Robert writes home #51 29 Oct 1995

29 Oct 1995

Dear Mother.

                I didn’t warn you that I would be coming to visit because I didn’t know how the time schedule would be working out. I went back to Utah for two days to visit Pete. It was fun. I flew out Thurs. PM. Pete picked me up and drove me to Honeyville where we visited Melinda, Dan and kids and stayed the night. Her kids are fun. Then we drove down to Provo and checked my into a motel at 11AM then proceeded up to campus to walk around and see who he could find that he knew to introduce me too. I haven’t seen any of the girls he’s talked about so it was fun to meet some of them. (One in particular I had really wanted to meet). He asked for my expert opinion on all of them which I gladly provided. It was fun. Then we went to Chuck A rama and gorged. Later in the afternoon we drove down to see Grandma Miller in Mayfield. Then we stopped to check out our house in Manti. The renters are doing good thing to that place. They work out half of their rent and the woman has good taste in décor. She’s refinishing the fireplace mantle. They’ve taken off about six coats of old paint and are going to stain it. It’s about ready to stain. The kitchen floor was hardwood under old linoleum. They took off the linoleum and refinished the floor. It looks nice. I’m pleased with that arrangement.

                I had quit renting it and just boarded it up. There people were destitute for a place to live that they could afford so I let them stay there and work off part of their rent by improving the place it needed a lot of it.

                Then we stopped to see, Magdalene, in Mount Pleasant. It was really a fun trip. I love that ride down to Manti. It is rejuvenating…the air is so clear and the scenery is so un-urbanized. It’s like a contact with the treasured past. I gave Pete advice about marriage and women all the way down and back.

                I’m old and tired so he dropped me off at my motel and I went to bed while Pete pursed some social opportunities. It was about 9:30pm.

                The next day he picked me up about 8:30 AM and we went fly fishing up Hobble Creek while I gave him more advice and discussed his potential mate candidates. We came back about 1:00PM and cleaned up and watched the BYU-Hawaii homecoming game on TV (we had tickets to the game offered three times…but didn’t want to take the time…and besides that you can’t get instant replay in the stands.) BYU won big. They looked really good.

Then we went to SLC and hit the Chuck A rama buffet there and ate too much again. They had a great pasta bar and Buffalo wings. We went there early because I wanted to go visit a man who is the husband of one of Janet’s oldest, dearest college friends who had just had a kidney transplant operation on Thursday. I thought that maybe seeing Pete and me, three and a half years post op a kidney transplant, might encourage him. I think it did. His name is Gad Williams, husband of Deanne (Clinger) Williams. I had forgotten but he aid that he and I took Chemistry together at BYU. He said Pete looked like the me he remembered more than I did. I hadn’t seen him for years.

Then Pete dropped me off at the airport and I flew home. It was great. I had run out of advice so I knew that I had been there long enough.

When I got home I was so anxious to tell Janet all about it and she wouldn’t wake up to listen so I talked to Charlie for an hour before I went to bed.

This morning we got up and hurried to get ready for church and just as we were about ready to walk out the door, Charlie called the time and we realized that the shift to standard time took place last night, so I had an hour to write letters.

Good Luck

Love,

Robert, Janet, Charlie and Sam