TYING UP LOOSE ENDS !

The trip to Salt Lake City was in a word, awesome! One picture is of us in the Tabernacle and the other is of the Mormon Temple taken from a restaurant we ate in one evening that had a beautiful view. Both of us Grannies are ready to go back, just trying to figure out how soon and how to fit it all in our busy lives. The drive to the Family History Library in Salt Lake was not bad at all, in fact it did not seem as long as it really was. We stopped often which really helped, if but for a few minutes to stretch. The trip going took 8 hours from my son's home in Cheyenne, Wyo as we had a long lunch break that day and a short stop to buy Claritin at a Wal-Mart. The beautiful Wyoming sagebrush caused nothing but havoc with Go Girl #1 on the trip going. Sneeze and blow, all the way across Wyoming and into Utah! The trip back to Cheyenne was 7 hours even with a lunch stop etc. We were lucky in that we had a place to stay and set out from in Cheyenne. The first and last leg of our trip was from Alliance, Nebraska to Cheyenne, Wyoming. This 3 hour drive was made in an additional day with a stay over at my son's house for one night. My first trip to the Family History Library definately goes down as a success!

Go Girl mentioned several things we did not have along and several things we took which we did not need to have. Next time we will be fully prepared--maybe. I needed a couple fewer pair of shoes and could have taken some less fewer groceries. ( We took things for lunching in the room.) When one is so engrossed in research, there is not much time to think of eating and at days end when we figured popcorn would be great, we were just too darn tired to even do that. That is pretty bad for us both when jelly beans and popcorn go by the wayside. Bad for our reputation at least but probably good for our waistlines!

One thing that I did beforehand was to print a lot of information and family group sheets for quick reference but those just filled up my library notebook and added weight. I ended up using the laptop for most of my quick references. Next time I will leave all the extra paper clutter at home. There just isn't room for notebooks and computers working with the film area. Yes, I did have to use one of my small pull about suitcases as a library bag. My computer bag just did not hold what was needed. I was doing alot of Swedish research so I had to carry a couple big notebooks and language reference book along with me, just in case I needed to use them. I will definately have a different wheeled bag before my next research trip, one that expands to hold alot when necessary. The wheels are certainly a wonderful invention on those cases. When did we ever just carry our bags? It seems like centuries ago. The one other important thing I would suggest is to take some blank pedigree sheets. I had to scavange to find one since I did not have the use of a printer to make one. When working on someone who may fit in the family it is nice to see it written out to study. That will be one big addition to my list next time. If I could figure out how to carry a printer, Id' have one of those too--just for good measure. If the Go Girls were both rich, we'd just buy a room or better yet a penthouse suite, outfit that and move in for several weeks stay at a time ......!

As Go Girl 1 mentioned she did not need her sticky notes, I did use mine some. I took several digital pics of documents on the surface of the microfilm readers and they were handy to just stick there with an arrow on it to show the" line of interest" on the document. I also used bright flourescent sticky notes with my initials on them to stick on the drawers I removed microfilm from. They just helped in quick re-filing of the films in drawers when I was done. The rows and rows of films can take some time to locate and the bright notes just made it alittle faster. My next trip--I will have matching "frig" magnets of some kind to use on the drawers of film. I plan to just make my own that will be unique and easy to spot from a distance. A file card with film numbers AND the magnets will make the process of re-filing move along some what quicker. Even an additonal 10 mintues a day is one more film that can be studied and the added possibility of finding another treasure.

We worked in several short sight seeing voyages also. Along with evening supper breaks, they helped to break up the day and renew us for the evening research sessions. We saw some beautiful Salt Lake City sights that were near the Library, checked out a couple book stores and rode the Trak to a mall just ot eat someplace different one evening. In total, we never took more than about 1 1/2 or sometimes 2 hours off each day. Our main focus was on research from 8 am until almost 9 pm each day. Makes me tired to even think about it, the exhausting days, but I have my second wind now so WHEN DO WE GO BACK ????