About Me Monday-Moving On

The Christmas before I turned twelve, my family moved from Quincy, WA to Kanab, Utah. My uncle Steve bought a hotel and restaurant and asked my dad to manage it for him. Turns out the hotel, Parry's Lodge is the same one the movie stars from the old western movies stayed. Whit Perry started the motel while his brother got the movies to start filming in southern Utah. Some of those movie stars include Ronald Reagan, John Wayne, Tim Conway and James Garner. My dad Is a huge John Wayne fan and so John Wayne became the main attraction at the Lodge. You can actually stay there in the same room as some of the stars!

Kanab Utah is a total tourist trap! It is one and a half hours from Bryce Canyon, 45 minutes from Zion Canyon, one hour from the north rim of the Grand Canyon, and one hour from Lake Powell. What a awesome place to grow up!!! Plus my mom was born and raised there as well so I have lots of relatives there.

As for me, at this stage of my life I liked gymnastics (but there were not really any coaches or facilities in Kanab), dance, roller skating with my best friend Tracy, and playing pranks on people. My mom could not find me one day and sent my brother in the car to look for me. She told him to just look for the girl dancing down the street. When he found me, I was dancing down the street! :) I want you to notice that I once had skinny legs!!! It was maybe only once but I still had it!

Tracy Lee was my first and best friend in Kanab. My first day of school after the Christmas break, I arrived in the right classroom but there was not enough desks for everyone. I was placed at a table with a couple of other kids in the back of the room. The girl I sat next to (Tracy) had long thick brown hair and her ears still stuck out through her hair. I found out later that her nick name was 'mouse' because of those ears. We started talking and became fast friends. We spent everyday together until she and her father were killed in a plane crash on night when she was fifteen. Saddest day of my life this far! I still miss her.

Kanab is a great place to grow up. It did have the small town gossip but good people and fun places to see and explore. You are probably wondering if I had the chance to be in a movie or meet a star. The answer is no. Unless you count the uncle in the Dukes of Hazard. I love to hear the stories from my uncles about being in and helping with the movies when they were little. Everyone should at least visit Kanab Utah!