A Beautiful Plantation

Today was the day I was looking forward to most on this trip. It was the day we went to Nauvoo. We ended up sleeping in for awhile, and didn’t get out of Iowa City until around 9:00, which was nice. The drive to Nauvoo wasn’t anything special, but it was fun to cross the Mississippi River. A short drive after that, we were in Nauvoo.

It was amazing as we were pulling into the city limits, how there was a different feeling. I think it is because Nauvoo is a special place, even a sacred place. Granted this maybe wanting to feel something because of my Mormon Heritage, but I truly felt something different while I was there. More on that later…

Our first stop was the temple. It is a beautiful temple, probably in my top 5 (Portland, San Diego, Salt Lake, Idaho Falls). We got a couple pictures, but the time of day wasn’t best for pictures from the angle we were taking them at, so we decided to go see the sites of Nauvoo.

We went to the Nauvoo Visitors Center, and after a couple attempts to get Ellie from knocking everything down in the place, we watched a movie on the history of Nauvoo. While the movie was showing, I again felt that strong spirit of the town. (On a its a small world note - the sister missionary who showed us the movie is from Payson, Utah and dated one of the Meservys. Lydia (Meservy) Glod was one of my best friends in high school, who lived about half a mile from me)

Next we went to the Living History Center. This was a place where Ellie could actually play around and not get into too much trouble. We went into the main building and Ellie dressed up like a pioneer, learned how the pioneers made bread, got a candle, and played with dolls. Then we went over to the old bakery, learned how the old bakery worked and ate some gingerbread cookies.

The next stop was Ellie’s favorite. It was a place designed with children in mind. I don’t remember the name of it, but they had toys, and a mini log cabin with a kitchen, and a mini-schoolhouse. Ellie loved the kitchen portion. She dressed up like a pioneer and played with everything in the kitchen. She even “made” me a chocolate pie. Once she finally noticed the schoolhouse, she loved the little bell in it that she could ring. We let her play for quite awhile, before we drove 20 miles to Carthage.

In Carthage we got lunch first, and then I went over to the old Carthage jail by myself, while Mom watched Ellie. I didn’t think Ellie would hold still to watch a movie and go on a tour. So I went alone. It was pretty quiet there. I looked at some of the things in the visitors center and then I saw a short movie on the history of the jail, and Joseph Smith’s final days. Once that was complete, I was taken on a tour of the jail by a sister missionary from North Hollywood with 2 other women. It was interesting to learn that the jailer lived in the jail with his wife and 7 kids, and that the prisoners stayed in one of two cells in the house. I don’t know that I would want my family to live in a jail. Anyway, we went upstairs to where Joseph was shot, and the Spirit was there so strong. I know I am a bit biased since I have grown up LDS (Mormon), but I will never understand why people could have so much hate for a man that taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. How could people have so much hate that they felt the need to murder him. It is truly baffling. What I do know for sure is that I am extremely grateful for him, and for the early Saints.

Once the tour was over I went outside and Ellie and mom were there. We took some pictures, loaded up in the car, and drove 200 miles to Freeport. The drive home wasn’t too bad. The only downer was when Mom told me to ignore the GPS and we took a turn that made us go 25 miles out of our way. However, the GPS ended up re-routing us through the middle of nowhere (i.e. Northern Illinois farmland) and we bypassed virtually every little town until just before Freeport, so we didn’t lose that much time in the long run. I was hoping to see a deer, but we didn’t. On the Brightside, we did experience some thunder and lightning and that was nice.

We got into Freeport, filled the car up with gas, washed the car, and grabbed some dinner. As we were driving from Freeport to Hank’s, the rains came. It was a great heavy rain, complete with more thunder and lightning. Unfortunately it didn’t last very long, and by the time we were pulling into the house, the rain had all but ended.

Once we were home, we ate dinner, packed for tomorrow’s flight, and spent an hour looking for the keys to the Denali we had been driving all week. In case you were wondering they were under the little chair in the living room.

All in all it was a great day, even if it was another long day. We were out and about for about 12 hours, we drove 383 miles, saw 1 temple, had 1 really good thunderstorm, lost 1 car key, and found 1 car key. It’s too bad tomorrow is our last day, but at the same time I am ready to start the next chapter of my life.