Who wooda thunk it!

First off, the literary locquasciousness of Lori is not going to be present in this blog. My humble apologies!

Lori has been asking me for the past several months when I would contribute to the blog, but I felt it would be much better served if I played the behind the scenes support system. That being said, I had something that happened today that just made me think - who wooda thunk it!

I spent the morning driving with one our best friends to Cokeville, Wy. as his company was bidding on a construction project there. We figured it would be a fun ride and he could use the company (and I could look for cops). It was a great ride as the scenery was beautiful because everything is still green. We spotted a huge 4 point deer (right in Lehi), a multitude of antelope, and a couple of hawks.

We arrived early to Cokeville so we sat and watched for the competition to show up before finalizing the bid and had it ready precisely on time even after we had to resort to using my cell phone (ATT) because neither his Verizon cell phone nor his Nextel cell had coverage. That was the first bit of good luck we experienced today. It appears certain that they will win the bid so it was a good thing he had me come along!

After finishing the bid meeting we headed to the Flying J Gas Station to fill up the drinks and grab a bite to eat. (Note for all readers - DO NOT get the deliciosly smelling sausage wrapped in dough - you will start regretting it about 15 minutes later.) While we were in queue to pay I saw a peace officer walk in and had to do a double take as I could have sworn it was my MTC companion. He walked to the back with a kid from the area to go get a pop and I realized I had to find out. (Please note that I am not exactly what most people would consider a "people person".) So I approached him with a quizzical look on my face and said "Jackman?" He looked up and I started to laugh because I could then read his name tag and there was no mistaking who he was after that. As I started laughing, he immediately remembered who I was and a very "manly" hug pursued. Really, what are the chances of the two of us running into each other in little old Cokeville, Wyoming after 16 years?

It was a great time getting to spend a few minutes with someone who was such a great friend for a few years. We were companions in the Missionary Training Center, spent our first five months in the Philippines in the same apartments and quite a bit our mission in the same zones. We survived an appendix nearly bursting, an earthquake, a volcano, a near crippling foot infection, some sort of denghe fever, a batchmate going crazy and running off the end of the peir into the South China Sea, and several other more mildly looney companions. As Dickens stated, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,..." I only wish we would have had a more time to spend visiting, but he was on patrol and we were expected back in Utah. We do have his cell number and he has invited us to come up and spend some time so we will definitely be in touch!

To top off the day we just needed a break just as we were leaving Evanston so we thought we should stop. We just "happened" to stop; low and behold, in front of the Black Cat fireworks shop when we remembered that the 24th celebration is less than 2 weeks away. So naturally we felt it appropriate to contribute to the revenues of the city of Evanston by purchasing completely legal (in Wyoming) fireworks solely to celebrate the Days of '47.Though it does seem that a few happened to go off pre-maturely tonight:)