Arriving in Utah

I’m in state #16, Utah, where I’m staying in Ogden about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City. It’s a pretty big town along beautiful snow covered foothills at almost 5,000 feet elevation. Once again I have changed climates. I woke up the last two mornings to a temperature of the mid twenties and a beautiful view outdoors of the mountains covered with snow. This feels much more like home than the dessert did. It’s more cozy and the air just seems to be more fresh. Ah how I love the mountains.

Here I’m staying with John, who lives out here alone, his wife Mary lives back in Michigan. So this is yet another different living situation for a family and marriage that I can learn from. John has known my dad for about five years. He was one of my dad’s clients when he decided to purchase and manage a large lot of forest property in the Upper Peninsula. That’s when he met my dad, who is a well respected forester.

John seems to be an ideal host. He’s very laid back, makes sure that I make myself at home, easy to talk to, and just a genuinely nice guy with great personality. He’s so laid back that he gave me the code to get into his house a day before he got back from visiting his farther in Colorado. So while he was several hundred miles away he had some complete stranger living in his house that he had never met. Another example of how cool people have been. It was nice to have some time to myself and relax. I got to watch some football and watch March of the Penguins while taking care of some more logistics. It also gave me time to do something I’ve been waiting to do for a while, I chose 200 of my favorite photos and brought them in to get 4x6 prints made. It’s nice to have real photos to look through and show people instead of on my computer.