Day 22/23 - Journey to & thru Nauvoo

Our journey to Nauvoo, I believe, will be an unforgettable/memorable one. Our first night we got to North Platte, Nebraska. The only place open was a Days Inn. It was probably in the top 5 scariest motels I have ever stayed in! I didn't even turn on the lights much because I didn't want to find what was lying under the shadows of the night! When we walked down the hall to our room just about 5 feet past our door they had the hall blocked off with plastic with a warning for asbestos. Seriously! Not a good sign!The next morning all was revealed when the shadows were swallowed by the light of the morning. Ya... I could have down with seeing all the stains and bugs on the floors, beds, and walls. Not so many bugs but still more than 5. UGH!

It was another day of rain. Driving east into and with the storms is NOT FUN! Again, I felt so grateful Cheeto was driving! About half way through Iowa we hit some nasty nasty thunderstorms. There wasn't much shoulder to the roads and we didn't feel like it was safe to pull over. The rain had flooded most of the fields on the roadside and we couldn't see what was road and what wasn't. Cheeto was right not to just pull off to the side like so many did. We came across a REALLY bad motorcycle meets truck and trailer accident. I was glad a movie was holding the kids attention! I saw the motorcyclist and it was nasty. Plenty of good samaritans and just curious people had stopped and were trying to shield his body from the rain with jackets and blankets. We drove about 3 more miles, which seemed like an eternity, and found an exit. There isn't much in the backwoods of Iowa! We found a vacant parking lot to wait it out some. We called Lettie and she sent us a picture of the storm. It was entirely red! NOT GOOD! Cheeto felt like we just needed to keep pushing forward because if we stopped too long we would drive back through it very quickly. So after a quick snack from the cooler, we pushed onward. We didn't even go a mile when we found that the road the GPS was taking us was flooded big time. Cars were backed up and one idiot had tried going through it and got until the water was up past his windows. (some people!) This is when I was incredibly grateful for the GPS. We drove on some crazy back streets but eventually found our way through this small town. What should have taken us about 45 minutes to drive took us 2+ hours. We had a non-fundable reservation waiting for us in Nauvoo, so we had no choice but to keep going. By the time we got to Fort Madison, which is just before you cross the river into Illinois, we were starving and exhausted. The first place we saw to eat was Pizza Hut. We were desperate enough to eat there. It was a good thing to! Cheeto took the boys to the bathroom. While I was waiting for them and to be seated, a family with some couple missionaries walked in behind me. I figured they had to be serving in Nauvoo. So I asked them some information that could help us get a start in the morning. They then informed me that Nauvoo was entirely without power and had been for hours. This was the first place they saw that had power to eat. That explained why it was packed. We got there just in time. I went through all the emotions and stresses over what we were going to do if our "inn" in Nauvoo was without power where we were going to stay. The bakery across the street runs the reservations for the inn. But once they close you are on your own to get checked-in and such. I called but no one answered. It was non-refundable so we had to stay there with/without power. It wasn't like we have never been without power. It's been very rare occasion for the kids but I grew up with the power going out frequently. It wasn't a big deal. Well, after many silent prayers that had been answered throughout the day, I decided one more was in order. One more little blessing... PLEASE! I felt loved that day. Our Heavenly Father held Cheeto's hands for many hours driving through that awful rain, hugged me when Cheeto couldn't, kept our children and ME calm and happy through those many hours of stressful driving, and again when we drove across the river and found the power had returned!

Our night of "residence." There are only a couple of hotels in Nauvoo unless you stay across the river. I found this house that was converted into an inn. I thought it would be fun for the kids to stay somewhere that wasn't a hotel for one night. You are basically on your own to clean up after yourselves but cook and do whatever you want. When we got there another family had dinner cooking in crockpots and sitting down to dinner, LATE- I might add. The powerless evening had caused delayed crockpot cooking. :) We visited for awhile. They asked if we were the owners of the van with Carolina plates. They were from Greenville, South Carolina. They had church the same time as we did so they were touring the next day just like us and were going to drive straight through in order to get to church the next day. The wife had served in the same mission as Kyle and was there the same time as well. They were BYU fans, which made C smile. :) AND they stayed in the North Platte dives the night before just as we did. Crazy small world we live in sometimes!

It was a neat place to take the kids! We will definitely go back and stay there again our next time driving through as we go west again!

So nice seeing daddy in the pictures again!

We found 3 out of 4 kids sleeping crazy the next morning. Not sure how this is even comfortable! I swear I took a picture of A1 but not sure what happened to it. She was sleeping with her head off the other end of this hide-a-bed.

Not sure what happen that made K resort to the floor for sleep. He was sleeping in a nice big queen sized bed with C. C might have kicked him.
Who knows!

C was the only kid that was in the same place as we left him the night before. IN BED!

Breakfast!

I have been reading Harry Potter to the boys all summer. C was so excited to show us there was closet under the stairs. It had a lock on it too, just like Harry's. :) C was bugged that everyone jumped in the picture with him.
They charge for a couple and then add $8 per additional occupant. I didn't want the pay for the room with 4 beds. We didn't need 4 beds. The lady said that this room just wouldn't fit a family of six. I know she wasn't thrilled about doing it but she gave us this room anyway. It was just as big as a regular hotel room. It was perfect! Cheeto was doing the last walk-through checking for left behind items when I wanted to take a quick pic.
Not sure what he was doing when I took the picture.

Last temple visit of the trip.

Prairie Rings!

We had John Taylor on sonar. Everything they could take a picture by they did. :)

A2 wouldn't leave this monument until we took her picture too.

Our personal family Nauvoo brick from the brickyard.

Having a arithmetic lesson in the Nauvoo school house.
C, the back row type of student... just like his father! :)

The rocking horse. I'm sure many know the story but for posterity sake I'll summarize again. John Taylor carved this rocking horse for his son. His son adored this rocking horse. When they had to leave Nauvoo the horse was left behind. After miles of traveling, President Taylor noticed how sad his son was. His son finally told him that he was sad to leave his rocking horse behind. It takes the right kind of father to do what President Taylor did. He left his family and walked back to their home in Nauvoo to sneak in their house to get the horse. It was a very dangerous act of love. K loves that story and had waited a long time to see the actual horse.

John Taylor's son's bedroom

At the end of the tour, the missionaries asked if we would like to sign the family ancestry book. We said, "OF COURSE!" C and K signed for themselves.
I helped Sassy and signed my name as well as A2's.

These sisters were a blessing to us that day. When we had gotten to the John Taylor home there was a sign on the door that said it wouldn't be opening until noon. We decided to walk around and see a few other places and see what time it was when we finished. Of course, with little kids it didn't even take and hour to see the other sites. These sister missionaries were in the printing press next door. I explained that we were traveling from SLC to North Carolina and didn't have much time to spare. The graciously said they would close the printing press and open the Taylor home to us for a personal guided tour. K had been talking the entire trip about getting to see the home. I would have felt awful if we couldn't have seen it.