Our Day of Rest

On July 15th (Sunday) we rested from our travels. Our only plans for this day included a trip to Nauvoo, Illinois and rest. Prior to attending a local ward for services, we visited the Nauvoo Temple, which was far prettier and much larger than I had expected. It sits at the top of a hill overlooking the Mississippi River. The grounds were green and very well kept. We then went to the historic part of Nauvoo. Before the kids started getting cranky, we were able to tour the post office, John Taylor’s home, and a school house. Prior to leaving Nauvoo, we drove past The Mansion House, Joseph and Emma’s cottage, The Red Brick Store, and the cemetery where Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum were finally laid to rest (the last few sites mentioned are owned by the Community of Christ, formerly RLDS church). The pictures shown are of the Nauvoo Temple, Joseph and Emma’s cottage, the view from the cemetery, and the monument over the Smith’s grave site. Renee is not in these pictures because she remained at the hotel while she was ill.

Rolling Hills

On the 14th of July we left Lincoln, Nebraska and traveled to the Fairfield Inn located in Keokuk, Iowa. Of the four different hotels we stayed at, this one was the best. In case you are wondering, the others were the Sleep Inn, Comfort Inn, and the Comfort Inn and Suites. The trip took a little more than seven hours, but the scenery made it an easy drive. The rolling hills were beautiful and Iowa was easily the greenest state that we traveled through. The highways were very well kept and littered with white, yellow, purple, and blue wild flowers.
Once we arrived at the hotel, we parked the moving truck, checked into the hotel, and then crossed the Mississippi by car for the first time (we had previously flown over it). We drove to Carthage, Illinois, which many of you will recognize as the home of Carthage Jail. This was an awesome experience, one that I would highly recommend to anyone who is at all interested in LDS history. A sister missionary took us on a tour through the jail that ended in the room in which brothers Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred, it was pretty amazing.

Smooth Ride

On July 13th, the second day of our trip, we left no-man’s-land Wyoming at about 8:30 am (Mountain Time) and arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska at around 4:30 pm (Central Time). Traveling was much smoother, the scenery was much improved, the pool and hot tub were comfortable, and the dinner was infinitely better.

Side note: David and Chantel arrived today. Everyone appears to be in good spirits, but definitely ready to be settled.

Wasted Space

Sorry to all of you who have checked our blog over the past few weeks with hopes of finding anything even remotely interesting. Until this morning we did not have Internet access. The next few blogs will most likely be about our trip "back east," so with that in mind I will tell you a little bit about our first day on the road.

We left Provo on the morning of July 12th at about 8:45 am, which incidentally is the day after our 9th wedding anniversary. This was the first of our five day, 2000 mile trip to Williamsville, NY. It's easy to say that this also was our longest and most boring day. Our first destination was the Sleep Inn, located on the outskirts of Cheyenne, Wyoming. I had planned our days out ahead of time so that we would not have to be on the road for more than 6 1/2 hours, but due to unforeseen events (road construction, unplanned stops, and a moving truck that could not drive faster than 70mph), we were on the road for 10. Once we arrived we thought that it would be nice to relax by taking a dip in the heated indoor pool. WRONG!!! The pool was freezing, apparently the heater didn't work. In an attempt to warm up we tried the hot-tub (luke-warm-tub would have been a little closer to the truth).

To make up for the poor swimming experience we thought that it would be relaxing to have a nice dinner at a nice restaurant. Since we were not familiar with the area we asked the lady at the front desk for a recommendation. All that I can say about dinner is that I hope the other locals are a little more difficult to please. Moral of the story, get more than one persons opinion when trying to find a comfortable atmosphere with edible food.

I think the best part about the first day was that it ended, safely. I had been through parts of Wyoming before but the stretch that I-80 follows is desolate, nothing but wasted space (sorry if that offends anyone). I remember being told once that Nebraska was a terrible state to travel through, but I can honestly say I would take Nebraska any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

The Beginning

This is the beginning of our family blog. Our goal in establishing this is simple, we want to be able to send pictures, information, and hopefully video to all of our family and friends in an easy to view/communicate way. We hope that this is helpful to anyone who wishes to remain updated on our "comings and goings" while we are away from home. FYI, today is the day that the final Harry Potter installment should have been released (just my opinion).