A Quieter Day in Carthage & Nauvoo

There is a National Cemetary located in Keokuk. During the Civil War, there was a hospital in Keokuk, they would bring the wounded soldiers down the Mississippi river to the hospital. Those that died were buried in the National Cemetary. We visited it this morning. It is a beautiful cemetery that is still used for war veterans to this day.




Next we visited Carthage Jail. Several years ago when we came here, we had a wonderful tour guide. He told us something that I will always remember. He said that he preferred not to think of the stairs as the "stairs that the mob ran up, but as the stairs that Joseph & Hyrum used." We also had a really good tour guide today. He mentioned that is is thru faith that we gain a testimony. By coming to these Church history sites we can walk and touch the places that were so important to the restoration of the gospel, and our testimonies will become even stronger.
This picture is the stairway of the Carthage Jail, with Kimball and Cheryl (yellow shirt) going down before me.



Some remaining sand bags along the road into Nauvoo


Another view of the Nauvoo temple, from old Nauvoo



Kimball excited to be at "his" street in Nauvoo

That bend in the MIssissippi River

Sorry about no posting last nite. I will try to catch up because I know all my faithful readers are patiently awaiting my next entry.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Keokuk Friday nite, and as usual, when you stay in a motel that you pay more money for, the internet connection is crappy. It just wouldn't stay connected last nite. I even went back down to the desk and she gave me a booster to use, I don't think it was any better. I did complain when I settled up this morning, so she gave me $10.00 off the bill. Score!

Here are some pictures from Friday's long ride across Indiana & Illinois:


I don't know about the corn being as high "as an elephant's eye", but it is definitely taller and Grandpa & me.


This was located in the town of Lincoln, Illinois


In Arthur, Illinois (another Amish town) we saw a sign off the side of the road advertising buggies for sale or trade. There were several parked under a tent. Of course that had to be a Kodak moment for us. Here is Kimball trying out some new wheels.


We stopped here last nite for a bite to eat. 15 points to anyone who can tell me the town where this famous Hardee's is located. (hint: We found out about the famous Marge & Russ campground at this place)


Any of you who have been to Nauvoo will remember the Joseph Smith Academy building that sat just across the street from the temple. Well, this is the view across the street from the temple now. We found out they tore down the old academy building last October. There are no plans to rebuild anything on the spot. President Hinckley wanted the view un-obstructed so it will just be grass in the future.


We drove over to the Nauvoo State Park, saw this turtle trucking along so we stopped for photo's.


Another famous Nauvoo landmark. Especially brings back memories for Cheryl & I.


Kimball, Cheryl & I paid the Community of Christ $2.00 each for a tour of their buildings. We were the only ones in our group & had a wonderful young lady as our guide. Well worth the money paid this time around.


At the end of Parley street, overlooking the Mississippi. Kimball helping Joseph tell Brigham Young which way is west.


Kimball's shirt sporting his collection of stickers for the day.


Saw this sister missionary before the pageant tonite. She looked familiar to both Kimball and I. After the pageant I saw her again, so I went over and talked to her. Found out she was at Carthage last year when we were here, so she was the missionary that took us on a tour of the jail. Or as she put it: "When you stand an look at somebody's face for 1/2 hour, you are bound to remember them". She had only been out about 3 months last year, she goes home this December.


Best for last! Drove back up to the temple tonite after the pageant & took this picture. I think this is my favorite temple. I love it at night when it is all lit up!

What does the Santa Maria, Airstream, White Castle & Bob Evans all Have in Common?

In downtown Columbus, there is a replica of the Santa Maria that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. First thing this morning we were there, to take a tour of the Santa Maria. All I can say is: I'm glad I'm crossing the country in July 2008 & not 1492.



We saw some Japanese Beetles chomping away on some rose bushes... So that is what they look like!! I hope I never see one at my house. They were everywhere, an really feasting on the flowers.



Next stop was the Airstream factory in Jackson Center, Ohio. We sat around in their lobby for awhile, waiting for the next tour to begin. Our tour guide was practically as old as the company. He said he had been working there 50 years. Retired from the company and then came back to give the tours. He shared all sorts of information that normal people (us) would not care one whit about. But an Airstream groupie would find it fascinating.




Grandpa - sporting his safety glasses for the tour.

We hit pay dirt tonite for supper. White Castle, and across the street... Bob Evans. First to White Castle for our appetizer. I still can't figure out why people back here like those little 2 bite plain tasting burgers (Slider). You can give me In-N-Out any day!


Kimball acting like he is excited to have a White Castle slider!

Next stop was Bob Evans. This is our 2nd Bob Evans stop for this trip. Great food & great prices to boot. We are trying to figure out how to persuade them to expand to Utah.


Happy travelers waiting for food at Bob Evans

Back To Ohio

We Went to the Warther Carving Museum on Wednesday, This place is located in Dover, Ohio, a little more than an hour away from Columbus. I had read about it on the internet and thought it sounded like a fun place to go to. (www.warthers.com)
It was a really fun place, the great grandpa was a carver and carved all these intricate trains - complete with every detal. It was pretty amazing to see them. Our guide thru the museum was a grand-son and it was fun to hear his first hand stories of the family. It's hard to explain all the details of this place, other than to say I would recommend this place as a stop for anyone who goes to Ohio.


Train made out of ebony wood & ivory.
The great grandmother collected buttons, and there was a little building that housed part of her button collection. They were all arranged & framed in beautiful geometric patterns.


When we got to our motel in Columbus tonite, I did a mapquest to see how far we were from Heidi's house. I was surprised to see that her house was about 1 mile away. While grandma & grandpa visited her, Kimball, Cheryl and I turned into pirates and went in search of a buiried treasure!

We have some friends (Jared & Jessica Anderson) who used to live in Columbus while he was attending Ohio State. They moved to Spokane a little over a year ago. Anyway, his old house is just a few miles from where Heidi lives. Before moving to Spokane, Jared and his little girl buiried a treasure in the back yard. When he found out I was making another trip back east, Jared said: "Wouldn't it be cool if you could go and dig up the treasure so that it could make it's way back to me in Spokane?" Well, you know I am always up for an adventure, so we went to do a little digging.



There are a lot more details than I am sharing here, but it is a story filled with adventure, sneakyness, and a lot of digging. In the end, we DID find the treasure! Jared would not tell me beforehand what the treasure was, and we had to call him while we were in the back yard digging, so he could coach us to the right place. How appropriate that the treasure was a little plastic Nemo fish. Now we can say we were in his back yard "Finding Nemo".


We ended up our night at this famous place:

Gary, you will be impressed. We even scored some of the hats that the cooks wear as a souvenir.

Walmart, Laundry & PA

It is most exciting every nite to sign on and see who has left a comment on my Blog. Thanks for looking at our daily journey thru pictures, and thanks for leaving a few words. And the rest of you that are lurkers - LEAVE A COMMENT.

Today was not too exciting - A trip to Walmart first thing in the morning before leaving the Buffalo area. I think that the Garmin NUVI is one of the greatest inventions of all time. There is NO way I would be able to navigate myself thru these cities & towns, but Garmin does it effortlessly. I tell Garmin that I want to go to a Walmart, and before you know it, we are "arriving at destination!"


Cheektowaga, New York - I'm not sure how you say it, but there you go.

After the Walmart trip, Garmin found us a place to do laundry. So between Walmart & laundry, it was about 1:30 pm when we finally got on the road today.

We drove west on I-90 to Erie, PA, then south on I-70 to Pittsburgh. As we were nearing Pittsburgh, dad mentioned that the first town he served in on his mission was just outside of Pittsburgh, a town called New Kensington. I thought it would be fun to drive over there to see if he recognized anything. Well he surprised me, he could even tell us the address of the home where he lived, 530 5th Ave, New Kensington, PA. So I plugged the address into Garmin and away we went. The whole area is quite hilly, and really heavy wooded. Little towns down in each valley. I thought it was really pretty. We found the house, it was still standing, although it is in kinda a slum part of town. The house looked good, compared with others in the neighborhood. Dad said there had been some work done on it, new siding, new porch - a lot can happen in 60 years. After that he directed me to another part of town - up a steep hill. Dad said they spent a lot of time tracting those homes. The homes up there were again older, but well kept up & just beautiful. It still looked like a wealthy part of town. I drove up & down several streets just looking at how pretty they were - all with beautiful yards as well.


530 5th Ave. New Kensington, PA

Here's one more picture I like - I should have posted it last nite, because it is a picture taken while we were at Niagara Falls. We went into a little shop, they had all these crazy hats. I thought this one was so funny, & had Kimball try it on. He said he would wear it, so I bought it for him and it is now following us home.


deluxknitwear.com

Westward Once Again

I haven't had time to post the past two nights, because we have had some late nights - I will hurry and throw a few pictures on today. We spent a couple days in the Palmyra area, Yesterday we finished up our Palmyra visit and hung out at Niagara Falls.

Sacred Grove- lots of trails. I don't think it is possible to get lost in there though.


Palmyra Temple- We went there and did a session yesterday morning. Small temple, but very beautiful. Wonderful stain glass windows. One clear window inside that looks out over the Sacred Grove.



Niagara Falls


Cheryl, Kimball and I went on the Maid of the Mist. It was so much fun - we were drenched from the head down. The blue poncho's helped keep the middle of us dry.


Kimball saw this sign & thought it was funny. Bad things happen here if you take condiments from the Oriental food place without purchasing food from them.

"Look Ma, Soft Hands!"

I have decided what todays title will be, the pictures will be forthcoming, because they haven't been taken yet!

Ok, I am starting this at 12:31 a.m. I am very tired, but I will post a few pictures & words before the end of my day.
If I were to ever decide to move back here, there would be one reason: You don't need lotion. I love it. Cheryl and I rub our hands together all day long and are amazed at how soft they feel. It is grand.


We left Ohio and past into two different states today. Woo Hoo! It's a rule to stop and take a picture:





We arrived at the HIll Cumorah at around 2:30 pm. I thought we would just to and put some blankets on chairs & them come back later, but we decided since we had pretty good parking to just stay and hang out for the rest of the day. It was a long day - the pageant doesn't start until 9:15 pm. But we went over to the visitor's center and enjoyed the air conditioning along with a tour & movie, sat in the shade and ate a chicken dinner that we purchased from the Lions & Rotary club.... Sat & watched people & listened to conversations. The time actually went pretty fast.

Here's the Hill:


Some of us took the foot path to the top of the hill. Nice view, plus we got to see Angel Moroni up close


The last couple of hours we were entertained by the cast wandering around talking to the folk. Here is Ishmael, talking to Cheryl, Grandma & Grandpa:

Verse most often used today: "That's so Cute"

Longaberger, day two. Now we can say "we've been there, done that!" Spent this morning back over at the Homestead (basket making place) and then the shoppe's (notice fancy spelling) at Dresden. Mom & dad mainly sat & waited for us, Cheryl & I cruised along as fast as we could. I was looking for a fabric liner for a basket I bought yesterday, I did find one in the very last store that I went into in Dresden. Kim & family went and did something else this morning, they caught up with us around 1:00
Nice, my eyes are closed.

Longaberger home office, just outside of Newark, Ohio. We parked & went inside & took pictures. It was beautiful inside. Big open entry that you could look up - clear up to the top of the basket.


We met up with Kim & his family once again at the Velvet Ice Cream factory. I forget what the down was called, it was north of Newark. Went on a rinky dink tour and treated ourselves to wonderful ice cream afterwords.


I had raspberry fudge cordial, and Buckeye Classic


We stopped for a picnic when we got back to Kirtland tonite, because we had about an hour to kill before we needed to be over to the Stake Center for the Musical "This is Kirtland" Here is a group photo -oops, Cheryl and I are missing because we are taking pictures.


I've been wanting to post a picture of me driving this mini van - because I think it's such a crack-up. Me, a mini-van mom. I wanted to be one many years ago, but I passed thru that phase and I am most happy driving a Camry now.