Day 11 - 13 June 2009

This was a "no-travel-day." We caught the first shuttle to downtown Salt Lake City, to Temple Square, the heart of Salt Lake City and the Mormon universe as well.

Right off the bat let me say that I am impressed with what the Mormons offer tourists (mainly non-Mormons) in Salt Lake City. First of all, there is a free shuttle bus from the airport to Temple Square and back (this bus happens to pass by the KOA campground where we stayed and it picks up and delivers anyone from there who wants to go downtown). The shuttle buses are driven by volunteer members of the Church. The aim of the free shuttle service is to avail people who have a few hours layover at the airport to spend them seeing the Mormon version of Rome's Saint Peter's Square. Then on Temple Square there are many ushers, guides for most languages, and generally nice people willing to point things out and to assist in any way. How the Church manages to mobilize these numbers of people is beyond me: Men dressed in business suits, women in long (almost formal) dresses befitting the rules of the Mormon Church, and young people also dressed befitting the surroundings. I surmise that the overall aim is to put the Mormon religion in as positive a light as possible. Everything is clean, neat, and well organized. Although the references to the Church, it's leaders past and present, and the all-present thesis of the Book of Mormon are evident, no one directly proselytized or even mentioned other religions.

We were given a tour of Temple Square and some buildings by two young women, one from South Korea, the other from Mexico. They spoke in glowing terms of the achievements by the pioneers who braved many hardships in reaching this valley after being persecuted out of two different locations farther east. The temple itself is sacred and can only be entered by members of the Church in good standing. Don't ask me exactly what "in good standing" means, the best I could gather was that once a year every Mormon has to have an "interview" with a bishop who ascertains and certifies the worthiness of the member to enter the temple. The mystery of it all makes me more than a little suspicious, but I took care not to embarrass the young ladies by asking too many skeptical questions.

We also visited the Museum of Family History, also known as the Genealogical Library. Again, the people were all very friendly and accommodating. The Genealogical Library is huge and like any large library has several floors, reams of books, masses of computer terminals, and a large vault with thousands of microfilms. All of it is accessible to the general public with the aid of the library staff. I really didn't make this trip to Salt Lake City to do genealogical research, but since we were there it interested me how and why they maintain such a library. The "how" is that people (presumably Church members) go out and obtain family histories from archives around the world. This information is put into a database and shared with the world. Then if someone finds his or her ancestors and adds his or her own records, this information in turn can be added to the database to augment it. The "why" is that the Mormon Church emphasizes the unity of families. By tracing one's roots and completing the family tree the whole world could eventually be united as one big family - sort of. Mind you, I'm no expert on the Mormon religion, this is only my "take" on the situation.

We then wandered around aimlessly a bit and had "a little lunch" at a cafe in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. As we finished our lunch we strolled out into the main part of the building which looked like the lobby of a grand hotel, but without reception desk or bellmen. My friend wanted to take a picture of the richly ornamented lobby, but didn't dare because a greater-than-life statue of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Latter Day Saints - also known as the Mormon Church, kept watch over us, and many people in wedding attire moved about the lobby and the corridors. I spotted a dapper gentleman in a light gray suit and a name tag who was standing at the entrance to the hall as if ready to direct anyone who needed directing. I approached him intending to ask if it was OK to take a picture, but first I asked him what the function of this building is. That started a relationship that lasted for over an hour, got us a private guided tour of the building and tons of information ranging from the customs of the Mormons to the use of unmanned aircraft in Afghanistan.

In the early 1900s the building which is now the Joseph Smith Memorial Building used to be the Utah Hotel, a grand gathering place for the rich and famous in Salt Lake City and surroundings. It is now a place where Mormon Church members can have their wedding receptions (there were nine going on at the time we were there), and where Church banquets and meetings are held. The president of the Church used to live in a private suit upstairs. There are two restaurants in addition to the cafe where we ate and viewing areas on the 10th floor where one has a wonderful view of Salt Lake City and the surrounding valley.

The gentleman opened doors for us that are usually closed to the public. Everything is of the finest quality. The drinking fountains are golden, spotless, and work well! When the ceiling in one of the main dining rooms was refurbished, only a lady from Germany knew how to do it. No expense seems too great to demonstrate the power of the Church and to extol its virtues. It turned out that the gentleman we had stumbled upon was a Salt Lake City native, Church member of course, and ex-Navy-man who had worked for Lockheed Martin Corporation (just like me) after retiring from the Navy. That brought out the fact that he had been to Ramstein Air Base in Germany to train US Air Force personnel in the use of unmanned aircraft such as are used in Afghanistan and maybe elsewhere today. When I told him that I have some moral qualms about launching missiles from an aircraft without a pilot who can make last second decisions about whether to fire the missile or not, he assured me that the drones (as the unmanned aircraft are called) are as completely under the control of a pilot as a conventional jet aircraft, except that the pilot is not in the aircraft but thousands of miles away. He also stated that no strike is carried out without several levels of permissions that have to be received, including that of a legal expert. Well, if a member of the Mormon Church...

After visiting another edifice or two we hopped aboard the free shuttle for a ride back to the campground in a torrential downpour. The nice man driving the bus told us that they have had twice the amount of rain that usually falls in the entire month of June in just two weeks, but that they need it because the summers are hot and dry. He not only took us to the campground, he drove us right up to our RV so that we wouldn't get wet. "Hats off" to the nice people in Salt Lake City. So much for day 11.