There's No Place Like Home

I never am so glad to be back in Philadelphia than when I return from Utah.

Steve and I went for a few days to visit Mo. I bravely wore my Obama pin throughout our stay there, wanting childishly perhaps to show my colors and fully expecting to see a landscape dotted with huge McCain/Palin signs. Surprisingly, there were none. I guess there's no need to spend the money and spread the word in a state that is so solidly in the Republican camp. I didn't experience any dirty looks or hostile comments. Instead, a few courageous souls in Salt Lake City whispered that they liked the button.

Ogden, a suburb of SLC, where Mo lives, is a weird place. The mountains are just 10-15 minutes away and everywhere you go there's a spectacular view of them pasted against a brilliant blue sky. (We didn't see a cloud for the three days we were there.) But the city and its environs are a series of featureless, cookie cutter developments strung together by strip malls and big box retail outlets. It's only when we drove through the canyons or over the North Ogden Divide where the houses are set apart with ample space to breathe that you get a sense of what might have been before the super highways changed things forever.

Mo lives in a tidy house in a development of tidy houses that all look the same. There are children--mostly blond, it seems--playing everywhere, bikes strewn across the lawns, dogs barking in the back yards. All the garages seem to hold at least two cars--one of which is a large SUV or truck--motorcycles or dirt bikes and a full complement of sporting gear. Many of the houses, Mo's included, have basketball nets in the back. One afternoon, I strolled through the development and saw just one vegetable garden but that had a compost bin, a promising sign. Most houses have green, well tended lawns with tame little islands of shrubbery and flowers set carefully within or along the houses.

Mo and Steve shot baskets and I sat on the deck reading. I looked out over his back yard to a landscape of identical rooftops all sprouting direct TV dishes set against the rugged and majestic mountains that loomed on all sides.

Like I said, Utah is a weird place.