Of Cove Fort and Whisky Pete's

8/29/10
Well, we are now here in Carlsbad California, and we’ve been here nearly two weeks. Here is a brief recount of our adventures for posterity’s sake, and some of my reflections thus far.

The trip out here was fairly uneventful. We split the drive up into three days, so it wasn’t too overwhelming. The first night we stayed in Utah at my folk’s house and dropped off Amari (my little niece), Joseph, and Enoch’s friend Will. Enoch was not so lucky. We kidnapped him and took on to California with us as entertainment for our kiddoes and muscles for unloading the truck. (His assistance was much appreciated, though!) The second day we drove to a place just past Las Vegas, where we spent the night. On that leg of the journey, we (amidst some minor groans and complaining from my dear Curtis and Enoch) stopped at Cove Fort, a church historical site, and had a wonderful tour from one of the senior missionaries that was there. Then on to Jean, Nevada, where Curtis insisted he wanted to stay because he had heard it was cheap. Two hours later, we had finally made it the last 15 miles from Las Vegas to Jean. The traffic was creeping along, with all the gamblers going back to California from Las Vegas. Leila was pretty cranky by that time from being in the car so long (so was her mother!) so we stopped at the first place we saw right off the freeway in Jean--Whiskey Pete’s Hotel and Casino. I’ll tell you, what a contrast in feeling from the peacefulness of Cove Fort! I didn’t particularly want to stay there, but our options were pretty limited in Jean. Cute little side note; On the way into the hotel, I asked Arden if he knew what whisky was. He didn’t, so I told him. He then informed me that he didn’t want to stay there anymore. What a good kid. Anyway, the place was booked, so we went across the street to check out the other hotel in town. It too was booked (apparently, everyone creeping along the road back to California gave up and decided to just spend the night in Jean. Either that, or like Ben suggested, Jean stages a pileup on the highway every Sunday night to try to get people to stay in their hotels.). Anyway, we decided the best course of action was to travel back 10 or 15 miles to the little town right before Jean. We still had to stay at a casino, but there was no line, and we got right in to a room that I think was still sufficiently inexpensive for Curtis. (No animosity there…)

The next day, after starting the day right with a delicious and very unhealthy breakfast dripping in gravy and a great Scooby-Doo cartoon, we were off once again. We arrived at our destination without any problems, and we very much appreciated the wonderful help we had unpacking all our stuff.

Now, a week and a half later, we are pretty much done unpacking (thank goodness) and have just a few more wall hangings left to put up. Arden asked me the other day if we were finally settled in to our new homestead. (We have recently finished the Little House on the Prairie series!) It is nice to be settled, although it was a bit of a challenge finding places for everything, as the place we are currently renting is about a quarter of the size of our house in Rexburg. It’s all good, though. I think we’ve got it all figured out.

So, California is nice. I quite like the area we are in, and our neighbors are great. I sometimes wonder how much they hear of us--we, particularly the kids--are not used to having to speak quietly so as not to disturb the neighbors! We are in a condo--a fourplex. At least we are on the ground floor though, so we can still jump around and dance and stuff. The beach is nice. The pool in our neighborhood is great (we go all the time). People here are incredibly friendly in comparison to Idaho and Utah. Why is that, I wonder? (No offense to Idaho and Utah--I love those places, it just seems to take a while to get to know people!) There are also a lot of spiders here. And ants. I sent the kids out to take a walk around our house the other day, and next thing I know, I hear this piercing shrieking coming from Maile. I rushed out to our deck, thinking she is being attacked by, um...some incredible scary creature. When I finally got Maile to tell me what was wrong, she sobbed out in great distress; “There’s an ant on me!” Get used to the bugs, kid.

Curtis and I are also in a little babysitting club with Kayla and Ben, and Jon and Jenny Whetten (thank you Jenny!), so we switch off every third week babysitting with them, and we get to go on dates the other two weeks. I am so excited for that! Curtis took me to an Armenian restaurant by the ocean for our first date in CA, where we got to enjoy some delicious food, live music, and even a belly dancer. It was really nice. By the way, Elvis lives. We saw him walking past the restaurant. He had great hair.

The ward we are in is also really nice. I hope I get called to the Young Women’s. The first Saturday we were there, the ward had a “Battle of the Bands” activity. Four bands duking it out. Lets just say, it weren’t no Janice Kapp Perry! I don’t think that kind of music would have ever been allowed in our ward! (Probably partly because our Rexburg bishop is a classical violin professor at BYU-I!) Anyway, it was fun. I enjoyed it.

Anyway, more to follow, but I don’t want posterity to think I am too long winded. Suffice it to say, I think we will enjoy it here very much, although I am still researching the Washington or Oregon areas to retire in. (One is never too young to plan for retirement!) Yeah, Curtis gives me a hard time about being here for a week and already wanting to move! (-:

One more note, I want to give a huge thank you to our wonderful friends the William’s and the Jackson’s for all of their help before we moved. I don’t know how we could have done everything without you. Also thanks to our great neighbors and friends in the ward who have been so good to us the years we have been there. What a blessing it is to have so many dear people we know we could have called on if we needed, and they would have been right there. Thank you, thank you!