Mostly about Utah
Most of the time I am happy to stay at home so I have to have a few visual cues to prompt me to take a trip once in awhile. One of them is a large map of the United States on my wall with push pins indicating temple grounds visited (green), temples where I [...]
China is an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia. China has the longest continuous history of any country in the world. Prior to the 19th century, it possessed one of the most advanced societies and economies in the world but missed the industrial revolution and began to decline. China was the [...]
On our second day in Rocky Mountain National Park, Mike and I traveled along Bear Lake Road to see Alberta Falls and Bear Lake.
My brother and I passed through Rocky Mountain National Park on our way back home to Utah. I want to share with you a few of the photographs we took and information about the park taken from the map that is given to park visitors. Trail Ridge Road Set in the Southern Rockies, Rocky Mountain [...]
On my way east on I-80 last week, between Cheyenne and Laramie, I came across the Wyoming Abraham Lincoln Monument. It originally stood at Sherman Summit, 8,878 feet above sea level, the highest point along the old coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway.
Last month while Jill and I were in Texas we visited NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. Accompanying us were Derek, Sarah, and Bryson. The Center is the hub for human spaceflight activities. There are 100 buildings on 1,620 acres that are home to the U.S. astronaut corps. The Johnson Space Center was [...]
On the flight from Fort Worth to Salt Lake City my wife gave me the window seat. I took a few photographs as we approached Salt Lake.
The next best thing to being there is to see great photographs of English castles. Of course every castle is not pictured and even some famous ones may be missing.
Here are some landscapes most of us will never see. As you can see from the photographs, Mongolia is a very beautiful and varied country.
We are headed to the south end of downtown Fort Worth. Next to the Fort Worth Convention Center are the 4.3 acres of the Water Gardens, built in 1974.
The X is located on Elm Street in Dallas and marks the location where President Kennedy was shot. Just before 12:30 p.m., Kennedy’s limousine entered Dealey Plaza and slowly approached the Texas School Book Depository. When the Presidential limousine turned and passed the Depository and continued down Elm Street, shots were fired at Kennedy.
I have for you this evening a small puzzle. In the photograph I took today you see some feet and a large X in the road. The feet are mine and the X marks a significant event in history. The puzzle is to tell me what the event was.
Today Jill, Paul, and myself left Kaysville, Utah at 5:25am for Keller, Texas. We went with a longer route (1,379 miles) that is supposedly faster (19 hours 55 mins). Except for a few miles, the whole route is entirely freeway — that would explain the faster.
In England where I was raised, war memorials were prominent in almost every town. These monuments were often located in quiet places where one could relax and reflect on life (or death). I was often struck by the large numbers of soldiers killed in their prime.
I filled up my gas tank today with regular for $1.29 a gallon at an Exxon station in Bountiful, Utah. It looks like I filled up for 10 cents a gallon less than what the the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report lists as the average gas price for my area. I last filled the tank at the beginning of December.
A mistake in a motel reservation is forgiven.
On this tour I have enjoyed seeing the interior of eleven Utah temples and working for the dead in all of them. Eight of those temples I have never entered before. Jake and Daniel saw nine new temples. Paul seven new temples. Spencer six new temples. And of course we also visited the construction sites of two temples.
The celestial room was beautiful. It was quite large, bigger than Ogden. It had a high ceiling and a large painting of Jesus Christ — what one would expect in a celestial room.
The Jordan River temple is so close to the Oquirrh Mountain temple that I got them crossed in Google Maps. After we figured out that a darkened, half built temple with scaffolding was not the Jordan River temple we looked around for a lit temple. Spencer texted Google and we got the address.
We took our photographs of the Salt Lake Temple before going into the 6pm session. Fortunately there was a lull in the storm though it was quite cold. This session made four in all which is a record for me for one day.
We will visit 13 temples in 4 days, completing sessions in 11, and traveling 1,526 miles. On checking the session times it was interesting to find that Provo and Vernal have Monday sessions.
After a session we go east 153 miles to the Vernal Temple. We are not done yet as we drive the 272 miles to the Monticello Temple. Once the session is complete we stay over at the Days Inn just a mile away.
Utah has eleven temples with two more under construction. I am planning a road trip to visit all the Utah temples, including those under construction. I am considering going through a session at each temple, except of course those under construction.
Cove Fort is located on Cove Creek a mile northeast of the I-15 and I-70 junction in Millard County, Utah. It was founded on 29 April 1867 by Ira Hinckley at the request of Brigham Young.
Iron Town, founded by Ebenezer Hanks, was Iron County’s second attempt at mining iron. The town had an iron furnace with a 2,500 pound capacity and was operated from June 1868 to 1877. There was a brick schoolhouse, machine shop, blacksmith shop, pattern shop, molding shop, erastra (grinding device), and two charcoal kilns.
After a pleasant night’s sleep Shauna took off at 7:30am to the beach to throw down some blankets to reserve a spot. We launched the jet skis and each of us took a turn riding them.
Here are the last 18 banners and the photographs from which they are derived.
The story behind the banners I display on my rickety blog. All the photographs were taking either by my wife or myself and if you click on the banners in the post you will see the photographs from which they were derived.
There were bats flying nearby and if you shielded your eyes from the bright camp light you could see them catch a big fat juicy moth. Now I never did see any bats but I did see plenty of moths. Whether they were juicy or not I’m not able to say.
The Utah Taxpayers Association is calling for congestion pricing on Utah’s freeways. It is supposed to work by electronically monitoring freeway traffic and charging more when freeways are congested. There are a number of problems with such a system.
Jill and I were on vacation in July 2007 in the Canadian Rockies when we spied several bighorn sheep on the road. I stopped my car to take some photographs and soon one of the sheep came right up to my car. I stuck my camera out of the window and turned it at an [...]
Many people are adjusting to rising gas (the petroleum kind) prices. So long as prices rise relatively slowly, or at least not in big jumps overnight (I’m talking dollar increases) then a majority of us can explore alternatives like public transport, alternative fuels, telecommuting, emigrating to Saudi Arabia, and compressed work weeks.
The Church came recently to Mongolia. In 1984, Monte J. Brough traveled to Mongolia on a hunting trip. In May 1992 Elders Merlin Lybbert and Monte Brough, members of the Asia Area Presidency, traveled to Mongolia to explore the possibility of the Church providing humanitarian aid.
The trip objective was to ride the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad.
I had an opportunity to take a few photographs of Frontrunner when I went to pick Jill up at the Farmington Station.
On Friday Susan, Melissa, Jill and I took a pleasant hike up Centerville Canyon. We parked the car …
On Friday we hiked to Patsy's Mine in the mountains above Farmington. The trail to the mine is …
Military Expenditures The eighteen nations with the largest military budgets in 2010 are shown in …
Lo! in the desert the flowers are springing; Streams, ever copious, are gliding along. Loud from …
Each little flower that opens, Each little bird that sings, He made their glowing colors, He made …
Last month while Jill and I were in Texas we visited NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in …
Last November Paul and I visited Spiral Jetty at Rozel Point. Then the Jetty was several hundred …
I'm Rick Willoughby. I live in Utah, working as a Software Engineer. I'm a Mormon, married with 5 children and 3 grandchildren.
I emigrated from England in my late twenties, bringing with me one small suitcase and $1,000. I appreciate the opportunities America gave me and the friendliness of the people to new citizens.
I blog about my family as well as politics, religion, finance, technology, and other topics.
Currently Rickety has an average of 17,000 pageviews a month and over 400 visitors a day. Thank you for being one of them.