OK, I've embarrassed my Dad and Grandpa enough for a while, guess it's time to tell a couple stories on me. My daughter is getting ready to leave Arizona for New Hampshire to pursue her masters degree. We were talking yesterday about the plans she's making, for school, work, etc. She made the comment "I can't just show up out there with no place to live!" Huh... well, when I left Prescott to attend BYU, I did very well at applying, sending transcripts, etc. I was 21, and pretty impulsive, so I was very proud that I had took the time to get transferred to a university.

At the time, my folks had moved the headquarters of the ranch down to the Copper Basin area. That meant that we had no electricity, it was too far to run the lines. We had water, but barely. The pipes hadn't been buried very deep, so in the winter they froze and in the summer the little critters chewed into the PVC pipes. More than once I'd be in the shower, all lathered up, when suddenly the water stopped, just dead. Few things are more maddening than trying to wipe shampoo out of your hair, and soap off the bod. Telephones?? Not a chance! We'd drive 30 miles to find a phone usually. Course, we could go to Skull Valley (yes, that's really a town!) which was only 15 miles away, to use a phone at the service station or the store, but heck, then everybody in town knew your business.

Anyhow, it was difficult to make all the arrangements necessary to move to another state, especially when I didn't know anyone. So, I packed up my little Datsun pickup-I had a camper shell, so it held a lot. I drove the 10 hours by myself, enjoying to company and the trip. I cruised into Provo, went to the Administration building at the university, got enrolled, paid, etc. Then I walked down into the campus, wondering where I was going to stay. What! Yeah, I just never got around to getting an apartment before I drove into the city. Well, I didn't have a phone, didn't know the names of any apartments, so I figured I'd take my sleeping bag, and I could sleep in the camper if I needed to for a while.

So, I was walking through the campus, which had more students than the whole town of Prescott had citizens, and lo and behold, I saw about the only person I knew there, walking towards me! Emma was shocked to see me, she didn't know I had decided to go to school up there. Luckily for me, she was moving into an apartment that had room for one more. My thought was, if it was right for me to go there, something would work out, and it did. I figured that worked out well enough, I did the same thing a year later, just cruised into Provo, looking for apartments with a sign out. I got really lucky that time, and found a new apartment complex. I just got into line, paid my rent, they gave me a key and I went to meet my roommates. My guy friends loved that one, I had 3 California cuties as roommates that year. It was a fun place to live.

I've met a few guys that started looking for a place to live when they arrived in town, but not women... most women are more organized than that! Thank goodness my daughter has more sense than I did!