Flocking with the Snowbirds

Dave and I checked into a motel in Beaver, Utah, on January 12, 2023 at nearly midnight.  We got a late start from SLC and were simply too tired to drive all the way to St. George.  As we walked through the deserted lobby, a perky voice greeted us, out of a computer screen next to the darkened lobby desk.  "Can I help you?" she asked.  We checked in with the disembodied person, and she eventually identified herself as a clerk in the Philippines, assigned to help American tourists at several motels during the middle of the night!  The process was very efficient--one good outcome of globalization.  

As the years pass, more and more of our friends buy homes in St. George.  I worked remotely all day Thursday, with my laptop open on our family room table.  In the evening, we went to dinner with Spencer Pratt, Dave's counselor in the bishopric.  Spencer has been absolutely loyal and diligent, and Dave is particularly fond of him.  Spencer was in the process of furnishing a new condo in St. George, which we visited.  One intriguing feature was a room-size door that opened onto the garden.  When the door was open, it was as if the patio was part of the house!  

On Friday night, we went to dinner with Nancy and Darrell Moench, who also own a condo in St. George.  We ate at a quiet, upscale restaurant which was part of a "senior" condo complex.  The prices were low, with small portions.  It was exactly what seniors should eat!  We also wandered around the complex, checking out the medical clinic, movie theater, spa, and other amenities for all the seniors who lived there.  They were surely much older than we are, to want to live all together in a complex!

Camille and Steve joined us on Saturday morning.  We talked for a while before Dave and I left for home.  Camille was hard at work, planning Emilie's wedding.  She has already scheduled Red Butte Garden as the spot for the reception, but still needs to tie down florists, caterers, bridesmaid dresses, guest lists, and a host of other details.  Emilie showed me her own Excel spreadsheet for wedding plans, before Emilie flew back to Dallas last week.  I laughed as I thought of Emilie's Grandpa Ebert's plea, during the intense planning sessions for Jono's wedding in 2021, "I don't know why people don't just turn the wedding over to me.  I'd go to Smith's and Target and have it all planned in a couple of hours!"

We drove home through the City of Enoch, a suburb of Cedar City.  It is a sleepy LDS bedroom community, with the local LDS ward as the most notable landmark.

In this idyllic community, a couple of weeks ago, an apparently upstanding father shot and killed his wife and five children at their home.  The wife had filed for divorce two weeks before and the police had come to the house previously upon reports of domestic violence. Even in Happy Valley, such things happen.  There were social media posts from extended family members afterwards, saying how much they loved the victims and each other despite the tragedy.

"This is food for the soul," Dave said, as we drove home "the back way," through Milford and Delta.  Dave grew up in the desert at Dugway and he still loves wide open spaces, with sagebrush on the plains and blue mountains at the horizon.