This Week at Our House # 42

The Packing Up: We did not ask for help to pack up, but a very sweet young couple in our ward came and helped and I am so glad. They helped John and his brother Jeremy put the heavy items in the van and they helped sweep and clean out cupboards. We had the usual having to make last minute choices about what to keep and what to throw. John ended up taking 2 loads to the dump the next morning, and I cleaned the house for 8 hours straight. We had an intense couple of days for sure.

The Driving: We spent the first night at Jeremy's house and then left Utah at 11am the next morning. Jer and Rosanne helped us a ton. They were our best friends. I think they are what we will miss most about Utah. We drove until we were half way through Nebraska with a quick stop in Laramie, WY to visit John's sister and her family. The kids were good in the car. But by the end of the night, Susan was crying and really unhappy. She then cried for the first three hours in the hotel.

The next day we drove to Chicago to eat dinner at Giordonos, John's favorite pizza place. The Chicago style pizza was really, really good. Then we started to head south through Indiana. We drove through a bit of a scary part of Chicago and Ruth and Kate were so funny making fun of all of the liquor stores and the liquor stores that advertised lottery, WIC, and food stamps. City people make fun of suburban and country people, and we found plenty of irony viewing their lifestyle just through their local businesses. We stopped just north of Indianapolis for the night. The time zone changed on us and we had a bit of trouble finding a hotel so we didn't stop until 2am. This time, Suzy seemed unhappy, but resigned to her fate of life in a car and nights in a hotel. She just laid quietly went to sleep. That was a relief.

The last day, the drive was beautiful through the Appalachian mountains. The fall colors were vibrant and the hills and trees were breath taking. By the time we got to North Carolina, we were pretty worn out, but still had a few hours left. We made it to my parent's home in Charlotte at 10:30pm.