You say New, I'll say York: NEW YORK, NEW YORK!!!

One week to the day after leaving Logan, UT, Tara and I arrived at our final destination: Syracuse, NY. In fact, if you factor in the two hour difference in time, we arrived within five minutes of the time we officially started our trek (roughly 2:00 p.m. MST). Everything went smoothly as we officially signed the lease and got the keys to our new apartment. But first, let me backtrack a little. . .

After spending Tuesday night in Falconer, NY, we had roughly a four hour drive to reach Syracuse. While staying at our hotel last night, I noticed that on the way to Syracuse, we would pass right through Olean, NY, which is the headquarters of Cutco. I mention this, simply because I sold Cutco Cutlery a couple summers ago and I thought it was funny that I was driving right past that company's headquarters. We also passed through some Indian land, because out in the middle of nowhere we came across this giant casino. . . pretty funny. Anyways, back to moving in. . .

By the time we got the paperwork done and the car parked, it was 5:00 (E.S.T). I started unloading stuff while Tara went through the apartment and filled out that paper that I hate that chronicles every little nick on the wall or stain on the carpet. . . luckily that last part was easy, as our apartment was equipped with brand new carpet. Around 5:30 the EQ president of our new ward, Paul Cundick, and his wife showed up with some pizza for dinner so we took a break and enjoyed that. A couple other guys showed up, Billy and Lou, and the four of us guys had the trailer unloaded and everything packed upstairs within an hour.

Now the fun begins as Tara and I get to unpack everything that we spent so much time trying to fit into those freaking boxes! Luckily we've got a few days though to get everything done. Our apartment is pretty sweet. . . besides not having two bathrooms, it's probably cooler than the one we had in Logan. It's very open, and we have a giant deck and balcony that looks over the city and faces the West, so we should get some awesome sunsets.

That pretty much sums up our trip out, but I do have to add one more item that Tara left off of yesterday's log. . .

On our way up to Falconer from Cincinnati, we drove right through Canton, OH – where the Pro Football Hall of Fame is located. We spent and hour and a half there, and it was awesome! Of course, I could have spent all day, but we had to get up to Falconer before it got dark and we had animals chillin in the car (though we cracked the windows, left them with some water and it was only 75 in Canton, so we weren't too worried about them). We got to got out and throw the football around on the Hall of Fame field, and then we went through the building and saw all the memorabilia. It was really cool, Tara even enjoyed it, and I definitely was glad we decided to stop.

Well. . . that's about it for our travels, but don't worry, we'll keep you updated about our life here in Syracuse. . . as well as whatever is in store for us next!

Getting Ever Closer

Today we made it across New York state lines. We can't move in til tomorrow so we are staying the night in a small town called Falconer, it is about 4 hours from Syracuse. Tomorrow we will do the final leg of our cross country journey and move in to our new apartment. I am excited about getting there and starting our new chapter together, it will be a grand adventure for sure! We have contacted some members of our new ward so we will have some help and dinner waiting for us tomorrow which will be so nice. The one thing I am not looking forward to is dreaded job hunting... I'll take it as it comes, everyone wish me luck!

On the road again. . .

Today (Monday) Tara and I woke up and left Collierville, and subsequently my mission. We drove up through Nashville and then turned North into Kentucky and drove all the way across that state before arriving in Cincinnati. Before leaving Tennessee, we ate at one more favorite place that I'd forgotten about – Backyard Burger. They have the most amazing burgers ever, they make Carl's Jr.'s good burgers seem like a Wendy's Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger (yes, that is a slam on Wendy's).

The drive to Cincy was about eight hours long, and more or less uneventful. We drove through a pretty good storm system for about 30 minutes, but nothing too scary. . . though, it did freak Tara out when I told her it looked like it could be Tornado weather (which it did)! ;-) Other than that, we just listened to an audio book on CD – The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, by Stephen King – and enjoyed the ride.

We rolled into Ohio about 9 p.m., but we lost another hour as we transferred into the Eastern Time Zone. Hopefully I'll get adapted to that before school starts on July 6. Speaking of being on Eastern Time, it's now midnight and we've got another day of driving ahead tomorrow, so I'm going to go ahead and sign off.

Tennessippi

Sunday morning we woke up and went to church at the West Memphis branch. . . after loading up the car and cleaning up the hotel room so there was no sign of the cats, of course we were late. So, we got to walk into the chapel (which is pretty small in a branch building) with everybody smirking at us. We found out later they were smirking because President Soto (the Branch President) had informed them all that I was there and should be coming and then Brother Russell (one of the recent converts when I was there) stood up and informed the Branch we were on our way, as he had just gotten off the phone with me. To top it all off, the speakers left about 10 minutes at the end so President Soto had me come up and speak! I should have known it was coming, but it was great to see everyone again.

From West Memphis, we crossed the mighty Mississippi and headed into Memphis, Tennessee. Unfortunately, we were strapped for time (and dragging a big trailer) so I never got to go show Tara Beale Street and some of the other cool places in the city itself, but we did get to see the Memphis Temple and say hi to Bishop Floyd (he was Bishop of the Memphis 1st Ward when I was serving in Frayser). After that we continued down to Collierville, Tennessee which was my first area. I spent six months there, and it is probably my favorite area. Once there we dropped off the trailer at the home of one of my friends there. Once we were free of the trailer, we checked into the hotel and dropped the cats off there. . . then we went and found some real Memphis food!

I wanted to eat at Rendezvous Ribs, but it was closed so I settled for a close second – The Germantown Commissary. It was just as good as I remember, and I was reminded of why I put on 40 pounds on my mission. After lunch, we drove around town and visited a couple families that I knew and then headed down to Mississippi to see the Allen's! The Allen's were one of my favorite families and lived just across the border in a little "town" called Lamar (which was still part of the Collierville area). It was really fun to see them, and Tara seemed to really enjoy them as well. In fact, she's been very social with everyone that we've seen on this trip. . . and she teases me about being a celebrity missionary! I'm just excited these people remember me and are happy to see me after four years.

We ended the evening back in Collierville with a visit to the Bowen's. The Bowen's are not members of the church, but are one of the coolest families I met on my mission. The parents are white, but all five (?) of their kids are adopted, and four of the five are black. They are great people, and all of the kids are grown up now and taller than me (Yes. . . I know that's not hard, but they were like 12 when I was there so they've made a big jump). Sally Ann (the mom) has also started a new ice cream truck business, so she loaded Tara and I up with a bunch of free ice cream. They were a great family to end the mission tour with.

All in all it was fun for both Tara and I to go through my mission. I loved seeing the people again, showing her the places I lived and showing her off. She seemed to equally enjoy meeting the people and seeing the places, and had a lot of fun. I hope it doesn't take us another four years to get back there again!

Arkansas

So we made it to Arkansas! We pulled in to Tim's mission area last night at about 7 to stay with a family he knew. They had a swimming pool so we were able to relax and have a little break after all that driving. Now for all you folks back there in Utah this may sound weird but holy cow there are a lot of big noisy night bugs out in these parts! It was like I was swimming in a rain forest or something. I was told that some of the noises were frogs as well, either way it was really loud. The other thing that really hits you in the South is the humidity and the HEAT. Today we got up to 98! That is one thing that people do not exaggerate about let me tell you what.

Today we moved on to another area of his, this one is the one he spent most of his time in. We visited a couple of families that he knew on the mish, it was really fun and we joked about getting church callings before we left here tomorrow. Who knows it may really happen :).

Again tonight we had to sneak the cats into the hotel, you know us just livin on the edge!

So that is about it for now so far it has been a really fun trip and I am so happy to have a little bit of a driving break for the next couple of days.

- Tara

We're not in Kansas anymore. . . oh wait, yes we are!

After a night that was way too short, we were up and going again as we had a 10 hour drive to Wichita, Kansas. We were a little sluggish, and didn't leave Fort Collins until 11 a.m. Part of that lateness was a stop at Wally World to grab, among other things, some Children's Benadryl for the "kids" to see if it would calm them (mostly one of them) down a little.

We tested it on Rocky in the parking lot, and he was not a fan! As soon as we gave it to him, he went crazy, flopping around and foaming at the mouth. He was fine, but he apparently likes cherry flavored medicine as much as I do. The rest of the drive was uneventful. I think the farmland out here is really cool, but the flat nothingness is only interesting for so long when you're just driving along.

The next exciting thing happened when we pulled into our hotel in Wichita shortly after 10 p.m. and found at that they didn't accept pets. . . so, after taking up our bags, we unloaded mine and went back down to the X-terra. We put the cats in my bag and snuck them on up to the room. They've been much better than I thought they would be, so they deserved to get out and stretch their legs.

Anyway, that's it for tonight. . . tomorrow we have a shorter driving day, and we'll get into my mission area where we'll stay with the Snyder's in Bryant, Arkansas.

The Adventure Begins: Day 1

Tara and I finished up our packing Wednesday morning, said goodbye to my family and then said goodbye to her family (again). After much sadness and shedding of tears, we finally hit the road just after 2 p.m. for our long first stage to Fort Collins, Colorado. The first stage was slow but steady as we battled the up and down terrain of Wyoming.

We noticed when it got dark that though the turn signals and brake lights work on our U-haul trailer, the running lights don't. . . luckily – other than Wednesday night – we're not traveling too much at night. After stops in Evanston, Laramie and other assorted Wyoming towns, we dropped into Colorado and finally arrived at our Super 8 destination shortly after midnight.

It was great, as Tara, I, Rambo and Rocky were all ready for a break!

One week to go!

With one week to go before Tara and I head out to New York, I thought I'd set up this blog so that either her or I can chronicle our trip and our life out in Syracuse. I don't know how effective we'll be at that – I know I'll be writing plenty as it is – but hopefully we can keep all interested parties updated!

It's going to be a different experience for us, though I've lived outside Utah, I've never done so as a married person and Tara has never lived outside the state at all. I'm pretty excited though about all the opportunities we'll have out there. Keep in touch, and enjoy the chronicles of our travels!

-The Real TO