Brief Blog (Updated)

I realize that it has been a while since I updated everyone on happenings. I am going to have to be brief today because I have a lot to do before I catch the bus to Phoenix. Reader's Digest mode: Went from Stephanie's to Chuck's house. Caught his graduation. Spent a couple days in Seneca Falls area. Went to Church at Peter Whitmer Farm Went to Palmyra Temple with Penny and Stephanie (temple number 20). Also went to Sacred Grove. Helped Chuck load up. Took Stephanie, Emmuska, and Liberty back to Dixon, Missouri. I have the pictures to prove all of this and I'm not afraid to use them when I have time. Total miles for this 3525 miles (rounding to the nearest 25 miles). Total mileage since blog: 5250 miles. These by the way are on the road miles.

Now why am I going to Phoenix today? Last Monday, I started with the May Trucking Company. As a condition of employment, they required a driving test. I have not driven in a month, so I was nervous; turns out I did not need to be. Jonathan failed the test (darn curbs and turn signals -- the bane of the truck driver). May Company refused to hire him and were very rude about it. I called Werner Trucking out of Phoenix while I was in May's parking lot. They were happy to hire Jonathan and I. We start training August 17th. Mom said she thought that we were supposed to work for Werner all along but it would have been nice if she had told us this. They requested that we take the Hazmat test, have background checks and get fingerprinted (that's a verb?). This is what I was doing from Monday night to Thursday morning. It should have been finished Wednesday morning but I spent 2.5 hours at the Drivers License Division waiting to take a test and get my temporary license. That is sad news -- my new CDL license came last Saturday in the mail and I had to surrender it on Tuesday and pay another fee. At least I had it for 3.5 days. (I did not like the picture on it anyway).

We have two days of orientation and then we have 300 hours of training (that's 300 hours behind the wheel). Hopefully, I will be finished late September, early October and that I will finish before Jonathan. That way I will have the truck issued to me and not to him. When I get a truck, I can take my laptop and then I will be able to blog again and add pictures. Mom says that this is like my boot camp but I am sure I will have it easier than Kimberly is having it. Please remember her in your prayers.

Lots to do and pack and get ready. I will read your posts in six weeks and add pictures (cross my heart and hope to die -- oops, we did that already almost 3 years ago), I promise. I will also keep everyone updated on destinations and mileage.

Miles and Miles and Miles

The last four days, I have been on the road and have not had any accessibility to the internet. I am typing this at the Seneca Falls Public Library which has a slow connection. I will not be able to add pictures (since my camera is at Chuck and Maren's house) but will do so at the first opportunity. (I now have some to add.)

Tuesday morning, Penny, Chuck and I arose early and did a session in the Denver Temple. All three of us felt that instead of traveling straight to Stephanie's house, we should go to the Winter Quarters Temple in Omaha. We got in the car and drove straight there, taking minimal gasoline stops. We went quite fast to arrive at our destination and at one point, I told Chuck that he did not have a licence to fly but he opened his wallet and showed me that he did. After that I did not say anything about the speed he traveled. We arrived at the Winter Quarters temple 10 minutes before the last session started. The temple is beautiful and is next to the pioneer graveyard. It has stained-glass windows with many pioneer scenes. These two temples made numbers 16 and 17 of our goal of 25 temples this year. (Chuck took the picture of the Nebraska State sign from the moving van. He can fly like the dickens but his photography skills are questionable.)

We left Omaha immediately after the session and decided to drive to Nauvoo and then St. Louis and finish the temple circuit before we arrived at Stephanie and Mycal's house. We finally had to stop at Des Moines for some much needed sleep. We arrived fairly promptly Wednesday morning and after gassing up, we drove straight to Nauvoo, which we hit at lunch time. We did not have time to tour the city (which was holding the Nauvoo Pageant) but went straight to the temple, where we did a session. Words cannot how beautiful the temple was inside, down to the cherry wood lockers in the changing rooms. Each room had a beautiful, vibrant mural and Penny, Chuck and I had a very, very positive experience there.


After Nauvoo, the three of us ran down to St. Louis and took in the penultimate session of the evening there. It was a nice temple but it did not strike me quite like Nauvoo did. We drove to Stephanie's house in Dixon, Missouri in the dark and unloaded the van which contained several things she left in Utah. Stephanie and Mycal have bought a house, now that they have determined that they will be in Missouri for 3 plus years. We spent the night at the Browns house (the furniture has not arrived yet, so we stress tested their floor) and in the morning, we had breakfast at Shoney's and hit the road again. Sadly, I will have to finish this interesting tale with the next post. Travel for this post is 1200 miles, totaling 1725 miles.