Old Times, Places and Friends, But New Adventures

In a few days I am beginning a short vacation that will take me to Idaho, Montana and Glacier National Park. In Idaho I will visit my long-time friends, Lloyd and Barbara Agte. I met Lloyd when he came to Denver and participated in some of the programs I offered through Whole Life Learning Center. He arranged for me to present a meditation seminar later in Casper. Since retiring several years ago as a professor at Casper College in Casper Wyoming and moving to Idaho, he has spent most of his time building his dream home on land that has long been in his family.

From there I will travel to Kalispell, Montana. My maternal grandparents homesteaded in the area and I plan to visit the old farm which I haven’t seen since I was four years old. My memories of those old times include sleeping in the barn along with my sister. Also, I spent grand times in grandma’s garden sitting between the rows of carrots and eating my fill. My cousin, who visited the area in the 80s, shared a photo of the new house that had been built on the farm. He also looked up the farm on Google Earth. I followed his lead and also looked it up and mapped directions to it from Kalispell. Isn’t modern technology great (in most cases)! My grandfather sold the land and moved to Oregon around 1944 where he worked in the Oregon Shipyards.

After a good look around the area I will spend the next several days in Glacier National Park. I will stay one night in Lake MacDonald Lodge. As a child I remember the photo we had of the lake that hung in our home. This will be my first visit to the Park and I hope to take numerous pictures some of which I plan to share on this blog later.

My co-pilot on the trip will be a friend from back in my seminary days at Unity School in the middle to late 1950s. Judy Gillenwater as she was known then (now Nomi Sweetfire) had also come to work in Silent Unity. I hadn’t seen her since 1959 until we were reacquainted in Tucson, Arizona two years ago. Nomi now lives with her daughter and her family in California.

I look forward to visiting old friends and old places in a new adventure. Bon Voyage!