September 26, 2024

Feather River California Temple

It’s 2,695 miles from my home in Maryland to the Feather River California Temple in Yuba City, California. Consequently, this post is going to mention travel stops—lots of them.
We’ll start at the beginning…

I walked 10 minutes to a bus stop.
Took the Montgomery County RideOn bus to the nearest Metro station. (Free)
Rode the metro (subway) to Union Station in Washington DC, which is where I am now.
Catch the Amtrak NE Regional train to Philadelphia Penn Station, a train ride that I love. It leaves in 30 minutes. 🚊
Catch a commuter train back towards the Philadelphia airport.
Board the 7 pm nonstop flight to Las Vegas. ✈️
Sleep in the Vegas airport tonight. 😴
Catch the 6 AM flight to Sacramento. ✈️
Take Lyft about 30 miles north to the Feather River California Temple. At this point, my travel adventure is halfway done. ✈️✅

The Food at Union Station

Bring on Charley’s Philly Steaks. It seemed appropriate given that I was headed to Philadelphia to catch my flight. And boy was it good!

The fries were particularly outstanding! Big, firm, lots of ketchup. And the sandwich was terrific!
I love to ride trains. This trip is only $50. I’m flying out of Philadelphia because it was the best flight on frontier that left at the end of the day so I could work today before traveling. I’m not sure if I’ll come back into Philadelphia or DC, hopefully DC. I’m taking Amtrak so I don’t have to have a vehicle stranded in Philadelphia by chance. 2,695 miles one-way. Fun!
UPDATE: 6:21 PM—I’M ON THE PLANE!! (I took a Lyft from the 30th St. train station down to the airport. I wanted to take the shuttle train but it only runs every 30 minutes and I didn’t want to be late. Turns out I was the first one to board the plane and I’m in my exit row seat, and all is well! Off to Vegas!

Viva, Las Vegas!

The flight from Philadelphia to Las Vegas is 4 1/2 hours. The flight that leaves for Sacramento leaves at 6 AM tomorrow morning. I made the mistake of assuming that I would land around midnight, and have only a few hours to get some sleep before flying out in the morning. I didn’t take into consideration the time change! I was thrilled to see that when I came off the plane it was 9:12 PM and the next flight doesn’t board until 5:15 AM. The thought of having eight hours of sleep in the airport made me ecstatic! Next to gate E10 I found this area which is perfect for sleeping. It’s relatively quiet, not in the middle of a bunch of chairs, and right around the corner from the gate. Plus it has an electrical outlet where I can charge an iPad overnight. The only problem? 24/7 commercials and music playing from the speakers overhead throughout the airport. But I’ll take that. Oh, there’s a Burger King right across from the gate too…!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s off to Nirvana…😴

Hello, Olive Trees!

I arrived in Sacramento this morning at about 8 o’clock and took an Uber about 30 minutes up to the Feather River California Temple. The ordinances don’t start until 10 AM so they let you stay in the waiting room until 9:30. That was a blessing to me because I needed to shave, change clothes, etc. It worked out spectacularly! Since I had about a half hour to kill before going to do my five initiatories, I went out and walked around the grounds after changing clothes. Immediately, I noticed what looked like large old olive trees in the corners of the temple lot. I was right! These trees are from the Yuba City area and are 100 years old! They put benches next to the trees, so it makes you feel like you’re sitting in the Garden of Gethsemane, pondering on the Savior’s atonement. What a brilliant idea!