So we bid a reluctant farewell to Nauvoo at 8:00 am MDT (9:00 am local time). The kids actually said good bye to the temple as we passed. After a short trip east and north, we left Illinois and crossed into Iowa. The bridge was narrow and had some strange, abrupt angles.
This was the second and last time crossing the Mississippi this trip.
After crossing the Mississippi River, we were in Iowa where we would spend most of the trip today.
The kids soon found ways to entertain themselves. Here the girls are making their McDonalds toys into Superdogs with Kleenex.
Iowa is painfully flat. The horizon in some areas is a razor thin, perfectly flat line. And one thing they could really use is an infusion of trees if for no other reason than they could really use the wind break. Once we hit I-80 and headed east, we were bucking the wind. I don't know how you did it, Perigo family.
When we were planning this trip, we had a difficult time making hotel reservations for Nebraska. We were planning on spending LAST night here, but we kept getting the run around on getting a hotel room. When we got to Nauvoo, we discovered that the Woodruff Hotel and booked us for 3 nights, so we decided to stay for 3 nights. And it turned out to be a very good thing. We still didn't get all we wanted to do done. And as we were planning this trip, we couldn't get any information on Winter Quarters on the internet.
So we headed out this morning for the unknown with no hotel reservation. We had no idea where we were going to stay or what we were going to do when we got here. We just hoped to attend the Winter Quarters Temple, see the cemetary and hopefully find some other stuff to do.
As we got near the border (the Missouri River), we started seeing signs for the Mormon Trail and were a little encouraged.
We crossed the Missouri River into Nebraska and knew we were close, but close to what?
Although Google Maps and directions on my Blackberry have served us extremely well this trip (my battery is constantly dead because the GPS is constantly tracking our location and showing me on the map real-time), it was nice that things were well signed when we started getting close. This was especially helpful when we got to a turn and weren't sure because the street sign was missing. These big green signs steered us to our destination.
As we crested the hill, the temple came into view. Then came into view a building right across a side street from the temple that had a Mormon Pioneer Trail Center sign. We pulled in to ask about lodging. (We already knew the schedule and number of the temple because we had looked them up on the Blackberry on the road.) The missionary at the front desk was genuinely excited to talk to us and gave us a discount flier that they had worked out with one of the hotels. I called the hotel right there and made a reservation. It is just a Comfort Inn, but the rate it half what we could have gotten on our own.
Then the missionary called and made reservations at the temple for Jen for the session that was starting in a half hour and one for me first thing in the morning. Jen changed in the bathroom there and walked across the street to the temple. The kids and I watched a video and took a tour of the center. Then we walked across the street to the cemetery where the camera batteries died. I planned to get more pictures of the cemetery and some of the temple. It is definitely one of the smaller temples. Jen said that it is very much like the Reno temple inside. It is cold here. Then we hurried back to get inside the building and hung out until Jen's session was done.
The view of the visitor's center from the temple gate.
This is a statue of parents burying their child in the cemetery behind (in front of) the temple.
Then we checked into our hotel, ordered some bad pizza that took forever, and put the kids to bed. Another successful day on our journey.
What an adventurous day!
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