Tender Mercies

Heavenly Father,
We would be ingrates if we did not acknowledge your hands in our lives this past week. Thanks for the protection and guidance!
Amen.

We had a wonderful week with the Cozzens family in Port Orchard, WA (See another post for details). As we began our supposed-to-be-15-hour-long drive home, the rain beat down upon us for about an hour and a half. The Blue Mountains of WA introduced snow and snow packed roads. The sign requiring chains made our hearts skip a few beats but prayers were offered because we did not have chains or traction tires. Slowly but safely we moved along our trek eastward.

Rain continued, mixed with snow for another few hours. The interstate in OR was slushy, sometimes with 3-4 inches on the road, with continuous snow throughout. As we approached the Cascade mountains in OR, we had VERY strong winds at Umatilla. We were inspired to add fuel before entering the mountains though we knew we had plenty to make the 60 miles to our next desired fuel stop. We finally realized we were in a very serious spring storm as snow began to pile up.

I-84 was shut down between LaGrande, OR and Baker City. We were forced off the interstate by the highway patrol. There was only a very overcrowded truck stop so we drove down a back road hoping to maybe find a motel or another route.

We pulled into the Hot Lakes Springs Museum which is absolutely beautiful but kind of out in the middle of nowhere. I've included a photo and a little info about it below. A most helpful lady got on the internet, showed us the storm, roughly sketched an alternative route and sent us on our way. Thank you for your assistance, dear Manuel family! Without a GPS or any way to really know where we were, we had the faith to follow the prescribed path through Pyke's pass to North Powder where we re-entered the interstate to slowly make our way to Baker City.

**For our poor memories and future trips, the cheapest gas is at Loves Truck Stop which is just west of Ontario, OR.


Hot Lake Resort always attracts the attention of passers by.This huge old brick building is but a fraction of a once sprawling complex alive with hundreds of visitors who came from around the world to take the waters and renew their health. The spa/resort/hospital was known as the Mayo Clinic of the West, as the famous Mayo Brothers were visitors and friends of Dr. Phy, the administrator. The resort was in its heyday from 1908 through 1932. A complete history of this fascinating place is available at the visitor center. Hot Lake Resort, now called Hot Lake Springs, is under-going a major restoration. It is the new home of the David Manuel Gallery and bronze foundry and future plans are extensive and exciting. Site tours are available and gallery are open daily. Visit the website. www.hotlakesprings.com

Snow, slush and rain continued for the remaining travel through Oregon and into Idaho. After being on the road for 11 hours, we stopped in Boise for dinner. Utah was only 230 and 3 hours away. Therefore home would be about another 5 hours. Right? The snow had disappeared on the plains of Idaho but rain persisted.

As we traveled about 200 miles from Boise just before the Utah state line, we read road signs - Severe Weather Area. We had experienced just that already but it was only raining so we could handle that. Nope. Rain changed to blowing blinding snow. As another sign indicating snow chains were required, we began praying again. Our slow travel took 5 hours from Boise, ID to Tremonton, UT.

From Tremonton to Ogden was horrible. It was very difficult to even see the lines on the road, lots of traffic and blowing blinding snow. We finally safely pulled into our driveway at 1:30 am after 18 hours of terrible weather but with much heavenly protection.

As we entered the house absolutely exhausted, half of the house had lost power. We were so tired we said we would deal with it in the morning. Grandma and Grandpa Watkins had gone to a mission reunion in SLC and arrived at our place around 11:30 to discover the power outage and the empty house. We had planned to make it there before they arrived. Oh well.

When we awoke, John and Grandpa tried to figure things out. John was anxious to complete a school issue about his graduation from WGU that had worried about the entire time in Washington and while he was doing this, he called his dad. Grandpa Thomas convinced him to call Rocky Mountain Power to figure it out first.

As the 2:00 session of General Conference began, a Rocky Mountain Power guy came. He found the problem, turned off the power and was horrified. While we were gone, extra power line had shorted-out and burned a 3"-4" hole through the metal roof and wooden frame of the roof. He said if we had not had a metal roof, our house would have burned down! He quickly took care of it and returned the power so we could finish the last half of the session. Tender mercies! Oh how we are grateful for the protection and safety our home received while we were gone.






When you begin to question whether you are doing what is right, just muddling through life or completely off track, Heavenly Father is very aware of our heart's desires and needs. He watches over us always! Our family is definitely far from perfect but, apparently, our Father in Heaven continues to encourage with his love and tender mercies.