We spent two nights and one day in Independence. The morning of the 5th found us making ANOTHER long car ride to Nauvoo. We did stop and stretch our legs along the way.
According to my journal, the plan for the day was as follows:
Far West Temple site (we did that. I only have two pictures that survived of it.)
Burial Ground (we didn't do that.)
Joseph & Emma's house & other homes (we didn't do that either.)
Haun's Mill (we did do that. Sadly, none of my pictures survived the great computer glitch, but I do have a funny story I'll share later.)
Adam-Ondi-Ahmen (we did that too, and sadly all of those pictures are victims of the great computer glitch as well. I loved seeing this site. It was so beautiful and peaceful. They had picnic tables and it is where we decided to eat our lunch.)
Outdoor stage "sunset" pre-show & children's parade (we didn't do this one. We got into Nauvoo a lot later than we had originally planned, and were just tired from our long drive, so we planned to do it a different night.)
Sunset by the Mississippi at the outdoor stage (we didn't do this one either for the same reasons as above)
Alrighty then, lets get moving onto the photo portion of our regularly scheduled program....
WEDNESDAY, 5 JUNE 2019
Our first stop along the way was the Far West Temple site. It was a very lovely place, so calm and peaceful. You could really feel the spirit there. As you walked around, you could see where the 4 cornerstones were. We really enjoyed our visit there.
Since the majority of my pictures from this day got lost, we will jump right into episode #4 of "What do 9 kids on a long car ride do?" They take lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of selfies.
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| They take some really weird pictures. I'm still trying to figure out why on this one. |
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| They are goofy. |
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| And I mean REALLY goofy |
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| They try to annoy each other and take photo evidence of it. |
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| They take blurry photos of them goofing off. |
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| King of the neck pillows. |
I've shown some photos of the things that the kids took pictures of out of the windows, but I haven't made it a regular part of the program. I think I've missed a great opportunity. Some of the pictures are right down weird and I've passed them by. But the more I think about it, I should be adding them in so you can get a full taste and flavor of our epic trip. So, I am introducing the next segment of our broadcast, "What did they take a picture of now?" Well, just exactly what do 9 kids take pictures of out of a moving vehicle? Let's find out.
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| Scenery |
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| More Scenery. I believe that's a small cemetery they were trying to get a shot of. |
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| Um....okay!?!? |
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| I think they were trying to get a shot of the Mississippi River |
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| Trees. |
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| Scenery, but too comfy to get out of their spot. |
So................ Do you remember back a few days ago when we started this adventure and I mentioned that we had more than one "incident" on this trip? And how I said we'd talk about them as we came to them? And do you remember how earlier I said we got into Nauvoo later than we had originally planned? Okay, so here's what happened.......
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| We felt a jolt, a thump, heard a noise, and realized that we had lost a tire. |
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| Nathan putting the spare tire on. Those are my legs at the top of the picture. I, doing what I naturally do, was looking for pretty rocks. I found some too. |
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| The kids were all scrambling to see it. |
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| Funny story. As we were leaving to head to our campsite, we did a head count and I swear to you we had everyone. Apparently Tiger Lily dipped to the bathroom and we left without her. Our campsite was literally two minutes away from where we had been. We were just pulling into out campsite when we got a phone call from the Hotel. Tiger Lily hadn't been too scared or worried about being left behind, she knew we weren't too far away. We all had a good laugh about it. |
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| The gave him a birthday cupcake and sang to him |
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| This little guy turned 6. |
Here's where we get to that funny story I promised to share with you. We had just arrived at the Haun's Mill site, parked, all piled out of the D.S.S.V., and were making our way across the dirt road to the park to take a look at the plaque commemorating the tragedy that had occurred there. Somewhere in the back of my head I knew we were in Tornado country and somewhere in the back of my head, I knew they have alarm systems that go off to warn about Tornados. I had cousins that lived in Colorado and I went to visit them every summer. I've heard the alarms go off, and had even been in two different Tornado's myself. And somewhere, in the back of my head I knew that they regularly tested these alarms. But it's not useful to have that information lolly-gagging around in the back of your head and not being useful to the present situation. So, these alarms are huge loud-speaker horns attached at the top of these big telephone pole-like things. They are really loud alarms because the sound of the alarm needs to travel long distances. (I took a picture of the alarm tower with the sole purpose of using it in my blog post, so you'll just have to use your imagination here....or look up a picture of one on Google.)
Now, the one critical thing that none of us noticed was the tornado alarm tower that was right next to the building we had parked by..........
So, picture the scene....... All ten of us, (Cousin R was only with us for part of the trip. Her mom, sister, and brother met us in Nauvoo and she went back home with them while we continued our journey eastward.) Anyway, All ten of us blissfully unaware walking casually towards the park, when all of a sudden, and quite out of the blue................. I believe I may have screamed. I know I jumped half way out of my skin.....and that's saying something because I can't jump.....like literally can't jump. I believe all of the kids screamed, and some turned tail and started heading for the D.S.S.V. My heart was racing like I had grabbed hold of a live wire, or downed an entire Red Bull in ten seconds, or drank an entire pot of coffee. It's entirely possible I thought it was the end of the world. When I realized what the alarm was, tornado panic quickly ensued. Man, I was making a bee-line for the D.S.S.V. and my head, despite not being able to turn very much, was almost owl like in turning every which way to see where the tornado was coming from. After all, we'd had enough rain and wind to make anyone paranoid. The funny part was that at that particular point in the day, it was sunny and cloudless. AFTER I calmed down from that panic attack and when the alarm went silent, and we all stopped shaking, we had a really good laugh. One thing was for sure....I was WIDE awake for the rest of the day!! Can I just tell you how much I love my mountains?!?!?!
It's a good thing I can laugh at myself. And with that, we are finished with the adventures of that day. We shall now skip ahead one year and see just what was going on in 2020
