Medford Oregon Temple
Once caught up on my sleep, the next problem was my white pants. I rented them at the Portland temple but they don’t rent clothes at the Medford temple. The distribution center, located in the stake center, doesn’t open until 10 o’clock and my endowment appointment was at 10 o’clock. So it was off to Walmart!
Thank heavens Walmart likes painters! They sell white painters pants for about 20 bucks. They had a pair in my size and I was thrilled! The endowment session was great and afterwards I immediately took off for the Columbia River Temple, some seven hours away.
It’s about 450 miles. The quickest route didn’t take me back through Portland however; it took me diagonally up through the mountainous region of Oregon. Before long I was at 5000 feet elevation and there was snow on the ground!
The Medford Oregon Temple is 250 miles south of the Portland Oregon temple. I decided to head down right away after I left the Portland temple at around 9:30 PM. After taking a couple of hours to sleep in the truck on the way down, I arrived at the Medford Temple around 5:30 a.m.
I was anxious to get some sleep and wondered if I could do it inside the adjacent stake center. A wonderful seminary teacher showed up around 6:15 AM and suggested I sleep in the chapel given that the kids never went into the chapel. I thought that was a good idea so I did it! I love this practical minded seminary teacher! With my pillow in hand, I went about halfway down the left side of the chapel, picked up Pugh, and went straight to sleep for two hours.
About 20 minutes enroute I realized I needed to get gas, which is about five dollars a gallon here. I noticed a small trailer next to the gas station that sold waffles on a stick so I had to try them out. I’m glad I did! A very nice young lady worked inside. She provided me with two waffles on a stick, a cup of milk and a cup of hot chocolate. The whole thing was only $6.50! That is exciting! She gets a three dollar tip!
After hitting a peak altitude of about 6000 feet, the road came back down into the hillside area which stretched for hundreds of miles. Massive big farms all around the place. I even went through a town called Kent and snapped a photo of the sign In honor of one of my brothers. What a difference a couple of our drive makes to the scenery around the highway!
I eventually ended up driving next to the Columbia River about an hour outside of Richland Washington. I made it to the Columbia River Temple at about 7:30. They don’t have an 8 o’clock endowment session! So I’ll be going there tomorrow at 10 o’clock. At this point I’m about seven hours ahead of schedule which is nice. The drive from Medford to Richland was about 450 miles.
It’s quite amazing the difference in the size of the Medford and Portland temples. It’s like night and day. Portland is massive; Medford is small and tiny. They’re both awesome and I guess that’s just the way the Lord wants these two buildings built.
After spending last night trying to get some sleep in the truck, I am in a hotel tonight. I’m thrilled!