On Friday we drove up to Evanston, Wyoming and dropped of their little dog at their daughter's place and then we went to find the train museum. There is an old roundhouse that they are restoring and we were able to get in with a tour that had just started.
In the center of the C is a circle with a fence. That is the turntable and engines were driven on to it and then the wheel would be moved with a motor to the correct door where the engine would be repaired. Our guide let us go and have a ride on the turn table and asked if there was anyone who would like to drive it. You will have a hard time guessing whose hand shot up first! He just stepped into that little box and pushed a button and the "engine" (all of us) started moving in a circle.
After we left the depot we went to lunch and then visited the very interesting museum which is in the old library. We were lucky and met the Healey's daughter and grandchildren (who we had left the dog with) driving down the street and we were able to have them join us.
There were many Chinese people who came to Evanston to work the railroads and mines in the area and a Chinatown grew in the city. We were able to visit an interesting museum dedicated to them and then walk around the garden that was donated by a descendant of one of the Chinese families. We picked up a little booklet that told quite a bit of history of the Chinese influence and history which was very informative.
When we left Evanston we drove on to our motel and home for the next three nights in Afton, Wyoming. It was older but clean and adequate. That evening we attended a session in the new Star Valley LDS Temple. It is very small and simple but lovely. We had to call ahead and make reservations to attend and it is good that we did. There was one empty seat on the male side and none on the sisters.
We went to a Chinese restaurant after the session. It was really quite good but there was only one other couple there and one pick-up while we were there which made you wonder how it is considered by the townspeople. It was later in the evening, however.
After breakfast in our own rooms on Saturday we picked up a few things at the local grocery store and made a lunch and then got in their car and drove up the canyon east of town called Swift Creek Canyon. It is Afton's main water source and when the year isn't as wet as this year has been the spring flow starts and stops (intermits - thus called the world's largest intermitting spring). It was a pretty drive up the canyon and then about a half-hour hike.
Here is a picture that Sylvia was able to capture of the guys who hiked on up to the spring and were taking picture looking down. (I have spent 20 minutes trying to turn this upright so you will just have to turn your head to see it!
After we got back to town we found a lovely park and had our lunch there. We visited a few stores on the main street and discovered a wonderful source for chocolate and then visited the biggest trash pile flowing from room to room called an antiques store.
We drove past a wonderful old LDS Tabernacle built in the late 1800's.
There was a quilt walk going on in Star Valley that I guess covered spots in several towns. One of the spots was the Airplane Museum at the fairgrounds in Afton. We went in to see the planes and made the ladies a bit angry that we weren't paying $8 to see the quilts. It was small and the most interesting one to me was a plane on three skis with room for two passengers and an airplane motor and propeller on the back for power. We visited some of the other museum displays at the fairgrounds and then went back to our rooms. That night we had an excellent Mexican meal.
On Sunday morning we slept in a bit, prepared a meal in a crock pot and then visited a local ward and attended all three meetings. It was held in a beautiful new chapel that had some nice changes to the standard plan.
We went back to our rooms, at our meal on a picnic table at the motel and then decided to take a drive toward the area where we would be able to see the total eclipse. We were driving toward Swan Valley, Idaho. As we were driving along I remembered that Lanny's brother-in-law Don and his wife had a cabin near Palisades Reservoir where we were headed and I called Lanny to see if he could give me Don's number. Lanny and Shirley were actually at Don's place along with Don's daughter Melody (sp) , Catherine and family and Sherry. We visited with them for a little while and saw their place and then drove back to Afton. It was a fun little addition to the trip.
This morning we got up early and packed the car to be out of there by 7 AM. We drove up to the area where we were along the lake the day before and found an area were there were a few campers, a place to play in the lake and bathrooms. We parked and set up our lawn chairs and watched the more than 100? cars pull into the same area. We were able to see the total eclipse which was our true purpose of the trip and it really was so interesting. It became very cold where we were. This is not the exact spot but similar to the area where we were along Palisades.
We were probably among the first 20 cars out of there but still inched along basically until we got down to Afton. It did speed up between some of the little towns but we had to slow down to go through each of them.
We were parked near the outhouses and Sylvia and I had fun counting the sometimes very long line-up. Sometimes there were rolls of toilet paper in their hands. (I am sure that others wished they had brought some. :)
It was also interesting to see the eye-wear some displayed. A perfectly lovely use of a paper plate.
We came home through Paris, Idaho; Garden City, Utah; Logan and then down I15. We stopped in Paris to see their amazing old tabernacle which was also build in the late 1800's. The roof was designed by a ship builder and the acoustics don't require microphones. It has the original benches and was a beautiful "find".
It was such a delightful time. We saw so many interesting things, ate such great food and enjoyed our time with Bob and Sylvia so much.
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