Hi Everyone!

Wow, it's so weird to finally be in Utah. We are SO tired both emotionally
and physically.  Let me update you on our travels out here and the move
itself.

As most of you know, we started driving later on Saturday than we had
planned. We finally got the movers out and took one last look around our
empty house in Elgin to make sure we had cleaned everywhere and take a
minute to remember back four years ago when we moved there. We loved the
house but not the neighborhood, nor the neighbors (except Patty). It was
always a miserable commute to work and the location was god-awful hot in
the summer and horrible winds coming off the corn fields in the spring.
But we had some good memories and I would especially miss the home where
my daughter spent her high school years.

 We finished loading up the car and got on the road about 1pm. Before we
knew it we were crossing the river into Bettendorf, Iowa and stopping for
our first break with the dogs. We made it to Council Bluffs about 6ish,
ate dinner and decided we would go to Lincoln to spend the night. We
finally settled in to a Staybridge (?) at 10:30, with doggies on the
floor and bird in the closet (in a file box). About 2:30am Bird decided
he should try to beat his way out of the box and it made a horrible noise
waking everyone up. Stupid Bird.

We got back on the road at 10:30 or so on Sunday after taking the dogs to
a wonderful dog park in Lincoln. It was a small golf course turned into
dog park with streams, rolling hills and trees.  They had a great time,
Story taking a tumble after she leaped off the edge of a bog and it was
deeper than it looked. She actually did a sommersault. In the midst of
fawning over her hurt ego, we lost track of Syd. We doubled back, calling
and calling. Fred walked all the way to the end of the reeds, then turned
around and put his hand over his mouth in laughter. I said 'what now?!'
Here comes Syd, miss pigpen herself, completely covered in pond scum. She
had waded in and layed down. Yuck! Now I was going to have to drive with a
wet smelly dog all the way to Cheyenne. Believe me it wasn't pleasant. I
drenched her with a gallon of water and did my best to wiper her off.

We made it to Cheyenne about 5pm and I have to say the drive through
Nebraska is not much different than driving through southern Illinois,
except the last 75 miles or so. The terrain starts to change as you begin
to climb up to the high plains of Wyoming. When we arrived in Cheyenne
there was beautiful sunsets to greet us plus a beautiful city set down in
a small valley off the highway. Cheyenne reminded me of St. Charles but
with a definite western flair. Old fashioned brick buildings along their
main street with large painted cowboy boots on various street corners
(like the bulls of Chicago).  We stayed at a Comfort Inn, which worked
well for the dogs. They loved the fact that they could go in with us and
walk around the hallways. We went out for Arbys and then sent some emails
with pictures. Again, Stupid Bird decided he should try to fly at 2am
scaring the heck out of everyone.

Monday morning we were up before dawn, grabbed a quick coffee and got on
the road. We passed through the highest point between NY and California,
at the Lincoln Memorial Hwy rest stop just east of Laramie, WY. It was
8,000+ feet and VERY cold. I had on shorts and sandals and was freezing as
I ran in to the restroom. There was a lookout area with small museum of
the Mormon Pioneers (they come through this pass on their migration west
to Salt Lake City). After we began the descent from this place, we could
see Laramie layed out in front of us like an old western landscape. You
could see cattle and ranches all around and the tabletop terrain all along
Hwy 80. Traveling across Wyoming was so remote that you had to make sure
to gas up at every rest area you could.  The time flew by as we drove
closer and closer to the Utah border. We passed through a town that is
along the Flaming Gorge recreation area that was just beautiful.  US 80
makes a turn south at Evanston, WY and begins a descent from the high
plains to the Utah border. The change in terrain when you enter in to Utah
is astounding. Even though Wyoming was very high, it was not mountains. As
we crossed into Utah the colors changed from drab brown and sage to golds,
forest greens and maple reds. The highway drops quickly toward Park City
and then before we knew it we were heading through the pass into Salt Lake
City. Fred jumped on the GPS to get the final directions to our home and
called me on the cell phone. I had been following him fairly close all the
way through our trip but in Park City I was so distracted from the scenery
that he got several miles ahead. He promised not to go on to the house
until I caught up but wait for me at the base of our neighborhood.

We opened the garage door with the keycode the owners had given us and
took our first steps into the lower level. That's when the hard part
started. The first thing that hit me was a very strong carpet shampoo
smell which was intended to cover a very strong dog odor. Hmmm.  They told
us they were going to shampoo all the carpets on Saturday. I reached down
to feel that they were still wet. Great. Sleeping on an air mattress on
damp carpet was not my idea of a fun time. Ok, upstairs we went. Let's see
if its better up there. Well it was a bit better but things just didn't
seem too clean which was a disappointment since we had spent so much time
cleaning up our home before we left. The garage was especially disgusting
with grease, dirt, and what we would later find out was mouse droppings.
We went out to the deck and up to the second deck area to just get away
for a minute and let the dogs roam around. The owners left a lot of
garbage in the back yard (fast food wrappers, old brooms, paint cans and a
playset that was supposed to have been moved.) Arghh.  Well, we unpacked
our few belongings, got the dogs fed and ran out for some more fast food
(I am so sick of fast food since we've been eating it for 2 weeks because
our kitchen was packed up). We went to throw away our wrappers in the
trash compactor to find that it was full with disgusting old garbage.
THEN, Fred saw a mouse run across the kitchen floor. That was it. We fell
into a funk that lasted for the next 2 days. In the middle of the first
night, it was so cold (55) and I got up to turn on the heat. Guess what??
No gas! Yup, the owners had it shut off before they moved but forgot to
tell us that we needed to start up service. In Utah, they physically shut
it off and turn it back on. Great. So no showers, no heat until Wednesday.
Wow, our furniture and the gas man would visit us all in the same day!

So, we figured we'd get started cleaning up the house on Tuesday. We took
the disgusting trash compactor can out, washed windows, and watched it
pour buckets of rain all day Tuesday. This just added to the funk. Poor
Fred. He kept saying 'I'm so sorry, this was my idea to move here'. We set
mouse traps and to date have only caught one, so maybe the problem isn't
so bad.

But what a difference a few days makes. The movers arrived on Wed at 8:30a
with our things and they were able to unload everything by 3:30. That's
great progress considering it took them 1 ½ days to load us.  We were so
thankful to have some things around us that were familiar. Everything else
was so foreign. We got so lost just trying to find a 7 Eleven for coffee
or a grocery store for aspirin. We have had 4 neighbors come by to greet
us and bring home-baked goodies. The neighborhoods are divided into Wards
(church wards) and everyone in the ward does things together. I was
delighted to find out that there is a group of women my age who get
together every Friday morning to hike.  They meet up at Laura's house
across the street and carpool up to a different place each week. Next week
they are going up to Sundance to hike Stewart Falls (where Jeremiah
Johnson was filmed) and then lunch at the grill at the resort. They even
invited Fred for next week to welcome him and me to the 'hood'.  The
neighbors have been a ray of sunshine in what has been a very exhausting
week.

The dogs have been sleeping out on the sun dappled deck all day while we
unpack. We haven't ventured out much but I found a nice little bagel shop
this morning and we have found our way to Home Depot and Walmart.

So, we are feeling much better today and Fred went for his first bike
ride. I've been reading on the deck and whenever the house starts to get
to us we look out the front window and remember why we chose this spot. We
cooked a couple steaks and made a salad for dinner then enjoyed Laura's
choc chip cookies!

You can catch up with all our pictures at
http://community.webshots.com/user/fredschub
Make sure to look through the albums in this order:

Going Away Party
Moving Day-Pizza Night
Driving West -Iowa/Neb
Wyoming
Final drive into Utah


All our love,
Liz and Fred
p.s. keep in touch!

8720 Treasure Mountain Cl
Sandy, UT 84093
Home phone is still 847-697-9566 (VoIP so we got to keep our Elgin #)