February 6, 1989 Orem, Utah
Dearest Johnny; Roy, Patrice & Emily; Bob, Claire, Michael, Laura, Brett & Katie; Rick, Jean, Ricky, Barbara Jean, Mary Ann & Sarah; and Ron, Ann, Susanna, Jessie, Russell, LeeAnna & Jimmy:
WOW!!!!!! We are in the frigid zone in Utah and after watching the morning news, we aren't the only ones. They featured San Antonio on one of the programs and showed how the traffic was all snarled and there were many accidents because of ice - AND they aren't used to it!!!! We surely hope you aren't having any problems Roy & Patrice!!!!
SPEAKING OF PROBLEMS - they cancelled our church yesterday morning because of the cold weather and most of all the winds and drifting snows. When they first called us, our reaction was one of "Boy are they sissies" - you all remember the zillion of times we went to church in Little Rock when we practically had to crawl to get there and we lived closer than anyone else - I was always SO surprised because we sometimes had larger crowds during those times than when we had beautiful weather - Ha!!!
Well - we normally would have gone to church at 11:30 yesterday morning and about 12:00 Daddy & I were sitting at the kitchen table eating our lunch when we heard a loud cracking sound. Our toilets had frozen the night before and we had heaters on in the upstairs bathrooms so Daddy ran upstairs thinking they had unthawed. I was in the kitchen and heard water running and looked in our dining room and water was just pouring from our ceiling. I CAN JUST HEAR ALL OF YOU SAYING - "It serves Mom and Dad right for keeping their home so cold" - Ha!!!! Really and truly we could have kept it up to 90 degrees and the pipe would still have frozen. The only way we could have prevented it would have been to heat the garage. The first thing I thought of was saving our beautiful table and Oriental rug so I ran for pans and towels - I had already screamed at Daddy and his thought of course was to shut off the water. It probably leaked from the ceiling for about five minutes at the very longest and you just wouldn't believe the damage!!!!!
Our Home Teacher is a builder and lives right up the street so Daddy called him and he came right over and gave us the name of a good plumber. The plumber came about 3 o'clock and first of all cut a hole in the ceiling of the garage and then he could see he would have to cut a hole in the ceiling of our dining room right next to the garage to get to the pipe. He told us he had been to twelve homes before coming to ours - all with broken pipes but with much more damage than ours. One home had their entire ceiling drop down. Our carpet was just soaked right there so Daddy pulled that up and cut out the pad (Ron & Ann's' experience had taught us that). We have had fans on the carpet and it is all dried now. The plumber told us we don't have nearly enough insulation covering those pipes and when the North winds blow they would always freeze UNLESS we have our faucets dripping. We are REALLY grateful that it has happened and especially the way it did - now we can get it fixed so it won't happen again. I shudder to think what damage would have been done if we had been at church for three hours or even worse if we had still been on our trip - if John would have come home to find our ceiling on the floor and the house filled with water he would have run away.
Annie just called and they don't have any electricity in their home so they are going to come over for the day. Ron is a little concerned about their leaving for the entire day - he says someone needs to be home to flush the toilets once in awhile - Ha!!! The high today is supposed to be around 10 degrees - it was 12 below this morning by our kitchen outside thermometer. I feel bad for them because Ann & Ron are going to San Francisco tomorrow for a few days and it's always hard to leave your home when there are unusual problems like this - they have a young couple in their ward coming to stay with the children.
Daddy & I had an absolutely marvelous trip. We left on Tuesday, January 17 about two o'clock in the afternoon. We had planned to leave earlier but the BYU police wouldn't let us get our car until then - don't ask me why!!!! It has been kinda' eerie to have our car back - it was stolen by a young man about 25 years old and he sold it to an undercover FBI agent in Salt Lake for $500 and now he will be in jail for a long, long time. Yesterday when our pipe broke it started to leak out in the garage first and it filled the front seat of that car with water - when I took off the seat covers and looked under the seat I found a bottle of citrus juice that he had evidently left there - it gave me a funny feeling. The glass from the broken window was still on the back seat - John said he didn't want to even touch the car in case something was wrong with it and they might blame him. I feel so bad for that kid - he has had to deal with some very unusual problems. There was an article in the BYU paper about our car (not mentioning any names) and the whole purpose of the article was to warn students to lock their cars - John said, "they failed to mention that the thief broke a window before even trying the doors". It was a good lesson for all of us though.
We got to Flagstaff the first night and found a darling RV park to put our new Toyota Van in. Daddy always gets up so darn early and he had promised me that he would just let me sleep while he drove so I curled up in my sleeping bag and was ready for a long Winter's nap when I heard him say, "Dam"!!!! I looked out the window and he was standing by the tire on the driver's side with his hands in his pockets - I knew immediately that we had a flat tire. I didn't even know where the jack and spare tire were but he did and it didn't take him long to fix it and THAT WAS A MEMORY!!!!
We then drove to Phoenix - we had left snow in Utah and Flagstaff and it was so hot in Phoenix we had our air conditioner on. We loved seeing the old neighborhood and we visited with Mildred for a little while - her home is very pretty and comfortable and she seems happy. I couldn't believe it but she told me she would be 75 years old this June. She showed us pictures of Dale, his wife and little girl - Dale has a big beard but he is going to school now to learn a trade and is doing better. Our old home there is just beautiful - they have built an extra room out back, extending our family room so they don't have much of a yard. Daddy and I drove away with lumps in our throats - it is still the prettiest street in Phoenix. The Jones' home and area is completely changed with apartments they built right next to them - we thought about visiting them but we didn't. They have built homes way up on the side of Camelback mountain - kinda' ruined it.
Our next stop was close to Ft. Stockton (I believe that's right) in a roadside rest area and it was just beautiful with lots of other vans and recreational vehicles stopping there too. The next morning we drove into San Antonio and I was SO thrilled to get there right in time to watch the inauguration of Pres. Bush with Roy & Patrice - I had felt bad that we were going to miss that and then we didn't. We had a WONDERFUL time with them and we just loved being with little Emily in her own home and little room - they have everything fixed up SO nice. We relaxed and visited all day on Friday - Daddy & I loved walking around their beautiful neighborhood. We enjoyed a video Patrice had chosen - Daddy and I can't choose them so it's neat when someone else does - she'll have to tell you the name of it because you all would enjoy it too. Saturday we all went to Sea World and that was really a treat - I wish all our grandchildren could see that - they would love it!!!! That night we went to their favorite Mexican restaurant - it all reminded us so much of Phoenix, the atmosphere and all - then we went to a cheesecake place and each of us chose our favorite cheesecake and took it home and ate it while we played tripoly and poker. Roy had spent a lot of time cleaning our van that afternoon - he even got out his ladder so he could reach the top of it!!!! Sunday, Patrice & Roy went to the Unitarian Church meetings - Patrice had made a split pea soup to take for a soup luncheon they have occasionally. Their minister lives close by them - his daughter is their baby sitter. Daddy & I went to our church meetings in a beautiful new stake center they have just built close by them - we really enjoyed it and it was funny because the sister who gave the Relief Society Lesson gave the same one I had given in our Ward - she did a much better job and she was very young!!! We didn't know their time schedule so we went about the same time Roy & Patrice went to theirs and we missed our Sacrament meeting. The next Sacrament meeting was to start at l o'clock so we decided to go to that and we had a neat experience. As we were leaving Daddy had been visiting with a young man and he came back to me and pointed to the sister I was sitting by and said, "she is from Brigham City". As it turned out she is a neighbor of Dee & Judy's and knows a lot of the people I know and when we visited with him we discovered he is doing a residency in ENT and works with Roy at the hospital on the base. He is interested in coming back to Utah so he was interested in knowing about Bob's work here too - small world!!!
We left San Antonio the next morning and headed for Alabama - we stayed at another really nice RV park that night and got into Orange Beach about noon the next day, January 24th. Chris and Wayne were waiting for us and we weren't there five minutes until Daddy & Wayne were out fishing - they came back with about six huge "sheephead" - Wayne has a personal relationship with his fish and REALLY enjoys cleaning and filleting them. Wayne had made a big pot of gumbo and of course that was delicious. We visited that day and "planned our Florida trip" in between Wayne and Daddys' fishing trips. We left their home on Thursday, the 26th and you just wouldn't believe the places we went and the fun we had - we just laugh and laugh all the time. We drove in our van and stayed in motels. We went to the Epcot Center, then to Sarasota to the Ringling Museum and home (I loved that) and to the Sunken Gardens and Cedar Island - you name it and we saw it. We had smoked mullet at Cedar Island and it was SO good - we brought some home to John and he said it reminded him of Chile. We got back to Chris & Waynes' home on Sunday the 30th - we had stopped for a Big Mac so we weren't hungry but Chris boiled a big pot of shrimp for us to "snack on"!!!! We had planned to rest the next day and then leave to come home early Tuesday morning but Horace Jay, one of their neighbors who really likes them and also Daddy, had planned a fishing trip way out in the Gulf for Tuesday morning. It didn't take long to twist Daddy's arm into changing our plans. They left early Tuesday morning on a big $150,000 boat and went about twenty miles out into the Gulf and Daddy said it was a trip of a lifetime - they came back about 4 o'clock that afternoon and we left about 4:30. We took pictures of some of the fish they caught - I hope they turn out.
We stopped at a roadside rest area somewhere in Mississippi that night - it was kinda' scary because we were the only ones there for about three hours and then it filled up with other vans. We left very early the next morning and drove to Post, Texas (I believe that's right) and stayed in a nice RV Park - I prefer to stay in those places because they have nice showers, etc. and I feel safer. Our van is VERY COMFORTABLE to sleep in. We listened to the weather news all the time and when we heard they were expecting a big storm and cold temperatures in Utah we decided we had better head for home fast. We didn't run into snow until we reached the summit just past Price but then Daddy had to lock the 4-wheel drive in. By the time we got home about midnight, we could just barely get into our driveway it was SO filled with snow. We called John and we was greatly relieved we were home - he had done a wonderful job with Hans and the home and all but I know it had been a big burden - coming home twice a day and worrying about Hans!!!!! I believe that's all the news and if you have read all this you are crazy!!!! We love each one of you so very much. PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO. Let us know how we can help you.