The Crazy 48!

 The Crazy 48!

Although I had already started purging and packing up our house, with only 48 days to prepare, Neil and I had to really step up the pace!  We had anticipated at least three months, which seemed to be the standard for other senior missionaries to whom we had spoken. We knew it would take some miracles to prep and sell our house, go to Arizona and find a new house, finish sorting and packing 35 years of stuff, find a place to store the things we wanted to keep and somehow transport them there, get rid of the non-op vehicle and utility trailer, and move four vehicles (including the 1943 Jeep that Neil hasn't quite made driveable yet) to Arizona - in seven weeks!  But the Lord was with us and blessed us with a buyer for the house before it even got listed in the MLS - the sign was in our yard for only one day! 

We made a blitz trip down to Arizona with Neil's MG roadster in tow and, after two days of unsuccessful house-hunting, our daughter Lindsey and her husband, Matt, announced that they were trying to buy some property and build a new house, would we be interested in buying their current home?  Yes!  It is actually exactly what we were looking for! And, they offered to store our furniture in a building on their ranch - double miracle! Our son Alan came for a week and helped get many things packed, especially in the garage, and Matt drove his horse trailer up from Arizona and took the Jeep and a full load back down.  Just when things were looking good, COVID struck!  Neil tested positive and was sick the whole last week so we just didn't feel good about asking anyone to come help pack or clean until the very last day.  We are so extremely grateful for all the ward members who came and helped us load the U-Haul and clean the house, and especially for the Rasmussen family who helped load both days and were so gracious about us leaving the house in a huge mess!  Our son Rob came down from Lincoln and spent the final morning loading a second U-Haul trailer then drove the U-Haul truck while Neil drove the Sequoia and trailer and I drove the Sonata to Arizona. 

We were so exhausted that we had to stop for the night and didn't pull into the ranch in Arizona until the following afternoon, long after all the help Lindsey and Matt had lined up was gone.  But with their family, Rob, and us, we were able to get everything unloaded (even the piano) and into their storage building in time to get Rob to the airport and the U-Hauls turned in.  We left straight from the ranch to try to get at least part way to St. George and were rewarded with a smile when we decided to stay at this Route 66 road stop in Kingman, AZ.

Sunday morning we left early and drove to our son Mark's house in St. George to say goodbye and go to church then on up to Layton to visit my mom and two of Neil's sisters.  We were back on the road again early Monday morning to drive back down to Provo and the Missionary Training Center - and we did it all in 48 days!