Dave and I bought a house. In Idaho. (fyi--that is not the house in the background of the above picture) It's Dave's childhood home and we are hoping to get it up and ready for rent. However, it has been occupied by an elderly man (Dave's dad, or course) who in his later years had not kept it up to par as he did in his younger years. We needed to go get it cleaned out and up to code, update the bathrooms, plumbing, clean up the lot that had been vacant and uncared for for a couple of years etc. I went through the house and cleaned out drawers and cupboards and 'stuff', and Dave cleared up some problems outside the yard (caving in an old root cellar, cleaning up weeds and debris around the property etc) as well as updating one of the bathrooms. Anyway, we tried to make it an enjoyable trip. As I am writing this months after the trip, I found some notes I took during the trip.
There is a fine balance between speakers in the car turned to the drivers side so Dave can hear his audio book and volume balanced on my device and earphones so I can enjoy my music. It is almost a scientific equation.
We bought a brand new GPS for this trip. Apparently it had been sitting on the store shelf for a LONG time, the maps were so outdated!
We do some fire safety service in a building in Tuba City. It is a small service, but it is part of a chain of services we do in other parts of the city/state. It is definitely not financially equal to a separate trip for such a small service, so every year we make a stop in Tuba City to do some inspections on our way to Utah.
We drove through St George in southern Utah. I only lived there 2 years, but there are so many fond memories.
The speed limit on parts of the freeway in Utah is 80 mph. Love it!
I dropped a paper between the seats in car. I reached down to get it and my fingers went into a very ripe plum I brought and forgot about and apparently lost down beside the seat. Gross surprise.
Got in the car to run into town and the GPS was set to "french" language. I guess that's one way to learn a language.
There was a text message conversation regarding the old toilet at Grandpa's house with Melanie:
Melanie: "Wow, I didn't know you guys were remodeling so much. but good thing. I always thought that bathroom smelt funny. It was probably the carpet."
Me: "Yeah, I haven't stepped in there barefoot for years. We're putting in new faucets, one new sink, flooring, fresh paint and a new mirror. It will be exciting to use that bathroom again."
Melanie: "I hope you took before pictures to show how awesome your renovation is."
Me: "I took pictures during, but we'll have to just remember the funky carpet, the two different paint colors, the 1960's floral wallpaper, and all the random nails and hooks to hang towels on. AND . . . the supporting wood under the toilet was rotten. Any one of us could have fallen through to the scary crawl space under the house!"
Melanie: "Oh my gosh, if that happened to me I would literally crap myself. That bathroom was so sketch! Thank you for giving that Oval Office some dignity.
We bought plenty of groceries to get through the week, then chose to go out to dinner almost every night.
We found so many odds and ends in the cupboards. It makes me wonder how and why I place things around my house.
We found a stash of plastic bags. I know there is a system in every house to save plastic or paper grocery bags. But we found a stash of decades of bags, both in the house and in the garage. I realize everyone needs a plastic bag occasionally, but wow - an unusually large number of bags! (as well as plastic bottles with lids (empty and saved) and ice cream tubs (empty and saved), LOTS!
We found a water color set in the hall closet. I'm not sure if Delos or Betty was dabbling in art, but the paint set had Delos' name on it. It would be more logical if Betty was the one painting.
The original house was built with well planned and thoughtful workmanship and high quality building materials, then everything since was pieced and patched. It seems like a weird thought process to see nails, strings, patches etc holding things together.
There is no internet in the house so we were doing business without our computer, only with our phone. It mostly worked but we needed to read and sign documents for a real estate transaction so we had to go into town and do work for an hour at Office Max.
We made two trips to the Eastern Idaho State Fair (20 minutes away). Once we went because Dave just wanted to go down memory lane. He attended that fair many many times growing up. The second time we went, a missionary that used to serve in our area, Jeremiah Heneger, was there and we wanted to have a quick visit with him. It's always fun to catch up with friends.
Potato on a stick and batter dipped fried bacon!
We also visited with Delos (living with Brent and Vee now), Brent and Vee, Derek and Tristina, Annalyn and Warren, and their exchange student, Sam. We also stopped to see Chelsea and the kids on the way home.
It was a very productive trip, We got a lot done and had a little fun on the side.
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