so by my mother, Hannah Ellen Chadwick Atwood. The Elliott descendents help. Also we have a family organization who meets here on the 3rd Saturday in March to do a general cleanup. Edison W. Elliott was married to my father’s sister Mary Ellen Atwood. She is buried in Utah Valley. My father and mother, Walter A. and Hannah Ellen Chadwick Atwood are buried in Spanish Fork City Cemetery. There is still work to be done around the cemetery, rock work, etc. Roy John of Spanish Fork made and helped put in the new arch way by the highway. Many friends also helped". George D. and Christie S. Atwood. We made our way up to Price, UT and stopped for lunch. By the way Mom and Sisters, there is a lot more to Price than what I thought. Now I am wondering if we were really ever in the town of Price at all!

On The Road Again - Part III

Tuesday morning we got up and Dave got ready to leave for his assignment about 45 minutes from Moab. I stayed in the room until about 10:45 a.m. then went down to the lobby and waited for Dave to get back around noon time. Before we left town Dave drove me up to where the petroglyphs were. Here are some pictures there. They are pretty self explanatory. After leaving there we were on our way home. We stopped in Green River, UT and got one more delicious watermelon, a cantelope and two Canary melons. Oooooh, so good! We made it home at about 6 p.m. where Wally, our friend from Wyoming was waiting for us. He’s leaving to go home to Conneticut for a few weeks on Wednesday morning, so he is staying the night here tonight. Wow,…..sorry I had to do this in three part, but hopefully you enjoy some of the pictures we took and a little bit about the areas we went. For those of you who have never been to Moab, it is definitely a must! It’s beautiful scenery down there and so worth the trip! It was really awesome!

On The Road Again - Part II

On the road again headed to Moab. We got to the exit off the interstate and turned on Highway 191. I don’t know, …. About 20 miles down the road we came to the road in to Canyonlands National Park. Our first stop was not in the actual park itself, but along the way there was an overlook for the “Monitor and Merrimac” Buttes. Here is a writeup on them: “From here, you have an excellent view of the Monitor and Merrimac Buttes to the northeast. These prominent land forms tower 600 feet above their Navajo sandstone base. They can be seen from many points as you travel along the highway. The Monitor and Merrimac buttes were named after the Civil War Ironclad ships of the same names. If you look at a likeness of the old ships, their shapes bear a striking resemblance to these two buttes. The Merrimac (the large rock on the left) was the Confederate ship, called the “Virginia” by the southern forces. The Monitor (on the right) was the Union ship sent to destroy the Merrimac. The resulting sea battle changed maritime warfare forever. Lon after both ships lie on the sea bottom, their rock counter parts remain locked in perpetual battle. The Monitor and Merrimac Buttes are composed of Entrada sandstone. (This is the same rock layer that forms many of the arches in Arches national Park.) This Entrada sandstone is composed of three “members”, or components -- Dewey Bridge, Slickrock and Moab Tongue. The different “members” of the Entrada layer erode at verying rates. Specifically, the softer Dewey Bridge member erodes more quickly, causing the Slickrock cliffs to collapse. This process has created the Monitor and Merrimac Buttes, as well as other towering monoliths in the area. Geological forces have created the stunning landforms that we enjoy today. After leaving there, eventually we entered the park. Dave took a picture of me at the sign. Enjoy! and keep in mind this was after a long day at driving! We drove up through the park and went over this small part of the road the connected one butte to another. We ended up on what they call “Island In The Sky”. There we drove on to all the other lookouts. At the end of the road, so to speak, is the overlook called Grand View. You look on one side and see the Colorado River and on the other side you see the Green River, two magnificent rivers. After seeing all there was to see, we left the island and headed on down the road to Highway 191 again, doing what the GPS unit said and turned left and on in to town, maybe another 11 to 13 miles. We got to our room and rested up a little bit then headed over to the “Moab Brewery” for dinner. I had the best seared chicken breast with glazed honey and slivered almonds on top. It was delicious but more dinner than I could handle! We went back to the room and I downloaded all our pictures we had taken so far and did some “googleing”. We read some of the things we searched on then called it a night.

We're going to Grand Junction!,..We're back from Grand Junction!

Well, ...Cheryl, Clydene, Mom and I made our way to Grand Junction to see our Aunt Florene. She was married to our Dad's brother Ralph Spencer for many years until he passed away quite a long time ago. Going to see her was something Mom has been wanting to do for a while, so we just did it!

Dave was going to work out at the airport at Avis so I had him drop me off at my office to work a while and finish up a few things since I wasn't going to be there until Wednesday. Later on in the morning Saturday the other three came by and picked me up.,,,, And so the journey begins. There was beautiful scenery to see in Spanish Fork Canyon. The colors were yellow, green and orange. (There is this little cemetary up the canyon a little ways that we thought we would stop at on the way back home today, but we didn't see it in time. Besides, I think we were a little anxious to get back to our homes. Clydene said Dave and I should stop and see it since he and I are going to Moab Monday morning. He has an assignment on Tuesday in Montecillo, so maybe we will since he really really likes the cemetaries}. When we went through Price Utah we got a little bit (or a lot) off course. Didn't know where we went wrong at the time, but we think we just circled back around Price and came back up from where we originally were. Anyway, we got it all figured out and got on our way again. Once we got to Grand Junction we got settled in our room. We stayed at the Hampton on Main Street. (It was the cutest street with some of the most unique sculptures, etc. I am sure Clydene will share some of the pictures she took this morning while everybody else was getting ready to leave again). Saturday afternoon we made our way over to Clifton, CO where Aunt Florene lives, about 10 more miles up I-70. Marilynn is staying with her Mom right now so we were excited to be able to visit with her also. They had dinner fixed for us when we got there, so we sat down and ate and visited. When dinner was over we visited some more. It was just really neat to be able to see them both. Marilynn gave us directions to get back to Main Street a different way, and once again we went exploring for just a short time before we FOUND our way back to the hotel. This morning they came over to the hotel and stayed for a little bit and said our goodbyes. We then were on our way back home. We left the hotel around 11:30 a.m. and stopped for gas. We actually were headed out to the interstate at about ten til' twelve. We stopped in Green River, UT for a bite to eat and to pick up one of the famous Green River watermelons. Can't wait to try it! I remember quite a few Labor Day weekends when Uncle Ralph, Aunt Florene and the kids would come to Utah from Denver to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Spencer and all those of us who lived here. They would leve Denver after work on Friday night and pull in to Kaysville around 2 or 3 the next morning, it seemed. I was spending the night over at my grandparents one night when they came in. I was sleeping in a roll-a-way bed in the dining room when I heard them knocking at the back door. I'm sure there were many trips like that when they were happy to arrive and be off the road. All in all it was a quick, but very good trip. Hopefully Florene and Marilynn will get here to Utah soon and we'll be able to see them again. Now I am unpacking my little bag to pack it again with fresh clothes for another 2 day trip. Dave and I hope to see one of the parks before coming home on Tuesday.

ASHLEY HAS JOINED THE FAMILY BLOGGING WAGON

Ashley has jumped on board and going to give the blogging thing a try. Please check her blogspot out at: ajthomaszoo.blogspot.com. The picture to the side is of her and their newest kitten she wrote about in her blog. For all you cousins out there, here is one more to add to the "mighty" Fry list.

What A Beautiful Place For A Wedding!

Well,.....a few family members beat me to a post about Cali and Justin's wedding so I am just going reiterate how beautiful she was as a bride and how handsome Justin was. Can hardly believe she is a married woman! Them and their families did such a wonderful job preparing for the big day. Clydene showed some of the beautiful scenery around the park where the wedding was and I know both her and Kacey has pictures of the whole wedding party plus! What a way to spend the day up there in "Big Sky" country.

You all read the story about the blow-out and the fact we were all getting a little nervous at the time it took the two very nice guys who stopped to help to figure out how to get the spare down and the jack in working order not to mention changing the tire. But we made it up there just in time to pick up our beautiful bride and get her to Dillon and the hotel so Kacy could do her hair.

This was Hadley's "FIRST" trip out of state. I was going to try and get pictures of the "Idaho" and "Montana" welcome signs for her, but I couldn't get my camera out of the bag fast enough. So here is a few pictures of my own. The first one is of Haddie and Kacy in the car on the way "up" and the second one is of the both of them on the way "back". Do you see any resemblance at all?
And in case you were wondering, Clydene really did find a pretty rock, and a little skull of some sorts while we were out on the side of the road. I didn't get a picture of them, but I was put in charge of the rock. Thanks Whitey for that priviledge and hopefully you found it under the front seat where I thought it might be. I too found an interesting rock in the park at the wedding. I looked down and saw it with some initials on it. I picked it up and turned it over and it appeared to be a fossilized leaf on the other side. OR it could be someones artistic ability done in pencil. Who knows, ..... I kept it though.
Also here is a picture of the two very nice guys who "WOULD NOT TAKE ANY KIND OF PAY" for helping us. The first gentleman that stopped said, in so many words, "I stop to help someone out who needs it because that is what the Lord would do. So next time you see somebody needing help, help them" I thought that was sweet.

It was a very good day, a good night in the motel (Mom told Clydene there was no snoring going on in our room for all those that said I snore), and a good trip back other than Kacey didn't feel very well.

Goodnight all and congratulations again to Cali and Justin!

DOGGIE LOLLIPOP!

Dave gave Sadie this rawhide lollipop! I had to take a picture of it just because she looked so darn cute and guilty! (Kind of like me when I eat something I shouldn't!) I don't know how "diety" it is, but the first thing she did with it was go hide it ,....IN THE COUCH! That maybe means the medicine is starting to kick in,.....eh? We'll see!!

DOGGIE DIET!

I can’t remember ever a time in my life that I ever had a dog that was actually put on an appetite supressant! EVER! Ashley is up for a few days and took her kitten to our vet on Friday to be spayed. Dave gave her permission to take Sadie, our Beagle over for her overdue and much needed shots and dog license. Well the vet told Sadie she was at least 11.5 pounds over weight. In fact, she weighs 1.5 pounds more than Ashley’s part lab dog, Ayce. Dave gave his consent to the vet to let her try this medicine called "Slentrol" for dogs. It’s suppose to help her not want to eat so much. It’s serious stuff with her. She snorts like a pig when she is eating, ..... and poor Tucker! If he doesn’t eat his food fast enough, she is in his bowl too! We have to supervise them eating or she’ll eat out of both bowls. Even when Tucker does eat, she has to lick every bit of any kind of a taste left, and she doesn’t stop when you would think she should. We are going to give it a try I guess. It’s not very expensive, so if it helps our little darlin’ shed a few pounds and get healthy, then I guess it will be worth it. Of course she'll have to exercise too! PS: Keep in mind this decision was made before I even got home on Friday from work!