TO ZION AND TO HOME AND BACK AGAIN

I left you dangling in Casper and didn't finish the tale of our trip. We've actually made it to Zion and have been home two weeks. We've gone to one family reunion and are on to a second this weekend. I'll finish the trip pictures soon, I promise. I downloaded them to a thumb drive and I'm having a hard time figuring out how to put them on this blog.

The above picture was taken in Nauvoo at a quilt show. The lady in red is Annie Smith who is a famous quilter. Janeen (aka Laurel according to Annie's website) and I took a class from her and then talked to her for quite a long time afterwards. We could have talked for hours, but Grandpa and Greg were chomping at the bit to get gone to Carthage. She's a member and told us all about other Mormon quilters. We met her husband as well and felt we could all be great friends. They're our kind of people. She even let Janeen and I pick out a free pattern.

The Rufus and Lora Gunter reunion was a lot of fun. The Toler family did an outstanding job which was much appreciated! Uncle Earl was the auctioneer and, as usual, did a great job.

Jay, Carol, Addie (Wes' little girl), Stirling and Wesley. Theron and Ingrid Toler are behind them. I didn't get a good picture of Alan and Linda.

Dawniella entertained herself with her sister's prize from the treasure hunt.

We were promised a "surprise" visit from Reba and Dolly. Can you find them in the picture?

ON TO CASPER

Today we've seen rocks, rocks, and more rocks! These are the rocks at Scotts Bluff. Very beautiful.

These are rocks in the guardhouse at Fort Laramie. What an interesting place.

I had waited for a long time to see the names of the pioneers who carved their names into the rockwall at Register Cliff. I was a little dismayed to see modern carvings as well, but both groups had their own reasons.

This was a display at the Trail Center here in Casper. It was copied from the names at Register Cliff. E Cutler may well have been a relative. I'm going to check.

It was very, very hot here today. Tomorrow we're headed for Martin's Cove.

ACROSS NEBRASKA

Guess where we are? Chimney Rock is so awesome! I can understand why the pioneers were so excited when they saw this famous landmark. We spent our day traveling across Nebraska.

Since we're traveling the Mormon Trail, we're not driving on freeways. Every Nebraska town had cornfields, grain elevators like this, water towers and railroad tracks. We saw so many trains--coal trains and freight trains. They were going both ways.

This picturesque Lutheran Church was part of a large "prairie" museum. It was a wonderful picture of life on the prairie in 1898.


This wonderful little sod house was built for the centennial and is wonderful. They're much sturdier than I'd imagined.
Rebecca Winters died while crossing the plains. A friend of the family scratched her name and age on the wagon tire you see. When Burlington Northern surveyed the land many years later, they found the grave. They re-routed the track and contacted her family who built this lasting memorial to her.

It's been a fun day.

DAYS 12 & 13--INDEPENDENCE & WINTER QUARTERS

This is the beautiful Winter Quarters temple at Omaha, Nebraska. Inside and out, it is reflective of the pioneers. Beautiful stained glass windows are throughout. We thoroughly enjoyed our time here. It is at the site of a cemetery of pioneer graves. Many people died here from the rigors of being expelled from Nauvoo. It has a sweet sacred feel to both the cemetery and the temple. This famous statue is very reflective of what happened here.
We went to the Kanesville Tabernacle in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The missionary couple were very well-informed and gave us a terrific tour.
In this tabernacle, Brigham Young became the second president of the Church and presented to the saints his plans for the trek west.
On Wednesday we spent our morning at the Harry Truman museum and library. The display was very well done and we spent quite a long time there.

We were more fascinated by this guy who was parked in the downtown historic area. He had two great looking Missouri mules which he informed us is the state animal. He has a great business giving tours in this wagon. He was a real character.

Tonight we're in Columbus, Nebraska. They've been having some really strange weather. We drove through a pretty awful thunderstorm to get here. They're warning of severe thunder storms and flash floods for tonight. Tomorrow we're headed for Chimney Rock.

We've gained a great appreciation for this beautiful country of ours. We're impressed with the friendliness of the people. Everyone has been really nice to us. Hope everyone is well.

DAY 11--LIBERTY JAIL AND INDEPENDENCE

This is a life sized diorama in Liberty Jail. It was hard to take pictures in this room. The jail has been reconstructed on the exact spot where it stood, but it is in a huge room. At Liberty Jail, Joseph Smith and the others were imprisoned in this downstairs "dungeon" during a long cold winter for 127 days. The man sitting down was 6'6" tall and the room was only 6'. This picture is of the top floor of the jail. Joseph penned several important sections of the D & C while in Liberty Jail. We were profoundly moved by this site.

These beautiful coleuses were growing outside the Liberty Jail. Wouldn't Mother have loved seeing these?

This is the very interesting nautilus-shaped temple of the Community of Christ church. This temple is across the street from the LDS Visitor's Center and kitty-korner to the Temple Lot church headquarters. The Indepence sites were interesting, but it's a hot place.
We found our way first to Haun's Mill which we couldn't find yesterday. Then we visited the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon monument which marks the burial place of Oliver Cowdery. The first picture is Haun's Mill which was a pretty place for such violence to have occured there. Shoal Creek is really dirty-looking. We saw lots of signs of wildlife and dozens of tiny, tiny frogs! The second picture is the monument.

I've been fascinated with the hay "bales". These big rolls of hay look like huge strips of sod all rolled up. They're everywhere. They pile them along fence lines and in big piles. We haven't seen a harrowbed yet.

It's been very, very hot and humid. We haven't planned tomorrow's agenda, but we're going to have a look at the Harry S Truman museum which everyone has suggested. It sounds like fun. Have a good day. I'm getting really mixed up on my number of days!

DAYS 9 & 10--MARK TWAIN AND FAR WEST

On Sunday, we finished our stay in Nauvoo. We said goodbye to our lovely hostess Lana at the Rufus Abbot B & B, visited a couple more sites in Nauvoo, and did some genealogy at the Land and Records Office. In this lovely home, a seamstress for Sarah Granger Kimball, its mistress, suggested to Sarah that she wanted to make shirts for the men building the temple but had no money for materials. Her idea was the beginning of what is today the largest women's organization in the world--the Relief Society. At the Land and Records office, I found that my great, great grandfather Henry Sisson Richardson owned an acre lot in Nauvoo. It was a wonderful discovery. We then drove to Hannibal, Missouri, which I've wanted to visit since seventh grade when my teacher, Mrs. Whitesides, who had grown up in Hannibal wove her magic tales of Mark Twain.

On Monday we visited a complex of eight sites all related to Samuel Langhorn Clemens aka Mark Twain. This picture is from Mark Twain's house and each room had a glass covering which had a yellow strip of tape to prevent people from hurting themselves, I guess. Each room had a marble statue of the author in various poses with a quote from him.



This was inside Becky Thatcher's house which is being restored. Again there is glass encasing the room. We also visited Grant's drug store, Huck Finn's house, Sam's father's office and the museum which was extremely well done.

Our next adventure was Tom Sawyer's Cave. It was fantastic! I was amazed at the thought that children would play in this cave with only matches to guide them. Our guide was a very funny guy named Brandon who talked like a Missourian. Besides the fictional characters from the book, Samuel Clemens and his "gang", thousands of people have visited the cave as attested to by the hundreds of names written on the walls. Jesse James and his gang hid in the cave and he wrote his name. A man named C E Tucker signed his name several times.

This is in the entryway where the walls have been cleaned to show the true color of the limestone.


This is called Marriage Corner because marriages have been performed here. You can see some of the grafiti. A visitor to the cave saw the name Brady on the wall and did some research and found he was her great grandfather so she came back later and was married under his name.

After we left Hannibal, we drove to Adam-ondi-Ahman which is near Gallatin, Missouri. Here a settlement of Mormon saints flourished. This is a sacred and very beautiful spot.

Our next stop was at the site of Far West where the Saints planned to build a temple. Today you can see the four cornerstones of the temple. The Saints were driven from this place so were never able to complete the temple. This was another beautiful, serene place. It was immaculate even though it is in the middle of nowhere.

We also found a headstone of John Whitmer in a little town and looked for almost two hours for the site of the Haun's Mill Massacre, but didn't find it. We're hoping to do that today on our way to Independence, Missouri, with stops in between here and there.

We've spent the night in Chillicothe, Missouri. We're finding the heat and humidity to be most interesting!

DAYS 6, 7 & 8--THE CITY BEAUTIFUL

We arrived in Nauvoo, Illinois, the City Beautiful, on Thursday about noon. Janeen, Greg and family were camped in the park. We had such a wonderful time. We were in cell phone and computer neverland as reception was poor--no wifi for the computer.

We saw many beautiful and inspiring homes, gardens, and statues. Here Trey posed in the Visitor's Center garden. We've eaten everything we could have including fudge and custard. Janeen and I went to the quilt show and met Annie Smith. She's a wonderful lady! We could have talked for hours, but we had to go to Carthage Jail. We truly enjoyed the wonderful entertainment. Here is a scene from Sunset by the Mississippi. Do you think we could sing and dance if we were called to Nauvoo?

We loved our bed and breakfast! There were three other couples there --one from Brazil who were wonderful. It was beautifully maintained.




The pageant pre-activities were more fun for some than for others!


It's hard to put into words the beautiful spirit which prevails in Nauvoo. To top off the experience, we went today to the Land and Records office and I found some information for which I've searched for years! It just couldn't have been a more perfect three days!

We're now in Hannibal, Missouri. Tomorrow we plan to ride a steamboat, go to Mark Twain sites and explore Tom Sawyer's cave. Hope all of you are well. This is a beautiful statue of two brothers! They are special!

CHAMBERLAIN TO OTTUMWA--DAY 5

Yep, you're right. We were in Madison County, Iowa, today. This is one of the many famous covered bridges. In Madison County, I got to go to Fons & Porter's quilt store in Winterset. This beautiful court house is in this quaint town.

And John Wayne's birthplace. Unfortunately, it was closed which probably saved us some money.

On the way to Winterset, we found the Mt. Pisgah Mormon cemetery where 300-800 people were buried. It was one of the most beautiful, restful places we've been on our trip. The headstones are no longer intact, but there is a beautiful spirit in Mt. Pisgah. It's in a beautiful spot.

We're now in Ottumwa. Someone help me remember--was it Radar or Colonel Potter who was from Ottumwa?

SPEARFISH TO CHAMBERLAIN--DAY4

Day 4 and we're tucked in for the night across the wide Missouri! We're in Chamberlain, South Dakota. We've been more than impressed with the Great Plains! They're beautiful. We were treated to a horrendous thunder, lightning and rain storm as we were leaving Rapid City. It continued until we got to Wall Drug (What a fun place!) and then the sun came out and shone brightly all the way to Chamberlain.

We did the real tourist bit today. First we visited Deadwood. It's famous for:

And wonderful museums, gambling and saloons!

Then we went to Crazy Horse monument and were very impressed. It outshone Mt. Rushmore. My picture of Crazy Horse isn't great. Sorry. This is a replica of what it will look like when finished.

Mt. Rushmore was beautiful! Not exactly what I expected but an awesome undertaking. A group (Brule) was playing at the site. They're Native Americans and their music was beautiful.