I guess after you've been out of the state for 12 years, it takes some time to get used to it again. I've been having little episodes of culture shock over the past few days. Namely seeing the price of groceries, or having gas be $4 a gallon (though that was when I was out in the middle of the dessert). But there's also bonus's. Like In-n-Out burgers being readily available on many street corners. I've already eaten there twice in the past two days.
I really am impressed my little Honda Civic made it all the way through Nevada and the Mojave dessert over mountain passes and a loaded car without overheating. I was having flashbacks to my years of driving between San Diego and Sacramento for school and going over the grapevine mountain pass right above Los Angeles.
I had barely passed the state line for half an hour when I ran into traffic (we're out in the middle of the dessert! Where did all these people come from?). It most likely took an extra hour to get home with traffic in San Bernadino and a supposed accident. And of course, being California, there was a checkpoint all the cars had to go through for the USDA.
Mom was in the back working in her garden when I arrived home. She didn't think I was coming till the next day (despite I had texted her the night before). The bumper crop this year is cucumbers. Mom has a ton!
I don't know what it is about Mom and Dad's place, but it really is a Garden of Eden of sorts. I pass by their orange trees that are LOADED with oranges. Mom's freezer is FULL of containers of lemon juice from the lemon tree outside. Do you know how bad it is? A friends daughter wanted to do some lemonade for her wedding reception and mom was able to supply all the lemon juice they needed. And tomatoes? We never buy them from the store. There's plenty to consume on our own.
Not to mention everywhere you turn on the property there's rosebush's full of colors and bloom. Mom said I think she's currently up to about 200 rosebushes. They grow so easily here.
My little sister Deborah is back at home with Mom and Dad also right now. In some ways I feel like I'm a kid again in that Deborah and I get in spats like sisters do ("Twerpetta! Why are you using my razor?")
I am set up on my luxurious twin size air mattress in the study room right now making myself at home. I must say, it has been nice to live a simple life. I don't worry about paying bills, taxes, home maintenance, etc. We went grocery shopping the other day and mom said I could get anything I wanted (which was not the case when I was younger!). In some ways I am enjoying it, but I feel after five weeks I'll be ready to leave again.
It's kind of like when I went through the Missionary Training Center right before I went to Hungary. I wasn't too thrilled to go to Hungary at first, but after spending 13 weeks on a half acre plot of land and not going anywhere else, I was only too willing to go just about anywhere to get away from that place!
For me the strange part has been a subtle reality that I'm not going back to Indiana. I'm used to visits at home, but after awhile know I'll escape back to Indiana. To realize that is not happening now, is a little bit strange at times.
For right now though I've been busy unpacking and getting settled in. My language training classes begin tomorrow and I am not looking forward to fighting San Diego traffic. I am curious though to see what type of people will be in it. The classes only allow 12 students and I'll be curious to see what other types of people are there and where they are going. These and many other things I'll update you about later.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Last Stop, Cousin Nathan's, Filmore, Utah
I will say, the drive the next day from Denver to Utah was the most scenic one yet. In Colorado it was mountain passes, lakes, streams, waterfalls, and some beautiful mountain terrain. Utah had the dessert with it's red mountains and rock formations. Goodness knows how many National Forests and National Park turn offs I drove by.
Janet and Stephanie had warned me the night before there was a segment where there would be no gas for a 100 miles. They weren't kidding. Beautiful as some of the scenery was, I really was out in the middle of nowhere.
I got into the thriving metropolis of Filmore at about 6 pm. Cousin Nathan wasn't home yet but he said to just walk right on in because he had left the front door open. What?
Nathan's wife, Lorraina, had grown up in Filmore, and that's what brought them back after they finished school. Currently his wife and him are busy running a business of a gym they opened, because the town doesn't have one. I offered to take Lorraina and him out to dinner, but Nathan said it wasn't necessary. There were only four restaurants that would still be open at this time and three of them were fast food. Okay.
Cousin Nathan isn't a cousin as much as I feel more he is a half sibling. Our mom's are sisters and when we were younger, our families were ALWAYS together. There were some years that we were in the same elementary school and the same ward. He and some of his siblings practically lived at my house growing up, which was fine by us. One of the best gifts our parents gave us was lots of playmates. We remember summers where our parents pretty much shooed us out the door to go play and we were happy to do it. Plenty of memories of swimming in my parents pool, or playing in the treehouse at the bottom of the hill. We would be outside all day long.
Nathan came from a family of 10 children. Between his nine siblings and my six, there was a lot of catching up to do.
One thing we discussed quite a bit was when Nathan's biological father left. He was three years old when his father left my aunt for another woman, and left her with eight children to raise on her own. About two years later, my aunt met Uncle Karl and they were married a short time after. Nathan and I compared notes on what we remember from the era of our families lives and with me being 9 years older, I certainly had a different version of what went on.
Nathan has only met his biological father once when he was younger. After he left, there was very little contact with any of his children. As far as he was concerned, Karl is his Dad because he is the one who raised him. Nathan told me looking back now he knows he is a different person because Karl raised him versus his biological dad. Then he said all of his siblings look back and really give Karl a huge amount of credit for being able to take on a woman and her eight children.
Next morning I woke up and was off for my last day of driving to finally get home to Escondido.
Janet and Stephanie had warned me the night before there was a segment where there would be no gas for a 100 miles. They weren't kidding. Beautiful as some of the scenery was, I really was out in the middle of nowhere.
I got into the thriving metropolis of Filmore at about 6 pm. Cousin Nathan wasn't home yet but he said to just walk right on in because he had left the front door open. What?
Nathan's wife, Lorraina, had grown up in Filmore, and that's what brought them back after they finished school. Currently his wife and him are busy running a business of a gym they opened, because the town doesn't have one. I offered to take Lorraina and him out to dinner, but Nathan said it wasn't necessary. There were only four restaurants that would still be open at this time and three of them were fast food. Okay.
Cousin Nathan isn't a cousin as much as I feel more he is a half sibling. Our mom's are sisters and when we were younger, our families were ALWAYS together. There were some years that we were in the same elementary school and the same ward. He and some of his siblings practically lived at my house growing up, which was fine by us. One of the best gifts our parents gave us was lots of playmates. We remember summers where our parents pretty much shooed us out the door to go play and we were happy to do it. Plenty of memories of swimming in my parents pool, or playing in the treehouse at the bottom of the hill. We would be outside all day long.
Nathan came from a family of 10 children. Between his nine siblings and my six, there was a lot of catching up to do.
One thing we discussed quite a bit was when Nathan's biological father left. He was three years old when his father left my aunt for another woman, and left her with eight children to raise on her own. About two years later, my aunt met Uncle Karl and they were married a short time after. Nathan and I compared notes on what we remember from the era of our families lives and with me being 9 years older, I certainly had a different version of what went on.
Nathan has only met his biological father once when he was younger. After he left, there was very little contact with any of his children. As far as he was concerned, Karl is his Dad because he is the one who raised him. Nathan told me looking back now he knows he is a different person because Karl raised him versus his biological dad. Then he said all of his siblings look back and really give Karl a huge amount of credit for being able to take on a woman and her eight children.
Next morning I woke up and was off for my last day of driving to finally get home to Escondido.
Cousin Glenn's in Denver, Colorado
Cousin Glenn is actually my Dad's first cousin (I guess that would make him my second?) I had seen him briefly at a couple of family reunions. Our contact has been distant through the years, but when I told him I was passing through town, he said I was welcomed to stop by.
I got into town at about 5 pm and headed out to dinner with him, his wife Janet, and stepdaughter Stephanie. They decided to go to an Eastern European food restaurant which I was happy to try. I knew they had to have some Hungarian dishes there. Sure enough, the special that night was Paprika Chicken. I of course had to see how an American restaurant matched up to the authentic type. I think any Hungarian would have found it acceptable.
Cousin Glenn actually owns a small business that works mainly on computer programming. They set up emergency systems that alert fire stations when a fire is going on and when they need to leave the station. Janet works for him also. Listening to the two of them tell stories about having their own company and some of the employees they had was very interesting.
The craziest one was a guy who had worked for them for five years. When he would do his computer programming, he would purposefully write errors into it that only he knew how to fix. Then, when the fire stations had a glitch in their system, he would come in and fix the mistake quickly, and be the hero for the day. It took Janet and Glenn years to figure it out, but then the problem came that he knew all the passwords and had access to the systems. How they had to go about firing this guy sounded similar to the plot of a spy movie. They had a customer pretend they wanted to meet with him in Vancouver. While he was in flight, and had no access to the internet, they then shut down the systems and had the other employees take over. Then there was the issue of how to get the work issued laptop back from him. Janet and Glenn said they arranged it where they "accidentally" ran into him at the airport pretending they were going on vacation also. While Glenn distracted him, Janet in a way was able to confiscate the laptop.
Then it was a matter of being under close watch. The guy did try to get into the building the next day which would have been disastrous. He had access to all the computer systems and knew how to shut them down. Fortunately they had alerted the rest of the employees and nobody let him in. Glenn then talked about how he hacked into his cell phone and work e-mail account.
Eventually the guy lost interest and went away, but "Mission Impossible" and "Bourne Identity" were running through my mind while they were telling me all this.
Cousin Glenn is actually 15 years younger than my father, so they did not have much interaction growing up. But we compared notes on other family members, such as my dad's brothers, parents, and great aunts and uncles. Glenn's own brother, cousin Charles, is a real strange bird and Glenn and his sister Barbara agree. Janet was saying the first time she met him he told her all about a government conspiracy going on where John F. Kennedy was really killed by some alien men who were from the movie "Planet of the Apes II" (I'm not making this up). Janet said at the time she didn't know if he was being serious or not, but having met cousin Charles a few times by now, I wasn't surprised. Fortunately he is harmless, but he takes the weirdness of the Neal family to a higher level.
I asked them later if it was true Denver was a growing city and they said yes. Mainly due to the legalization of marijuana. Stephanie is a 1st grade teacher and she was saying in her job they had rules of you can not be drunk at any school function or high from marijuana use.
It was nice to visit with them, and get to know them better. Given that there are 15 other second cousins from my grandparents, they finally have a better idea of who I am.
After a peaceful night of sleep, I was off the next morning to Utah.
I got into town at about 5 pm and headed out to dinner with him, his wife Janet, and stepdaughter Stephanie. They decided to go to an Eastern European food restaurant which I was happy to try. I knew they had to have some Hungarian dishes there. Sure enough, the special that night was Paprika Chicken. I of course had to see how an American restaurant matched up to the authentic type. I think any Hungarian would have found it acceptable.
Cousin Glenn actually owns a small business that works mainly on computer programming. They set up emergency systems that alert fire stations when a fire is going on and when they need to leave the station. Janet works for him also. Listening to the two of them tell stories about having their own company and some of the employees they had was very interesting.
The craziest one was a guy who had worked for them for five years. When he would do his computer programming, he would purposefully write errors into it that only he knew how to fix. Then, when the fire stations had a glitch in their system, he would come in and fix the mistake quickly, and be the hero for the day. It took Janet and Glenn years to figure it out, but then the problem came that he knew all the passwords and had access to the systems. How they had to go about firing this guy sounded similar to the plot of a spy movie. They had a customer pretend they wanted to meet with him in Vancouver. While he was in flight, and had no access to the internet, they then shut down the systems and had the other employees take over. Then there was the issue of how to get the work issued laptop back from him. Janet and Glenn said they arranged it where they "accidentally" ran into him at the airport pretending they were going on vacation also. While Glenn distracted him, Janet in a way was able to confiscate the laptop.
Then it was a matter of being under close watch. The guy did try to get into the building the next day which would have been disastrous. He had access to all the computer systems and knew how to shut them down. Fortunately they had alerted the rest of the employees and nobody let him in. Glenn then talked about how he hacked into his cell phone and work e-mail account.
Eventually the guy lost interest and went away, but "Mission Impossible" and "Bourne Identity" were running through my mind while they were telling me all this.
Cousin Glenn is actually 15 years younger than my father, so they did not have much interaction growing up. But we compared notes on other family members, such as my dad's brothers, parents, and great aunts and uncles. Glenn's own brother, cousin Charles, is a real strange bird and Glenn and his sister Barbara agree. Janet was saying the first time she met him he told her all about a government conspiracy going on where John F. Kennedy was really killed by some alien men who were from the movie "Planet of the Apes II" (I'm not making this up). Janet said at the time she didn't know if he was being serious or not, but having met cousin Charles a few times by now, I wasn't surprised. Fortunately he is harmless, but he takes the weirdness of the Neal family to a higher level.
I asked them later if it was true Denver was a growing city and they said yes. Mainly due to the legalization of marijuana. Stephanie is a 1st grade teacher and she was saying in her job they had rules of you can not be drunk at any school function or high from marijuana use.
It was nice to visit with them, and get to know them better. Given that there are 15 other second cousins from my grandparents, they finally have a better idea of who I am.
After a peaceful night of sleep, I was off the next morning to Utah.
1st Stop, Omaha, Nebraska
Monday morning, with the car all packed up, I headed out to see my friend Kristine Pratt and her family in Omaha. I had been to her place just this past April for Lantern Fest. Kristine was here in Indiana in 2011 for only four months while her husband underwent some training for a job position. Though our time was short, we did so much together and have remained friends ever since. I visited her family in Atlanta only two years ago, and now I get to see her again.
It took me 12 hours to get to Omaha. I told Kristine that I was going nowhere Tuesday to take a break from driving. Besides, I don't get to see her that often.
I started the day by going to get my hair cut really short. I needed a low maintenance haircut the next few months and had the time to do it in Omaha. Later that day we took the kids to see the visitor center across the street from the temple.
I find it interesting that it's not called the Omaha, Nebraska temple, but the Winter Quarters temple. The temple was unique in that there is a cemetery right in front of it. I wondered if it was the graves of the actual pioneers that died there on their way out west. Later someone in the visitors center said no. It was the cemetery of the town that got established after all the pioneers had moved on. There are no actual pioneers in the cemetery. There are however, some beautiful statues dedicated to them, and a visitors center across the street that tells you a lot on the history of the pioneers.
It took me 12 hours to get to Omaha. I told Kristine that I was going nowhere Tuesday to take a break from driving. Besides, I don't get to see her that often.
I started the day by going to get my hair cut really short. I needed a low maintenance haircut the next few months and had the time to do it in Omaha. Later that day we took the kids to see the visitor center across the street from the temple.
I find it interesting that it's not called the Omaha, Nebraska temple, but the Winter Quarters temple. The temple was unique in that there is a cemetery right in front of it. I wondered if it was the graves of the actual pioneers that died there on their way out west. Later someone in the visitors center said no. It was the cemetery of the town that got established after all the pioneers had moved on. There are no actual pioneers in the cemetery. There are however, some beautiful statues dedicated to them, and a visitors center across the street that tells you a lot on the history of the pioneers.
In front of the visitors center with all three of the kids
In front of the statue in the cemetery with Hayden who is seven.
Hayden and I in front of a handcart. There's an area in the visitors center you can dress up in pioneer clothes.
It was a good break for the long drive still ahead.
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