Back to 1975. The LDS missionaries. A fine tour guide in Seattle with a man who came to a sad/bad end

My girl friend Ann and I left Flagstaff for the thirteen hour 'bus ride to Salt Lake City.

There we were met by the delightful Eric and Penny (Penny is the sister of my seminary classmate Jay).

Eric and Penny did us proud.

I remember:

* Going to a supermarket at about 11:00 p.m.  It was a 24 hour store, quite unlike anything we had seen in England.

* The very wide streets which astonished us.  Eric said that they had been planned so that a wagon train could make easy U-turns in the early days of the Mormon settlement.

* Visiting the S.L.C. Tabernacle where I signed the guest book. Later that year and back in the U.K. Mormon missionaries visited me at my Theological College.  There's follow up for you!

* A visit to the Utah State Fair.

* A most wonderful visit to the beautiful mountains near Salt Lake City. They were resplendent with wild flowers.  We had a picnic by the side of a sparkling stream.  It was a splendid visit. 

Salt Lake City Tabernacle.

Statue of Brigham Young with the S.L.C. Temple in the background.

The Statue is titled "This is the Place" which is what Brigham Young is supposed to have uttered as he decided that the rag-tag group of early Mormons who were fleeing persecution in Independence, MS should settle in Utah.  The Temple and the Statue came much later.

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From S.L.C to San Francisco, first through the desert and Nevada. ( at the Nevada State Line there was a huge billboard announcing "This is the Place" - advertising gambling - but a naughty riff on Brigham Young's clarion call).

My journal states that we ate dinner in an Casino in Elko -  I have no memory of this!

In San Francisco we stayed with Ann's friends Donna and Debbie.  Donna's parents (the Cronins) hosted a wonderful family dinner for us.  Such wonderful hospitality and great conversations. (We were (almost) strangers but they welcomed us and fed us  -  so very biblical!)

Ann and I had the inevitable squabble or two on this long trip so in San Francisco we took Khalil Gibran's advice to "let there be spaces in your togetherness" ansd split up for some of our sight seeing.

Forty three years on it is hard to convey my sense of excitement at being in San Francisco.  (It's a long way from Bristol, U.K.)  

 * The Cable Cars -  a must, together with the winding works and museum. 

*  Fisherman's Wharf -  not then touristic. 

* Grace Cathedral where I enjoyed the modern stained glass.

* Union Square where I cashed some Traveler's cheques and bought my NYC - London ticket for the return visit to the U.K.

* And much more  -  all on foot or by cable car.

Ann and I joined forces later in the day.  We wandered through Chinatown and were intrigued to see this

The True Sunshine (Chinese) Episcopal Church  - congregation first gathered in 1904.

Read some history  here  http://www.truesunshine.org/historypast1.html

I've been to San Francisco two or three times more but that 1975 trip was "magical".

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The Cronin family (somehow connected with Ann) gave of their best for us in San Francisco but is was time to move on so we left that grand city at 10:00 a.m. bound for Bellingham WA which we would reach at 1:00 p.m. the next day.

We traveled via Oakland and Richmond and in due course joined Interstate 5 for the long tide north.

We noted the great abundance of crops: tomatoes, almonds, honeydew melons, sweet corn, sugar beets, wheat etc.

Our driver Frank  (from Medford, OR) proved to be an excellent tour guide and gave us super descriptions of what we were seeing in beautiful parts of California and Oregon. (The photo's are from the web, not from our trip)

Mount Shasta

Castle Crags

We marveled at a gorgeous sunset over the Rogue River

We had time for a good steak dinner in Grants Pass.

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Then Portland OR. visited in the wee hours (and not impressed!).

Our Trailways 'bus took us to Portland late at night, or was it  in the wee hours.  It was a hot and sticky night.  'Bus Stations are not always in the best parts of town.

We were faced with a long layover until a Trailways clerk told us that we could get an earlier 'bus from the Greyhound Depot just down the road, and that Greyhound would honour our Trailways passes.

Down the road we trumped and boarded a very crowded 'bus.  Ann got a seat mid-bus, I was in the very back row.

I was seated next to a young man named Bret who was returning to Seattle where he lived with his Mum, having visited his Dad in Southern CA. We chatted through the night.

We had a long layover in Seattle to wait for our last leg in the U.S.A. (a visit to Bellingham WA)  before crossing the border into Canada.

Bret was in no hurry to get back to his Mum's home so he gave us a whistle stop tour of Seattle ( The Space Needle, the Monorail, the Pike Market. wowee!). Thank you Bret.

Later that day we moved on from Seattle to Bellingham WA for a visit with Les and Grace Nelson.  (details soon).

I stayed in touch with Bret.  In 1980 I visited him in  Federal Prison in Colorado,  By then he was a lifer  (details soon)