Somewhere in Nebraska we received word that Dick's mom, Millie, would undergo unexpected surgery on Thursday. Not wanting to ruin our trip, she had not told us she wasn't feeling well. You know how mothers are! We arranged to be back in Spanish Fork as quickly as possible to be with her. There are a number of things we need to arrange for her and her husband. It seems that they could use some help around the house, now that she is 88 and her husband, Clyde, is 93. Clyde's daughter and her husband, Bonnie and Ron, will be there to help take care of Clyde while Millie is in the hospital.

In between taking care of stuff, we managed to take care of some our needs as well. We took our bikes into the dealership in Orem for a quick oil change. They even gave our bikes a much needed wash. The dealership just changed hands, and is called Timpanogas. They plan on moving the place to the freeway, quadruple the size, and add a restaurant! We look forward to visiting them, our dealership away from home.

We visited one of our favorite Italian restaurants, Ottavios, in Provo, ate and said hello to the owner. A trip to Utah would not be complete without a meal at Ottavios. While driving to the restaurant we took the picture of the little girl on the back of the Harley. We saw the same bike later in the day and decided the little girl would go home with quite a sunburn -- but she was having a fun day!

While waiting for Mom's surgery to end, we visited with a friend from Dick's college days, Kathy Thomas. She works in the psych ward at the hospital and we got a kick out of the sign on the door to the ward. We had a good time catching up on each other's lives.

While talking with Ron, clyde's son-in-law, he mentioned he was a member of the O-pos gang, and showed us a tattoo to prove it. He then explained that years ago, in the height of the cold war, when the country was going a bit nuts to provide civil defense, someone in Northern Utah came up with a brilliant idea to help facilitate medical help in the event of a major disaster. They decided to tattoo the children of the area with their blood types! This happening in small Utah communities, where the body is considered a temple, and tattoos are strictly forbidden, seemed highly unlikely to us. But, it happened! Children were lined up in school, tested for blood type, and given a tattoo, freehand. The program didn't last long, because they realized that any physician worth his salt would test for blood type rather than rely on a tattoo.