Tucson

Dave says: It's been a busy couple of weeks for us. Before I even started boxing up things for the move, I had to tackle the Utah bar exam which is quite the long and painful test. It involved two full days of testing (a day of essays and a day of multiple choice) that was easily the hardest and most punishing exam that I have ever taken. Many of my classmates were completely freaked out by taking a test that could crush their future job prospects for the immediate future (and which a significant percentage of applicants fail).

Once the bar was over, I could finally turn my attention to the move. I was really trying for the illusory stress-free move that feels like a vacation except with all of your stuff coming along. We would go riding every morning, pack boxes for a few hours, and then do something fun for the rest of the day. We used up some gift certificates to various Salt Lake restaurants, went to the movie Inception, and went through the Salt Lake temple one last time. We also did some of our favorite rides including the very fun loop from Park City around Chalk Creek and East Canyon. Alisha was flying up the back side of East Canyon at an unconcionable pace but my form is coming along and I was able to barely hang on.

My strategy for the move was to fill the back room of our house with boxes as we loaded them so we could pull the trailer to the end of the driveway and walk the boxes right out. The excitement for the move was actually trying to fit everything into my parents' big grey van and a UHaul trailer. In the end, I had all the vehicles loaded so full that you could only open the driver's side door. Our Christmas tree and dining room table and chairs were casualties of the move as there was simply no room to fit them in the end.

The van has no working a/c and the trailer was loaded down so much in the back end that it started to wobble above 55 mph. It took 5 hours to get to Cedar City and I spent much of the drive dumping water from the ice chest on myself to keep cool. My parents had my little red car in Cedar and we reloaded a lot of stuff from the back of the trailer into it. My dad was a huge help and left the next morning with the van at 5 am to make it down to Arizona before it got really hot. Alisha and I made good time driving our cars and arrived at my grandparents' home in Tucson around dinner time on the 4th.

The next big challenge was that the guest house where we are now living was used by my grandparents for storage for the last 25 years. Before we could move anything in, we had to move everything out. We spent the next week installing some appliances, painting the place, shampooing the carpets, putting back up the ceeling, and trying to decide how to fit all the stuff we had in a three bedroom house into our new one bedroom flat.

We knew we were super spoiled to have such a nice place to live in SLC but now we really know! However, we are spoiled here in some different ways that we are enjoying. It is fun to hang out with my grandparents and I have been having blueberries on my cereal every morning and drinking lots of orange juice out of their fridge. We have been swimming in their giant pool almost every day and we have gone with them to programs at the Desert Museum for the past two weeks. Last week's program involved a live rattlesnake and gila monster. This week we had hawks, ravens, and owls that flew around the room and zipped right over your head. We also looked for scoprions with a black light which Alisha had never done before. They glow bright green in the dark.

Tucson also has some fantastic cycling. We have ridden a dozen different routes and still haven't done all the good rides in this area. Last weekend we rode up Mt. Lemmon with the Toussaints. The sheer length of the climb (25 miles) is impressive and you go from cactus to pine trees pretty quickly. On Monday we had dinner with the Toussaints and had a great time. Roberta is quite the talented cook. Yesterday we did the Shootout which is the local ride that rolls like a race. Today we rode up through the foothills to Rancho Vistoso. The ride goes into the ritzy part of town with glossy pavement and nice houses.

I have one more week off before school starts to get settled. I'm sure things will be quite busy once it does but I am excited for my program.

Alisha says: Since arriving in Arizona we have turned into early birds, waking up early and leaving on our rides before 6 am in order to try and beat the heat (today it is 105 degrees). I generally consider myself a morning person but not so for my sweet husband, but he has been doing really well with our new schedule. He also didn't want his picture taken in the pool and was even more unhappy when I put it in this post. We have been on some great rides my favorite being Mt. Lemmon. It is a awesome 25 mile climb!

There is one thing that I really don't like about Tucson and that is cockroaches!! I think they are absolutly disgusting and make Dave kill the few that we have seen.