Ohio Sites!
We're off to Kirtland Ohio.
First place was to get our hotel room set up. Unfortunately, They hadn't gotten the idea that I require a main floor room. We drove up and down the street looking for other hotel rooms, and almost took one, but someone beat us there by five minutes. We had already booked the Motel 8 where we intended to stay, and the lady was willing to reserve the second one we looked at. There was a couple who was supposed to take it but their time limit had just about expired. We didn't dare book it until we cancelled the other one. We cancelled and went immediately to get the other one but missed it by 5 minutes. That is just as well, I felt bad about taking a room that someone was planning on getting, and it didn't look good to me at all, so I bit the bullet and climbed more stairs. I only get away with doing that for a short time before my legs give out and I can't even walk - let alone climb stairs. The reason for this is post polio. I had polio as a child and though I get around well, stairs are very difficult for me.
It took most of the day for us to get to Kirtland, and when we reached Cleveland which I was excited to see. (I love big cities.) I realized that Mike was skirting the city to avoid traffic. Good idea, except I wanted to see the city. The city is large enough that there is still a skyline even when you skirt it, so I saw a little of it. That wasn't enough and I was disappointed! I had driven 400 miles and saw nothing but trees!
We arrived in Kirtland quite late and after driving up and down the street a dozen times we finally got settled in our room and then headed for some dinner. We ate two dinners and two breakfasts at a nice restaurant called Bob Evans. The meals were good but I was still deaf!
We started our morning at the John Johnson Farm which is a ways out of town, and I had a hard time hearing what the tour guide was telling us. He took Mike up the stairs but I said, no way. I was willing to climb stairs to get to bed the night before, but I needed to start being selective.
We then went to the visitor center in Kirtland and luckily that tour guide, a sister missionary, talked loud enough that I caught most of what she said. We visited the Newel K. Whitney Store and went through the Kirtland Temple, which is owned by the Community Of Christ church. We spent time at their visitor center before going to the temple. We enjoyed the tour and I walked 66 stairs in the temple. Good thing I saved some strength! I was very blessed the whole two weeks to have enough strength to walk as many stairs as I did. I think the only time I choose not to climb the stairs during the whole trip was at the John Johnson home.
It wasn't necessary to climb the stairs at all in the Kirtland Temple, because the second floor (33 stairs) is the same as the bottom floor. Exactly the same! The very top floor, another 33 stairs is different though. That is the floor where they had the school of the prophets. I was glad I had climbed all 66 stairs. It was worth it! I didn't realize the floors were identical until she took us into the chapel at the main floor. I felt sorry for a few people who couldn't walk the stairs. She didn't explain to them that it looked the same, and I'm sure they felt bad about what they had missed. I wanted to tell the tour guide how much I enjoyed the tour and the way she presented it to us. She did a good job.
The Kirtland Temple isn't used the way the LDS temples are. When the Mormon's were driven out of Ohio, before the went to Nauvoo they had built this temple, but it wasn't used even then the way temples are used today. The reorganized church or now called Community Of Christ owns the temple today. It's still very interesting to visit it. The tour was very nice!
