Reunion Road Trip!

The Penrose Family Reunion was held in Utah on 18 July 2013, and we were trying to get enough money saved to travel to the reunion.  It wasn't looking good, and then Mom jumped in and made it possible.  (Thank you Mom!!!!)  

Amanda had to stay to take care of her lamb, and Kevin had to work, so Rebecca and Katrina and I packed up and on Tuesday morning we drove into Fresno and picked up the rental car.  We rented it from Budget.  (That fact will be important later on.)

The first day, Tuesday, 16 July, we drove from Kerman, CA to Mesquite, NV.  It was a really nice day, sunny, gorgeous!  We had the usual "Are we to Nevada yet?" and the usual, "You will know when you see it!" conversation. 

We stopped at a truck stop just north of Vegas and saw a man with a "homeless and hungry" sign on the side of the road.  It just so happened that the store there was having all kinds of specials on bottled water, granola bars and candy bars.  So, we got him some bottled water, granola bars and Snickers bars, and he was very grateful!

It was interesting being in a little car, as opposed to a van, as you were much more susceptible to the buffetings of the wind and the semis blowing past!  

We arrived in Mesquite at about 5:30pm to Kevin's sister's home, and the girls got to play with their cousins, and we spent the night.  (Thank you Steph!!)  It was really hot in Fresno when we left, and it was even hotter in Mesquite!  Whew!

We got on the road about 7am the next morning, Wednesday, 17 July, and headed north to Utah.  It is beautiful country traveling through Southern Utah! 

The girls got some sleep in, and we also listened to a book on CD.

We stopped in Spanish Fork, UT and Draper, UT to drop off boxes that the missionaries serving in Kerman were sending home to their families.  Elder Aguirre's family invited us in and we got to talk to them for a while and then we got back on the road.

When we got into the Salt Lake area, the ride was pretty smooth.  They have express lanes through the entire area, so we moved along pretty quickly.  We passed BYU (which Katrina wanted to go see, but I tried to explain how much extra time that would take) and downtown Salt Lake City, etc. 

As we were heading north past Salt Lake City, I saw the turn off for Farmington, and we went to where the Penrose Cabin is on Main Street.  It was closed and locked, but I took a picture with the girls and then called a phone number that I had found in regards to the cabin and left a message, expressing our interest in seeing the inside of the cabin.

We arrived in Ogden at about 4:30pm.  

We unloaded the car and settled in, waiting for Mom to arrive.  Her flight was arriving at 4pm and she figured she would be in Ogden about 5pm.  We waited for a little while. 

Mom got stuck in traffic because of a wreck, and so she got there later than expected.  I ran over to the Ogden Distribution Center and returned some things, as we don't have Distribution Centers in Fresno.  I was glad they were willing to accept returns from over a year ago!  I also saw the Ogden Temple that is being completely re-done!  Wow!

I got back to the Castles just as my mom was pulling in!  We went to dinner at Denny's in South Ogden and talked about her trip to Orkney, etc.  It was so good to see her!!  When someone travels as much as my Mom and Herb have this summer, and we drove all that way, it is wonderful to have everyone arrive safely!

Marji, Brent, Kathryn, Katrina, Lora and Rebecca

Mom was heading up the canyon to stay with our cousins, Sam and Linda Thomas.  We went back to the Castles and the girls got to swim a little bit, while I caught up with Paula Orquiz, who had served her mission in our ward about five years ago.  It was great to see her!

The funny thing is, the Castles have a life-size nutcracker in their front living room.  Katrina was terrified of it and did NOT want to sleep in the same room with it.  We turned it around to face the wall, but that was not good enough.  So, we slept in the other room across the entry way.  We had to close the door every time Katrina walked by the room. 

On the morning of Thursday, 18 July, I got up and did a workout that I had brought with me. I was proud of myself for keeping up the work!  (Unfortunately that would be the only time I got to do it.)  After breakfast, we drove to the Evergreen Memorial Park in Ogden, where Gma Lu is buried, and we visited her grave.  

Then Rebecca and Katrina and I headed into Salt Lake City to go see Temple Square before we went to the reunion.  The reunion started at 4pm, but you could arrive early at 1pm for swimming, etc., and then dinner was at 5:30pm.  We figured we would have a few hours to look around and then head up to the reunion at about 2pm.  We tried to find a place to park on the streets, but it was too crowded, but as we turned onto the street in front of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, there was an entrance in the middle of the street that went down under under the buildings.  We quickly turned in there and ended up about three levels down before we found a good parking place.  All the stalls were so narrow that even in a Ford Focus, we were having trouble fitting, so we found one in a corner, that had a 3 foot wide strip next to the parking space that had been marked off so that a utility door could open.  We parked and headed up into the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

We headed across into Temple Square and went to all the sights.  I had been there before, Rebecca had too, for that matter, in 2002, but she was too young to remember.  But Katrina had never been, so we went around to see everything!

Lora, Rebecca and Amanda on Temple Square in 2002 on our way to Colorado

Katrina and Rebecca on Temple Square in 2013

Katrina looking at the scale model of the Salt Lake Temple in the South Visitor's Center on Temple Square

The handcart statue on Temple Square

The seagull monument on Temple Square

The Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Rebecca, Katrina and I with the Salt Lake Temple behind us.  We sent this photo to Kevin.

The interior of the Tabernacle on Temple Square

I took this picture of the Salt Lake Temple with the special effects on my phone camera.

Rebecca, Lora and Katrina in front of the Christus Statue in the North Stake Center 

Katrina and Rebecca in front of the Conference Center

The one thing that even I hadn't seen is the Conference Center.  We went across the street to see if we could look around.  As it turns out, you have to take a tour.  We were told that the tour would take about 40 minutes, which meant we would be leaving for the reunion later than we wanted to, but we decided that was okay.

The tour started on the roof where we saw the gardens and the waterfall and Temple Square. 

Katrina and Rebecca following our tour guide across the roof of the Conference Center

The Salt Lake Temple in the background with the grasses and wildflowers of Southern Utah in the front and the pine trees of Northern Utah in the middle.

Rebecca and Katrina look down at the water flowing off the side of the Conference Center

Then we went down into the building and saw the art that is displayed all through the building and the very upper balcony of the auditorium.  

The Arnold Frieberg Gallery

A large glass sculpture that hung down through several stories of the atrium

The painting of Christ Visting the Americas was originally painted for the Worlds Fair in Seattle, Washington, but was too big to ever fit anywhere else. When the Conference Center was built, they made sure there was a place for it. 

The statue of the First Vision in about 3 feet tall

Katrina, Rebecca and Lora on the upper level of the auditorium in the Conference Center.  It can hold 21,000 people.

Our tour guide told us over and over that we had to stay with the group, we had to stay together, we had to stay with the group.  We were about to head down to the lower floors when we went through a room that had portraits of all the Apostles, and then into a room that had busts of all the modern day prophets.  As our tour group was milling around, I could see that there were more portraits a little farther down a hallway, and I asked our tour guide what was down there.  She said it was portraits of the modern day Apostles.  I said, "there is a portrait of my 2nd great-grandfather in there."  She said, "Go!"  I grabbed the girls and we went down the hallway into the other room.  I looked quickly and found the portrait of Charles W. Penrose and we took a few photos.

Lora and her great-great grandfather, Charles W. Penrose, in the room with the portraits of the modern-day Apostles in the Conference Center

Our tour guide was calling down the hallway, "Did you find him?!"  We got back to the group and went down the elevators to the main floor.  We went back into the auditorium on the main level and then we hurried back to the car.  By this time it was 2:45pm.  We were going to be a little later to the reunion than we had planned, but we had enjoyed the tour, so we were okay.

The main floor of the auditorium in the Conference Center

I love this picture of Katrina posing like the girl in the statue outside the Primary Building on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, UT

We were going to be getting back to the car within the time frame of only two hours in the parking garage, so I was all proud of us for not having to spend very much on the parking.  Also, my phone battery was dying and I was anxious to plug it in and recharge it.  

We got into the car and I started it, only to have a warning message of low tire pressure show up on the dash.  I got out and looked around the car, and the back passenger tire was flat.  

I looked for a spare tire and a jack, but could find nothing in the trunk.  On the key fob there was a phone number for Road Side Assistance, so I called the number and explained where I was and what had happened.  The lady on the phone took down my information and then our call dropped.  The combination of being three levels under ground and a dying battery were not helping.  I got in the car and charged the battery for a few minutes and then told the girls we were going to have to make it up to the surface to try to make another call.  As we walked away from the car, about six stalls over, suddenly I had coverage!  I called Road Side Assistance back, and they told me that help had already been dispatched and that they would be there by 4pm.  At this time it was 3:35pm.

I did finally find the spare tire, in a false bottom of the trunk, but there was no jack, so it didn't help to find it anyway.

I was trying to send out texts to let everyone know where we were and what was happening, so I had to alternate between running the car to charge the battery and then walking six stalls over to get messages out.  Katrina was starting to get freaked out, so we said a prayer and she calmed down a bit.  I also think that is the only reason that when the Rescue Rangers dispatch called me to get a description of where we were that I suddenly had three bars sitting in the car.  I gave them directions, and at about 4:03pm, a car pulled up with a Rescue Rangers magnet on the side.  

Because of the parking place we had chosen, he had plenty of room to work, for which I was grateful!  He got his jack out and took the tire off.  There was a large screw in the tread.  Nice.  He put the donut on and had me sign the paper work and he was off.

In the meantime, the lady from Road Side Assistance had called me back, but she had to leave a message as I didn't have enough coverage for the call to go through.  I listened to the message, but it was very garbled.  She was saying that I needed to go exchange the car when the tire was changed, but I couldn't understand what location she was telling me to go to.  I called Road Side Assistance back after we got above ground (and I had to pay for an extra hour and a half in the parking garage) and they told me to take it to the airport to exchange it.  I said that I was no where near the airport, and was there a location downtown that I could go to.  They said there was a location at the Hilton, which was right around the corner, so I went there, but that was an Avis, so we high-tailed it back to the car and thankfully made it out of the parking garage there within their "free" time window.  I drove a few more blocks to the Budget location and explained to the lady behind the counter what was going on.  She was brand new, so I had to talk to the manager, who was on an endless phone call.  When he eventually got off the phone, he told me that exchanges could only happen at the airport.  I explained that I was already two hours late for a family reunion that I had driven all the way from California to attend, so could I go later.  He said that would not be a problem, so we set off for the reunion.

We had directions to the reunion via the freeway, but since I couldn't get on the freeway with the spare, we had to travel the surface streets, which of course, too much longer.  We arrived at the reunion at 5:45pm.  Not too late, and the girls still got to go in the pool, so they were happy!  

The cousins all playing in the pool.  Rebecca and Katrina are at the far right end.

I was very happy to meet so many of my extended family!  Oooodles of cousins!  I love it!  When I would be introduced, people responded in one of two ways: "Oh, you are the one who does all the genealogy", or, "Oh, you are the one with the flat tire."  Either way, my reputation preceded me. : )

I was excited to see my cousins, Laurel, Jennifer and Kristen.  It has been ages and I made sure to get a photo with them.  The last photo I have with them was when Gma Lu was still alive.

COUSINS!!  Kristen Castle Dean, Jennifer Castle Critchlow, Lora Marshall Nehring, Laurel Castle DeGroot

COUSINS and Gma Lu in 1991 - back: Lora Marshall, DeeDee Castle, Jennifer Castle; front: Laurel Castle, Lu Penrose Bond, Kristen Castle

We took lots of other photos, including the kids of the kids of the Great Eight, as they call the eight children who were born to Frank and Ruth Penrose, including my Gma Lu.  As we were lining up for the photo, someone directed us that the 45 and older people should stand in the back.  At first, I was kind of pouty that that would include me.  I never feel that old.  Then I looked around at all these fabulous, gorgeous women standing next to me and I suddenly felt very privileged to be in their company.  We inherited some pretty great genes!!  

The Penrose Family Reunion - Kids of the kids of the Great Eight! back row: Lora Nehring (Lu), Shelly Evans (Ann), Patricia Kingston Quirk (Mil), Phyllis Vetter (Ann), Merb Jones (Ann), Erik Kingston (Mil), Kait Kingston (Mil). front row: Kristen Dean (Lu), Julie Smith (Mil), Jennifer Critchlow (Lu), Laurel DeGroot (Lu)

Mom said it was important for her to be in the photo of the oldest generation.  We come from some pretty amazing people!  

The Penrose Family Reunion - The Penrose children of the Great Eight! back row: Lloyd Drecksel (Dixie), Robyn Thompson (Penny), Sheila Penrose (Ann), Samuel Penrose Thomas (Jean), Larry Penrose (Bud), Jeff Thomas (Jean). front row: Kathryn Berkowitz (Lu), Marjorie Castle (Lu), Peggy Smith (Mil), Kathy Jones (Ann)

Marji asked a bunch of questions that led to prizes, such as who was the oldest, the youngest, who had travelled the farthest (Mom from Alaska), who had the most prominent Penrose toe (I had no idea that was a thing.  I have a pretty prominent one, but I had never known that was something I inherited), and one was who had been baptized since the last reunion, so Katrina got to go up and get a prize.

One funny thing that happened was that we were asked to bring photos, documents, etc., relating to the Penrose family, as there would be a scanner there to digitize them all.  So, at home in Kerman before we left, I transferred all my Penrose info onto a memory stick and put it in my wallet to copy at the reunion.  I confidently opened my memory stick, only to find the case completely empty!  I was so startled!  I traced my steps back to the car and looked through everything, but could not find it.  I called home and asked Amanda if there was a memory stick skeleton attached to the computer.  She looked at the USB extension and said no.  Later I talked to Kevin and realized that it would be in the back of the computer, so he looked, and sure enough, there it was.  Too funny!  So, later Kevin attached everything on Google Drive and shared it with me, so I was able to share it after all.

To see all the photos from the Penrose Reunion, click HERE

At about 10pm we left the reunion and my cousins, Nyle and Jennifer Critchlow, who live in Grantsville and were going to drive by the airport anyway, showed me how to get to the airport on surface streets.  I called ahead to let Budget know I was on my way and what I needed to do.  We arrived at the airport at about 11pm, and Jennifer and I went in to the counter, while Nyle stayed in the parking lot with his three boys and my two girls.  There were several people in line and so Jennifer and I talked while we waited to get to the counter.  

Finally, it was our turn (about 11:30pm by now) and the guy behind the counter, Mark, remembered my call and then told me that I was going to have to call the Fresno location and have them fax over a copy of a new contract before he could release keys for a new vehicle.  I explained to him that the Fresno location was not open at this time of night.  He asked if the Fresno Air Terminal would have that information, but when I tried to call there was no answer.  (I found out later, they close at 11pm.)  I told him that Road Side Assistance had made it sound so easy and this was turning into a much bigger deal than I was expecting.  He said it could take a while.  Great!

I ended up calling Road Side Assistance back and asked them what I needed to do, and they were very nice and said that what the man was asking me to do was unnecessary.  By this time there was a line of 4-5 people and another girl had come out to the desk to help.  They tried to call the desk, but because they were busy, neither of them were answering.  Finally, Mark was available again and Jennifer went over to tell him to answer the phone.  I was put on hold while he spoke to Road Side Assistance,  and I moved over in front of him.  He was talking back and forth with the representative, and in the mean time, the girl at the counter, Kris, finished with her customer and turned her attention to the conversation that Mark was having.  When she realized what was happening, she pulled out a form and said that all we had to do was write the incoming car information and the outgoing car information and then it would be entered in the computer by corporate in the morning.  Jennifer and I told her we were SO glad she was there! 

Once we got all that straightened out, Mark asked if the fuel in the car was full.  Gack!  In all the mess with the tire I had forgotten to fill it up.  We went out to the cars, left the airport, went to a nearby gas station, filled up and headed back to the airport.  I kept trying to let Jennifer and Nyle go home, but they were insistent that they were going to stay until they knew it was taken care of.  (Thank you Nyle and Jennifer!!)

We got back to the airport and we took the keys in.  They gave us the keys to the new car, a gray Chevy Impala, and a form to mark any scratches, etc.  Jennifer and I went out to mark the form, but stopped for about 20 minutes to talk about some family drama.  We got to the car and only noticed one ding on the hood.  We transferred all the stuff into the new car, and I told Nyle and Jennifer that they could go, (it was now 12:40am) and that I only had to give them the copy of the form.  So, they finally left and took their kids home.  I walked back in with the girls and we returned the form.  There was no one at the desk.   Even Mark had gone.  

We walked out to the rental car and got in. I turned the key and a warning appeared on the dash:

"You have got to be freaking kidding me!!"

So I get the girls out and we go back into the terminal.  Now there are people ahead of me, so we have to wait, again.  When I get up to the counter, I explain the problem, and Kris was at a loss.  She said that should have been taken care of.  I said, "You think?!"  She said that the oil gets changed at 8000 miles, but the odometer read 7801, and I told her I would be putting on over 200 miles just in the Salt Lake area in the next few days, not to mention the 700 miles + I would be driving home on Sunday.  There was no one there but her (it was now 1:00am) and she said the only other vehicle she had on hand was actually smaller than the Ford Focus.  We had enough trouble fitting into the Focus, I didn't want anything smaller.  She said that they would have a lot more cars in the morning, and could I come back then.  Grrrrrrr.

Rebecca and Katrina in the gray Chevy Impala

So, we got back into the car and drove to the Castles, and got there at about 2:15am.  Marji was waiting up for us, and I felt bad, as I had thought about calling her, but didn't want to wake her up.  I finally got to bed at about 2:40am.  It was now Friday, 19 July.

I wanted to sleep in, but had no such luck!  At 7:30am I heard a car alarm go off, and I was going to be so mad if it was the rental.  I looked out the window and the sound was coming from the car. I threw on some clothes and opened the front door to see what was going on, and it was then that I could tell that it was actually coming from a car kitty-corner across the street, but directly in the line from the rental car.  Arg!!  I went back in and tried to get back to sleep, but it wasn't happening.

Mom came down and we spent the morning together and I got ahold of the Budget car rental at the airport to make sure that there was really a car there to exchange before I drove all the way back out there.  They said they would have one for me, so off I went.  The girls stayed with Marji and Mom had plans with Sam and Linda in the afternoon.  I drove to the rental car place at the airport again and this time was given a red Chevy Impala.  No warnings when I turned on the car - good.  All tries full - good.  (We had been joking that it would have been funny if they gave me back the Ford Focus, but it was still sitting there with the spare on it.)

I drove from the airport to Orem, UT to see a friend of mine, Denise Glines.  We have been friends since 6th grade (when we had the B.O.F. club - Best Of Friends - and Garfield was our mascot!), but we have only seen each other once since high school, so it was fantastic to see her again!  We have kept in touch on Facebook, but it was so nice to be face to face, and we had such a wonderful visit!  Tears, laughter, more tears!  It was great!  

Denise Glines and I

She asked me if I was going straight home, but I told her I wanted to try and ice cream place in Murray, called Sub Zero.  She said that there was one nearby, so we went to get ice cream!  It was really good and we enjoyed more time to talk.  When you go into the ice cream shop you choose your base (cream, yogurt, rice milk, etc.), a flavor (I chose brownie batter and carmel), and mix-ins (I chose brownie bits), then they mix them up and freeze it right in front of you.  

My carmel brownie concoction

I drove back to Ogden and got there just as everyone was going to dinner.  I realized that all I had to eat that day was two pancakes, two oatmeal raisin cookies and ice cream.  Yikes!  So, I went with them and got some chicken nuggets.  Not a huge step up the nutritional ladder, but better.  The girls had gone to a soccer game of one of Laurel's kids and then gone swimming, so they got plenty of sun!

In the meantime, I had gotten a call back from the DUP lady about the Penrose Cabin and we, Mom, Marji, Rebecca, Katrina and I, met her there at 10am on Saturday, 20 July, and we got to look around the cabin.  There was a section that had Charles W. Penrose items in it, and then the rest was local information and artifacts.  (To read more about the cabin, click HERE)

The front, west facing, side of the Penrose Cabin

A view of the cabin's northwest interior. This corner holds all of the artifacts directly related to Charles W. Penrose.

The "dress suit" that Charles W. Penrose wore. There are several photos in which he is wearing it.

A painted portrait of Charles W. Penrose

Rebecca and Katrina, the 3rd great granddaughters, and Lora, the 2nd great-grandaughter of Charles W. Penrose

We left the cabin and went to The Greenery, which is a restaurant that was Gma Lu's favorite in the Ogden area.  We had Mormon Muffins in her honor, as they were her favorite, and we all toasted her!  Stirling and DeeDee Castle, my cousin and his wife, joined us for lunch and it was so great to see them!!  We had a great time talking about all kinds of things!  I wish we could have spent more time with them.  

Rebecca, Kathryn, Stirling, DeeDee, Lora and Katrina

We spent a little bit of time at Stirling and DeeDee's home and then we went to a few stores and then Mom was getting ready to go back up to Sam and Linda's.  We took some photos before she left, as the girls and I were leaving at about 5:00am the next morning.

Kathryn and Lora

Marji, Lora and Kathryn

Lora and Jennifer

I got a hilarious pair of texts from home:

Man, I can't leave for more than a minute. . . . hahahahaha!!

After Mom left the girls and the Critchlow cousins played in the pool, and Katrina and Max (who are close to the same age) did Mad Libs on the front porch.

Cousins!!  Brady Critchlow, Katrina, Rebecca, Max Critchlow, Lucien Critchlow

Jennifer and I went to a few stores to get a few things I needed before we left the next day.  I am glad for every moment that I got to spend with my family on this trip!!  We got everything packed up and got it all ready to go so we could just head our in the morning.  (Thank you Marji and Brent!!)

On Sunday, 21 July, we got up VERY early and got on the road at about 5:40am.  We were driving straight through to Kerman in one day, about 14-16 hours, so we had to get going!

I was so tired already, not having ever really caught up from the 2:30am morning, so I got a 32oz Dr. Pepper VERY early in the morning.  We were across from the Y on the mountain above Provo/Orem.

We stopped in Fillmore, UT for a potty break and a few caches and we saw some fun animals that Katrina wanted a picture with.  This is the only photos I took of the last rental car as well.

We made it to Mesquite in about 5 hours and Steph made us sandwiches (Thank you Steph!!) and then we rushed back onto the freeway.  But not without a root beer float from Dairy Queen that I had promised Katrina the day before. : )  I also refilled my Dr. Pepper.

The only glitch in the drive home was the endless stop and go (mostly stop) between Jean and Primm.  That is always a huge problem, but we made it through and stopped at the next rest stop just before Baker.  We used the facilities and stretched our legs, finding a cache and checking out all the fun new features they have at the renovated rest stop!

We stopped in Baker for lunch, and finished listening to the book on CD as we crossed the Mojave desert.  We also had been watching for license plates and ended up seeing plates from 38 of the 50 states.  We dodged the traffic backup in Barstow by taken the old Highway 58.  We stopped to fill up with gas in Tehachapi and we came down the mountain into the valley as the sun was setting.  As it got dark, we made our way up to Fresno and then West to home!  Amanda and Kevin had been up in Auberry and were watching us on Glympse and came down just a few minutes behind us.  

We unloaded the car and got to bed.  The next morning we returned the rental car to Budget in Fresno.  I explained the situation to them and they gave us a good discount on the rental.  The lady even had to enter all the exchange information into the computer, as no one had done that yet.  (I sent an email to Budget telling them both the good and bad of our experience, and I hope they listen!)  

In the end, we travelled a total of 1947 miles!  We are grateful that we had a safe trip and enjoyed ourselves.  I am hoping next time we all get to go!!

To see all the photos from our trip, click HERE