Orem Utah Temple
It isn’t often that I start off one of these temple trips by commenting about the hotel, but tonight is an exception. I’m in the La Quinta Inn and uites at the Salt Lake City Airport and I’m thrilled to death!
I flew from Washington DC to Denver and then onto Salt Lake City. I left DC at about 7 PM and I arrived in Salt Lake at 11:30 PM. I will fly back to DC tomorrow night at 7:30 PM and after staying overnight at the Denver airport my 7 AM flight will get me home by about noon. Round-trip airfare for this trip is $63! Thank you GoWild Pass from Frontier airlines!
I booked this hotel room using Wyndham Rewards points. Consequently, it cost me nothing. It’s a spacious room with a king size bed in a non-smoking environment.
It feels so good to be here and the pillows are nice and firm! Looking forward to getting some rest, eating the free breakfast, then going to pick up my $24 rental car to head over to my sister Lauren’s house to have lunch with her, her husband, and my 93-year-old mother.
My temple session is at 2:15 tomorrow afternoon. Also planning to see my sister Anne. Should be a great day all the way around!
I took the airport shuttle back to the airport at 9 AM, then took the free shuttle to Fox Rental Car. They upgraded me to a Dodge Charger for free! This was the hottest car in the parking lot. The agent was so excited that she actually started from inside the business.
At my sister Lauren’s home she fed me one of my favorite sandwiches, a grilled tuna with some fruit! She does a wonderful job with my other siblings taking care of my 93-year-old mother.
After talking with Lauren and my mom for a couple of hours it was off to the Orem Utah Temple in my hot Dodge Charger. This is two weeks in a row I’ve had a Dodge Charger to zoom to a temple.
It’s always a wonderful site to see the beautiful snowcapped peaks of Utah. Today was no exception!
I met my sister Susan at the temple at 1:45. She was kind enough to bring along my temple clothing that I had kept in Utah to avoid transporting it back-and-forth across the country for these visits. What a joy to go to the temple with another sibling! Susan is the sixth sibling I’ve been able to go to a temple with since I started this trek in January 2017. Only four more to go!
The Orem Utah Temple is built on old Geneva Road. It’s just across the freeway from Utah Valley University. This part of Orem is known for two things: cherry orchards from days gone by and Geneva Steel, also from days gone by. I saw designs in the temple from carpet on the floor to paintings on the walls and ceilings that depict these two items. It’s marvelous how the Lord customizes his homes to the areas that they’re built in!
From the temple I made a quick stop in Orem and then headed north about 10 miles to try to connect with another sister.
Time was of the essence as I had to return the rental car and drive to Salt Lake then check in for my flight around 7 PM.
Fortunately we were able to connect! I went through the drive up at Arctic Circle so I can grab a root beer freeze and some of those marvelous fries with their special sauce. My sister met me just as I came out of the drive-through, hopped in the car, we swapped food, and we were good. I took off for Salt Lake.
What a cute girl! She’s a little camera shy, which is why I cut her off at the chin. The fact is I have the best sisters in the world! Wonderful, cute, smart, kind, and Christ-like. No one could ask for better sisters!
Right now I’m on the flight waiting to takeoff from Salt Lake City back to Denver. I’ll spend the night at the Denver airport and fly home tomorrow at 7 AM. I’ll be home for lunch.
There is only one operating temple in the United States I have not been to now. That is the Bentonville Arkansas Temple. Frontier Airlines flies there, but not until April so I will put that on the calendar for April. In the meantime, my new theme song is, “O, Canada!“ 🎶