Family Road Trip--Day 17

Monday, June 8, 2015

Miles Traveled: 207 miles (3830 total)
States Visited: Iowa, Illinois
Cost of Gas: $2.58 (Batavia, IA)
Breakfast: Hotel breakfast
Lunch: Picnic in a park in Nauvoo
Dinner: Papa John's Pizza at Juli's house in Des Moines
Sites: Nauvoo
Lodging: Juli's house

On our way to Nauvoo, we stopped and saw great-aunt Virginia. She is Casey's dad's father's sister. She lives down a winding forested road in Missouri. It was night, and it was, as usual for our drives on this road trip, raining. The GPS was struggling. So we didn't get there until after 9:00, and we couldn't stay long. (We still had to drive to Keokuk to our hotel.) She called over some of her kids and grand-kids to meet us, which was really nice. We talked for a while, looked through some of her pictures, took a picture or two of the pictures, and of the family, and then left.

By the time we got to our hotel, the engine light was on. We assumed it was just more of the same problem we'd already had checked out. So we didn't take it too seriously.

The next day we drove across the Mississippi to Nauvoo. We spent a few hours there learning about life in Pioneer times, including blacksmithing, gunsmithing, brick making, and rope making.

An old fashioned boy. In shorts and flip-flops.

Pioneer Ani

School girls

This ring toss game is so fun, I'd love to get some for my kids to use at home.

We got chased into the home of Brigham Young by a sudden thunder storm that was over in 20 minutes. While there, we took a picture of the utensils to show to the Memphians--Hales and Wilsons both have silverware from their weddings that include three pronged forks, which they affectionately call "threeks." Looky here--- 

Two-ks! (Tooks? Touques?)

My kids kind of freaked out at the toe-like orange fungus fronds growing out of a log. Anika felt nauseated just looking at them. We don't get much fungus in our dessert state.

Everyone had fun choosing themselves a free horseshoe ring that they will never wear.

Back when we were newlyweds in college Casey helped render a 3D computer model of what the Nauvoo Temple looked like before it was destroyed. Since then they have rebuilt it. How cool is that?

When we left Nauvoo we briefly entertained the idea of getting the car checked out. Then we thought we would just do it in Des Moines while we were visiting my sister Juli. Then the check engine light started blinking. And the engine started running rough. And we tried to call repair shops as we were driving to see if any were still open after 5. We had no luck, so we just prayed and drove. We called Juli to say we would be a little later than we thought, and were very grateful when we managed to make it to her house without the engine failing. We had planned to stay in a hotel in Des Moines while we visited Juli, but we worried that the engine wouldn't make it there and then to a repair shop in the morning. Juli graciously allowed us to camp at her little house, annoying her two shy cats in the process.

The first thing that happened after we heaved a sigh of relief at making it to Juli's, was that Clarissa found a pile of bunnies living on Juli's lawn. My kids were entranced!

So then we had take-out pizza for dinner, and then talked with Juli about our trip, and her life in Iowa until bedtime.