Back in the Land of the "Saints" - Salt Lake City

Well...we are still pursuing the never ending genealogy quest. This summer, it's been another branch of John's family--the more refined, less eccentric group. It never ceases to amaze how these Mormons have documented their family trees. We had to do a presentation to a group of about 30 cousins on the Neslen side (mind you, we had never met any of these people). The request was made by a cousin that John had been in contact with - trying to get family info- and tempting him with the info we had gotten in Lowestoft, England last summer. So, we started to pull together the bits and pieces that we had. J was busy scanning and trying to put together the story. In the meantime, John sent me to the "DUP's" (Daughters of Utah Pioneers) (it's a 4 story building crammed with all sorts of family memorabilia. It's a bit like going into your grandparent's attic- except they've taken all the stuff you'd find there- and put them in display cases). Well, they also have a "library" --with literally thousands of file folders where they've collected information on individuals - from newspaper clippings to biographies to diaries. It was here that we discovered (last summer) a diary written by a distant relative detailing her life in England, her conversion to Mormonism, her travels to the US from Liverpool to New Orleans, her journey across the plains to SLC and her life in 1850's SLC -- 258 pages of her journal!!! To net it out- I walked out with about 60 pages of info about this family. It's actually really interesting stuff- bios done by family members (some of them done years ago - so the info is based on first person contacts). It makes these intricate family trees so much more interesting --you actually feel like you know a bit about these people and their lives.

We decided to stop by Cousin Leigh's house to discuss the presentation beforehand. He invited us over on a Sunday afternoon -for lunch. We arrived to see a rather modest house and a charming couple in their late 60's. There were lots of pictures of Jesus and Joseph Smith and the LDS Temple everywhere. We’ve found that since there's no drinking, food becomes extremely important --and you typically arrive at someone's house and are immediately shown to the dinner table. Leigh and his wife, Fern and two of their sons were there for lunch (two of their 14 children!!!) The food started coming--and coming--and coming. They had steak, chicken, fish, lettuce salad, jello (of course- green with pears in it), fruit salad, tuna pasta salad, potato salad, some kind of hot chicken casserole... I think that about covers it, but we were gob-smacked! Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time passing platter full of food. We did a bit of planning for the presentation-- then it was time for dessert-- ice cream and cookies!

So, now we at least knew Fern and Leigh. We arrived on Tuesday night for our big presentation at Leigh's brother, Gordon's house. Gordon is a retired doctor--obviously a very successful one based on his house. They had the most beautiful garden and backyard pool. They had a big screen monitor set up for us and as we struggled to figure out how to work a Vista PC, the cousins started dribbling in. There were at least 30 people in the living room--all looking at us. We did a little photo show on Lowestoft and then got to talk to them. John did let out a "Damn" during the presentation--but laughed it off. Guess they knew we were Gentiles (as if his shorts weren't enough-- it was in the high 90's and John was the ONLY one in shorts!!). After our little show- we had lemonade and cookies/brownies in the backyard. We felt like Japanese tourists--they must have taken a photo of us- individually- with each and every cousin.

Back to Utah's "Dixie"

We dropped Gordon off at the airport on Saturday morning and we headed north, making a short stop in St. George, Utah. Not much to see here except a few LDS sites, including Brigham Young’s winter home. The pioneers used to come south to “Dixie” to get away from the brutal SLC winters. We, on the other hand, were in Dixie for the summer – 110 degrees (but it’s a dry heat??!!)

Heading “home” to Salt Lake, we had a “Check Engine” light and warning buzzer. So, we pulled off of I-15 and got on the phone to Spartan. They told us that it would be OK to drive with a “Check Engine”, but if we got a “Stop Engine” – IMMEDIATELY stop or we would damage the engine. We pulled back onto the highway – and within a minute, the “Stop Engine” came on. Fortunately, John and Gordon had fixed our transfer switch (it had melted –yes, the switch controlling all of the power coming into the coach- melted!) so we were able to use the generator to power the air conditioners. It was blisteringly hot. We called Good Sam Road Service and within an hour or so, we had a towing company arrive. They looked at the problem and thought they might be able to fix it—it turns out that when we had run over a blown tire tread in the road, it had ripped a hole in the coolant hose and all of the coolant had leaked out. So, they made a trip back to their shop in Fillmore, Utah and came back to repair the hose and add coolant. Once they finished, they had us follow them to Fillmore to top off the coolant and make sure that the problem was solved. We FINALLY made it to SLC (a LONG LONG Day. We got set up and realized that we had no white wine-- and the State Liquor store was closed. So, we broke into the red wine supply, had some soup and salad and watched The Daily Show---and surprise, surprise--the Fart Machine came alive-- ON IT'S OWN!!! We're just sitting in the coach and suddenly- out of nowhere-- a Fart!!