We made it to Pennsylvania!! It took 4 days, 9 states, $692.80 in gas (averaging about $3.60/gallon), 1 night in Park City, 1 night in Sidney, Nebraska (thanks to Trevor, Alicia and Tucker for putting us up for the night), 1 night in Champaign, Illinois, and driving till 1am Friday morning to actually get here.
We've been staying at a Travelodge motel in Chambersburg, but tomorrow we get to move into our apartment! We will be living in "downtown" Waynesboro, Pennsylvania (don't let the downtown part trick you, there is only 1 street in and out of town and 2 or 3 stoplights and that is "downtown"). We feel like we got a great deal on our apartment. Rent is $395/month and the only utility we pay is electric. It has brand new carpet and is freshly painted. Much nicer than all the other gross, nasty places we looked at.
(here's a map to put into perspective where we are exactly).
Nate is especially excited to be rid of our uhaul trailer tomorrow. We have been pulling it with us everywhere and it is getting old! On Friday, when we went apartment shopping we naturally pulled the trailer all over. we drove it up and down Main street at least 6 times. Nate commented "I bet everyone thinks we're morons just driving up and down the street, like we don't know what we're doing." We laughed pretty hard about that but it was probably only funny to us. We sure stick our like a sore thumb though, a bright orange truck with 2 bikes on top pulling a uhaul? Probably not a sight they see everyday in a town of 10,000.
What's even better is that at church today a lady asked me, "oh, so did you move in this week?" When I told her no she said, "oh I thought maybe I had seen you, I saw a truck pulling a uhaul all around." I didn't tell her that she probably had in fact seen us. So embarrassing. We even tried to leave church later in hope that no one would see us, but to no avail, everyone pointed and waved, and laughed as we pulled out of the parking lot. We just hid our faces and laughed and thought 'thank goodness tomorrow is the last day of this!'
In other news, we went to our new ward today. It was fantastic. Hands down the best, most gracious, welcoming ward I have ever been to! We were a couple of minutes late and felt really bad for walking in late so we sat in what we thought at the time was the very back of the chapel, but turns out its normal. By the time sacrament was over we were almost in the middle!
This is what the main street looks like, but I took it off google, it doesn't have any snow right now in real life.
We met a TON of people, I wish we could remember all of their names but they were all so nice and wanted to get to know us. We got invited to dinner at at least 4 different households. Everybody wanted to shake our hands and hear out story and convince us to stay forever (they were all sad we hadn't actually bought a house but told us where to look when we get to that point). And funny side note, the bishop is from Idaho Falls...small world! Any way, I met two sisters in the ward who were really awesome and showed me to relief society and sat by me and explained all the signup sheets and handouts that went around so that was nice. The ward seems really fun too. They are the only ward in their building just like my parents, and they take full advantage! They have a "date night" coming up this Friday that they told me we just HAD to go to. This time it's just a little game night at the church. I guess they try to do something like this monthly for all the adults. Then they had a dinner, and some other celebration coming up that just sound like excuses to get together and have a party which is fine by us! We think we're really going to enjoy this ward. They also said 3/4 of the ward is related so watch what you say;) (Sounded a lot like the whole Blaser clan in Boise, only bigger).
The best part of church happened in relief society. The secretary, who was an older woman ended up conducting the opening exercises because the presidency was in a meeting with the bishop that was running late. She had no program or handouts to follow so she was flying blind, just going off the seat of her pants. She was so sweet and did such a great job but it was really funny and everyone kept laughing (luckily she was a good sport and was laughing at herself too). Well right at the end the presidency came in and just sat down without making a scene. As the secretary was going to sit down the president reminded her of a few more things so naturally more laughs and commotion, this time with the president watching. Finally, I was asked to introduce myself and then the meeting continued as usual. Well after relief society the president came up and introduced herself and apologized for the lack of preparation on the secretary's part. I didn't mind one bit and actually enjoyed it. She got all my information and asked where I had come from and when I said Utah her eyes got really big and she opened her mouth and laughed so hard. Then she proceeded to tell me that during the opening when I introduced myself she leaned over to her counselor and whispered "I sure hope she's not from Utah" referring to the disorganization of the opening exercises. She couldn't believe that really was where I had come from! It was pretty funny and I definitely felt more at home without the formal-ness of relief society and with the ease and laughter the secretary brought.
The town itself is very old and cute. There isn't a whole lot going on. There is a Wal-Mart, a McDonalds, and a YMCA but that's all I can think of right off. There is 1 high school. Lots of little old privately owned shops that I am excited to check out. There's also a couple of "Meat Markets", not sure what exactly those entail, but I'm sure we'll experience them soon enough!
The houses here are all pretty awesome. They are all HUGE and (mostly) OLD! Most look like old plantation houses and the ones that have been updated/remodeled are gorgeous. Even the old run down ones are cool looking, just not as cool. And they are everywhere! there isn't a lot of people close together, but even when you think you are in back country, these old plantation houses are out there.
Here's one of my favorites that's in town and been renovated. It is currently for sale.
We are about 40 minutes from Gettysburg and this July happens to be the 150th anniversary which means there is going to be all kinds of celebrations so we are excited to experience that and the 4 day battle reenactment! We have also driven passed a sign for the home of James Buchanan a few times so we will have to check that out, we are 2 miles north of the Mason-Dixon line, and close to many other historical sites. We've also been told we really need to check out the Hill Cumorah pageant.
Needless to say, we are now even more excited about this new experience and the opportunities it will bring for us to grow individually, as a couple, and as members of the church.
Welcome home to the Moellers!
