From Neil

Sage Brush

January 25, 2010

Dear Family

Well one thing that I can say is that winter continues. This past week has been one of one snow storm right after another. Sunday, however the sun came out and gave us a nice sunny day. There has been much going on with two weddings and two new arrivals. Reed and Kerry went back to Pennsylvania to see their new granddaughter and Angela and Amber returned from their honey moons. Angela was showing us her cruse pictures last night. She had a DVD where they were playing with the dolphins. It looked like they were having fun. Me, I did get around to booking a couple of flights to Hawaii in April where LaVora and I will hook up with Jerry, Marylyn, Dewey and Beverly for a few days. It will be nice to spend some time together. I think we have also finally got things squared away for our trip to Nauvoo. So I do hope to see everyone there.


As Near as I can tell, from LaVora’s Point of View or the Rest of the Story
It seems that after the ring episode on the shore of the lake, LaVora assuming that Neil had gone back to camp, which she could see from her vantage point, went on her way back to camp, probably the long way which took her to where Uncle Lee was working. I guess that since it was such a nice day that she was “moseying along” enjoying everything around her. I can see her checking out the flowers, interesting rocks and the lichens on the rocks. Upon reaching the place where uncle was he inquired of her “Where is Neil?” to which LaVora answered, “He went back to camp.” To which Uncle Lee said to her “You had better go check.” Whether or not LaVora hastened her pace as she went to camp I would not know but upon reaching camp and mother not seeing Neil with LaVora I would guess, one could only imagine what must have gone through mother’s mind. As LaVora said it had only been about six months since they had lost Deward. So the anxiety level must have been pretty high. LaVora said, “I went and hid as the search began.” She said that she could hear mother calling for Neil and the men who were searching trying to get her to be quiet so if Neil was calling they could hear him. At the conclusion of the successful search LaVora said, “I was hiding so that they had to spend a little time finding ne”. But soon all were together again and in a day or two things had returned to normal except that perhaps Neil’s cruising range was now probably somewhat limited. At this point in my writing the words my father spook to Jerry one evening in the Uinta mountains when Jerry and one of the other scouts had been lost and had eventually found their way back to camp and as they were bedding down for the night, Dad said to Jerry, “Sure beats sleeping under a sage brush.”

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