Another Saturday in Laurel

Yesterday we decided to go to a gator farm south of Laurel for our Saturday entertainment. However, after driving around in the deep woods (it was a little eerie, and we both agreed we were a little scared), the neighbor lady said it had closed down. So we decided to go to nearby Landrums which is kind of similar to Wheeler Farm in Murray or the Old West town at Lagoon except for it was the Old South. It's a little replica city from olden times--a blacksmith shop, a pig pen, a log cabin etc. Though that was a bit eerie too since we were the only ones there and there was cheery music playing in the background (it conjured up images of Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes").

The highlight was playing in the "mystery house" where the floors are built on a angle. The house basically plays tricks with your mind. I got so dizzy I had to sit down and both of us were staggering all over the place.

On the way up to Laurel (heading north) we had passed several convoys of National Guardsmen going south to the coast as well as lots of motor coaches. We mentioned the convoy to a lady at Landrums, and I guess she figured that since we had recently moved there we had no idea what was going on and she proceded to tell us that a hurricane was coming and we better get ready!!

As Gustav approaches...

We thought some might be interested in what's happening in our part of the world. Everything and everyone is completely focused on Gustav right now. We've never watched a hurricane's movements so completely before. We have our home pages set to the National Hurricane Center and the MEMA (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency) website, and there's a new advisory out every few hours.

For those of you who don't know where we're living now---time to get out the map--we're in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

So far it looks like Hattiesburg won't be as badly affected as it was with Katrina three years ago, but they're expecting high winds, rain, and possible tornadoes. A big fear is damage from falling trees (the city lost 1/3 of all its trees last time, which is a lot since Hattiesburg was cut out of a forest). Apparently damage is always worse to the east of a hurricane (and we are east) because of the counter-clockwise movement of the storm.

The third hour of church was a combined meeting where they made sure everyone was prepared and answered questions, last minute instructions were given etc. We had to fill out a sheet with all our contact info saying how much water we had etc. A member of our ward works for the fire department and so came to church in jeans to give us some info and then left. We have members of the church from the near coastal town of Slidell living in our ward building.

For about twelve hours today they turned both sides of the major freeway, the I-59, into north-flowing traffic to facilitate evacuees from the coast. The roads have been jam-packed but traffic seems to be lessening a bit now. We're hoping that means most people got out early. To further facilite evacuation, they've turned all lights green on the north/south flowing highway 49 which runs through the center of town and are blocking east/west access to the road except for four e/w roads in town that are overpasses.

I think Jeff and I are personally in a very good spot in town. We're in a second floor apartment, and we don't have many trees close by that could fall on us etc. Clouds are already quickly rolling in from the south, and they expect the rain to begin around midnight (I take that back--it just started raining and blowing hard right now).

Oh, for those of you who are wondering about my job prospects, I was supposed to find out Friday if I got the job I've been interviewing for, but they had to cancel the last interview so that they could coordinate evacuation efforts for their campus in Gulfport. So it'll be at least another week before I know.

Also just found out that all schools are closed Tuesday.

Waiting for Gustav

Dear all,

Ah, it's lovely here in Hattiesburg. The weather is warm, the people are polite, and the English Department is a never-ending source of entertainment--that is, listening to stories about the professors getting hammered with the students at academic conferences. I guess there was some dancing going on in New Orleans, and then eight people crammed into a car in the French Quarter, and...never mind.

M. and I went down to the little town of Picayune, Mississippi last weekend. We were looking for "India 4 U," touted as the best Indian restaurant in Mississippi by someone in the program with me. Sadly, the restaurant was out of business. Looking in the guide book, M. noticed that there was a famous arboretum nearby--which, upon our arrival, we also found to be closed. The only thing left to do in town was visit "Paul's Pastry Shop," the world's largest maker of "King Cakes," cakes eaten at Mardi Gras. Inside each cake is a small, plastic baby figurine, and whoever gets the baby (hopefully not choking to death on it) has to host a Mardi Gras party the next year.

So, at the least, it was a nice drive, and, at the most, it was a lesson in Southern culture. We had some people from the ward over on Sunday to eat the cake (which gave me a royally upset stomach), and nobody got the baby; perhaps that's for the best.

The big news now is that, having had Hurricane Fay pass by us, we're preparing for the possible visit of Hurricane Gustav, which is currently glowering somewhere south of Cuba. We still don't know exactly where it will go; a lot depends on whether it hits Cuba or not. If it touches land, it loses energy; if it stays over water, it grows. Thus, we would love nothing more than for it to make landfall in some desolate, uninhabited part of Cuba--where it won't hurt anybody--and dump all its energy.

However, like I said, we're preparing. The calls went out from the ward last night to get our 72-hour survival kits ready. Bottled water is flying off the shelves at the grocery stores, and we need to keep the car gassed up. Right now, the weather forecasters are thinking that the storm--if it comes this way--would probably hit on Monday or Tuesday; we'll see.

Please pray for us and the greater Gulf Coast area; goodness knows that New Orleans doesn't need another hit from a hurricane.

Trouble at the DMV

We went to get our driver's licenses today at the DMV. The building was actually a trailer in the middle of nowhere in a forest (Mississippi style?). I brought all my proper documentation as listed on the website, but the not-so-nice government worker and then her supervisor put me through the ringer, saying that, "Yes, you can use the gas bill with your husband's name on it to prove domicile, but did you bring your marriage certificate to prove he is your husband? For all we know, you could be siblings, ma'am." I showed them my social security card with my maiden name. Apparently not acceptable. I had brought the printout of the requirements from the website, and I very politely pointed out that it said nothing about bringing a marriage certificate, but they just brushed me off and treated me like I was being unreasonable. As you can imagine, I was not pleased. So I sulked in a chair and looked at the dirty floor while Jeff got his license. Then I pointed and said, "Ha!" when I noticed the phrase, "The Hospitality State" emblazoned across Jeff's new license. I may look nice, but as you can see I get ticked off every now and again.

Longleaf Trace

Tonight we decided to explore the Longleaf Trace which is a biking/walking etc. trail that runs just to the north of our apartment complex. It starts in Hattiesburg and follows a northeastly direction for 41 miles until it ends in Prentiss. It's nice and flat, and I told Jeff I wanted to try to walk the 41 miles one day sometime during the three years we're here (though I'd prefer to make friends with someone that would be willing to be waiting in Prentiss with the car so that we didn't have to make the return trip). Apparently Hattiesburg does not have any sidewalks, so it's a good thing there's a nice walking trail close by (the only problem is getting to the trail without being hit by a car!)

I love the evenings here. It's still comfortably warmish, but there's usually a nice little breeze. Though tonight I realized how heavy the air really is and actually noticed it was a little harder to breathe here. And the air always looks misty and akin to a mirage. Hattiesburg has an elevation of 220 ft. and Salt Lake City is at about 4,300 ft., so that's a big difference for us.

We were scared to death that some tick would latch onto some part of our bodies while we walked the trail, but thankfully, I think we're okay (at least for tonight!)

There's always a deafening "bug symphony" coming from any tree or wooded area here. Jeff tells me this is because of the cries of the cicadas.

We live right on the boundary of two counties (Forrest and Lamar) but thanks to the signs along the trail learned that we actually live in Forrest County (darn! we were hoping to break away from the KKK connection).

The Lauren Rogers Museum

When we moved to Mississississississippi, we swore that we would do something every weekend, even if we were dead tired. It was just one of those things that needed to be done--I mean, neither Mel nor I were particularly familiar with the South, and how could we have been? We can't let this opportunity go to waste.

So, today, we went to 1) the Petal Farmer's Market (Petal is the city adjacent to Hattiesburg on the northeast), and 2) the Lauren Rogers Museum in Laurel, which is about twenty-five miles northeast. (See? We live in the South. Everything, almost, is north.)

The Petal Farmer's Market was pretty pathetic. There were three tents, and we didn't even get out of the car. (As a side note, we went to the Hattiesburg Farmer's Market on Thursday, and it was much, much better. The tamale lady made some fine cuisine, indeed.)

The museum, though, was very good. We drove for a little bit--the speed limits are higher here in Mississippi, and you can cover some serious territory very quickly--and arrived in Laurel. It looked pretty descrepit at first, but we soon found the older, more historic part of town, which had some nice Southern-style mansions and such, one of which had been converted into the museum. Apparently, Lauren Rogers was a young man--yes, a man--who died soon after marrying. Anyway, the family estate got turned into a museum, which is proportionately very prestigious, especially considering how it's in a tiny town in the Gulf Coast. Heck, they even hosted Chihuly a while back (!). So, yep, it was nifty.

Driving home, though, was another matter. We were both starving, and we saw a billboard for a place called "The Flaming Pineapple," so, with a name like that, we had to visit. We took a wrong turn, though, and ended up back in Hattiesburg about thirty minutes later. Eh, oops.

So, so far, we've kept our promise.

Pictures from Family Goodbye Party

Finally, here are the pictures from our goodbye party with my family. First, a few of us did a session at the Bountiful Temple, and then we met for a late night "let's eat cause we're really hungry" party at a park by our house in Murray. As you can tell, we all had a wonderful time. Most of the photos are courtesy of my niece, Libby, who had the best time of all. We were glad Jeff's Aunt Gayleen was able to go to the temple with us too since we don't get to see her very often.

My ordeal this morning

Now that Jeff and I are sharing a car, I decided I wanted to clean it out. After dropping J. off to school at about 10 a.m., I stopped at a gas station, parked the car, opened all the doors, and deposited my four quarters in the vacuum machine. Nothing. I went inside the gas station to ask if the machines were working. "I'm sorry, but those don't even belong to us, so I don't know." So I tried the vacuum on the other side. This time putting one quarter in seemed to do the trick. When the power shut off after a few minutes, I added four more quarters thinking that the one quarter thing was just a fluke. Nothing. It was so hot and humid that by the time I'd gone through this whole process I was beyond "glowing" (i.e. sweating with style). A man was sitting on the curb in front of the convenience store at the gas station and seemed to be watching every phase of my ordeal very intently. He kept saying things to me which I imagine were about the vacuums, but I couldn't understand a word he said with his accent. So I just continued nodding my head like I undersood, and called out things like, "Yes, that's right." So then I went home and proceeded to freeze all day in the house because of the dried perspiration on my body, but I didn't really want to take another shower since I had just taken one....Oh boy....I thought I had gotten used to this in Costa Rica, but I must be out of practice after seven years!

Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Dear all,

As I wrote several weeks back, we have arrived.

However, this time, it's permanent. Well, permanent until I graduate with my Ph.D. and get a job somewhere.

Here are the answers to many of the questions we've received:

Q: Are you coming back to Utah?
A: Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on where I get offered a job in three years.

Q: Do you want to go to California?
A: Yes, but it all depends on where I get offered a job in three years.

Q: Is there ______________ (fill in the blank: electricity, literacy, modern medicine, etc.) in Mississippi?
A: Yes. Mississippi is a modern state. Rural, but modern.

Q: How long will it take you to get your Ph.D.?
A: Three years, which is really fast, as far as Ph.D.s go. Most Ph.D. programs take around five years--and sometimes more, especially for the hard sciences. Plus, in the hard sciences, you're usually expected to do postdoctoral work, which takes even more time.

Q: What happened to the Explorer?
A: We gave it to the Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho; you know, it's that charity with the slightly amusing jingle on the radio about "mak[ing] your car a kidney car." It actually went really smoothly.

Q: Does it rain a lot in Mississippi?
A: It certainly does where we live. Today, Melanie wondered out loud, as we drove through a typhoon, "Did we move to freaking India?"

We're still getting settled, but things are going well. I've had Writing Center orientation for the past two days, since I'll be a tutor in the Writing Center here, and tomorrow I begin my teacher training.

We appreciate your prayers--we feel them. Please continue. We love you all.

J.

Lincoln, Nebraska

Well, ten hours later, here we are at the Holiday Inn Express in lovely Lincoln, NE. We've learned that the estimated travel times on Mapquest are not necessarily true in our case. We have to multiply the estimated time by 1.25--so instead of an eight hour drive, it takes us ten hours. The Penske truck only goes so fast, and I-80 has lots of construction (about half the time we're down to one lane).

We got a late start this morning because of an adjustment we had to make with the tow dolly that's hauling Jeff's car (now my car too--we got rid of the red cherry bomb Ford Explorer).

We've noticed lots of Penske moving trucks hauling cars along I-80, and each time we see the yellow Penske trucks, we both raise our right arm in a gesture of greeting and simultaneously utter the word "Brother!"

Then of course the highlight of the day was stopping at the world headquarters of Cabellas. We asked one of the employees what was different about the headquarters when compared to other stores, and she said that some of the "stuffed animals" (ie taxidermied animals on display) had been "taken" by the founders of the company. Jeff said about Cabellas, "Whoa!" and I for one did not appreciate the juxtaposition of the words "gun" and "library" in the same phrase (that's what they call their expensive gun vault). I had also hoped to buy a pack of gum, but alas, the store did not carry any. I was very disappointed and muttered bitterly, "Maybe we should have asked for gum jerky."

So, as you can see, all is going splendidly well on our trek to our new homeland, and we have luckily not lost our sense of humor. This is probably due to the fact that we listen to NPR and eat smarties, red vines, and cheese puffs all day long (thanks, Mom!)

See y'all soon!

Rawlins, Wyoming

Right now, it's 9:58pm on Wednesday, and I'm sitting in Meeting Room #2 in a hotel in Rawlins, Wyoming. That's right--the meeting room. And I'm grateful for it, because it seems that this whole town is full of travelers like myself. (Supposedly, there was vacancy in a motel down the freeway, but a meeting room in the hand is worth a honeymoon suite down the freeway.)

Yes, there is a bed and a bathroom. One wall is a folding partition, like the kind that separates the chapel from the cultural hall in church meetinghouses. But, hey, it's OURS, and I really am quite grateful.

I hope our pizza arrives soon...

Gratitude

Dear all,

Pictures will certainly follow, but I wanted to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated in the going-away party that the Petersens threw for us this evening. I haven't had people do something like that for me in a very, very long time. It was almost overwhelming. You are all amazing.

And--one last time, to assuage my guilty conscience, so please bear with me--I apologize for any derogatory remarks about Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Thanks especially to those responsible for bringing Farr's ice cream. You rock, royally.

And, yes, pictures will be up soon.