Why is Walking Arizona moving to Utah?

My wife and I began the process of telling everyone that we were moving to Utah about two weeks ago. The kindness and concern shown by the missionaries and volunteers at the Mesa FamilySearch Library has been a very emotional experience. It is sort of like attending your own funeral. So why is Walking Arizona moving to the Frozen North, oh, I mean Utah?

It is a process of weighing the advantages against weighing the disadvantages. The reasons fall into a number of categories. Here are two major considerations:

• We will be closer to a larger number of our family members including the beginnings of a number of grandchildren attending Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
• We will have better access to the Family History Library and the other libraries in the Wasatch Front area of Utah. For example, we will be near the Front Runner train that coupled with the downtown TRAX, that will take us from our home to approximately 1/2 block from the Family History Library in about the time it takes to drive from Provo to Salt Lake City. 

The disadvantages include giving up a very long close association with some wonderful people at the Family History Center and being a long way from my beloved Arizona Sonora Desert. One major disadvantage is leaving one of my children and her family in Arizona. 

As the process of moving progresses, we realize with our present commitments it may be a few months before the process is complete. I am wondering what lies ahead. I will continue to write but I will miss the constant teaching. If you need me to come to your genealogy event in Utah, you should feel free to ask. We will be there sometime and I will love to visit you and your organization in Utah. 

I also plan on finding someone who is very interested in genealogy and would like to volunteer to help produce some high quality video instructional materials. I made a stab at producing online YouTube videos but was not satisfied with the quality of the productions. Maybe I can even find a group of people who would like to produce such materials using animated whiteboard video or some other technology? I hardly think that the market for high quality genealogical instructional materials is saturated.

If I do get the opportunity to travel to the Family History Library regularly, I plan on writing a series for this blog and my other Rejoice and be exceeding glad.. blog on research experiences and other information about the Library.

There is really no end to the opportunities I have speculated about in moving to Provo. I would also be in a position to attend meetings of the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group (UVTAGG) since I am moving to a home only a short distance from where they meet in Provo, to be exact, I will only be 2.5 miles away from the meeting place.

I am currently a member of the Utah Genealogical Association and plan to attend many more of their meetings and activities.

In short, I see this move as an opportunity to serve in any way I can. I might also remind my friends and associates in Arizona that I can still participate regularly with them through the very easily used venues of Google+ Hangouts, Webinars and actual visits to Arizona locations. Driving back to Arizona gives me an opportunity to do one of the things I like to do best, visit the Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau. I will also need to visit my daughter in Mesa, Arizona frequently so they don't forget what I look like.

Now, If you know me at all, you are probably wondering how I am going to pack even more activity into an already impossibly busy schedule. Well, I can dream.