I seriously wanted to get to Nauvoo early BUT Michael wanted to go swimming—and of course, partake of the continental breakfast spread (today he had Rice Krispies). The only way I know how to get to Nauvoo is to cross at Ft. Madison. Since it was out of our way, Jeremy suggested using the GPS. Holy cow. Since all the country roads have 911 addresses, it took us on all kinds of rock and dirt roads, through cornfields, etc. once we crossed into Illinois. One road was straight mud! Sure glad we were in an SUV crossover instead of an economy car! One of the rock roads we drove on was no lie, probably used when Joseph Smith was in Nauvoo. When we passed a small inlet with a sign for a quaint bed and breakfast, Jeremy remarked, “Why didn’t we stay there, honey?” I wanted to stay in Nauvoo proper but it has become too touristy that even in the OFFSEASON most places STILL wanted $99 (I’ll take $64 across the river, thank you).
We started our day in Carthage where we went to see the jail where the martyrdom of Joseph Smith took place. They took us on a tour of the jail and the room where Joseph and Hyrum laid down their lives. They play a recording recounting that day that makes me cry every time I've heard it. Jeremy took a lot of pictures since it was his first time there.
A lot has changed since I visited Nauvoo 10 years ago—namely, the temple being there.
I wanted us to get married there but since I only have 1 family member (my brother Carl) who could have actually gone to the sealing and everyone is in Utah, we opted not to. There are also a lot more options for accommodations—when I was there, it was basically the campgrounds and the Nauvoo Family Inn (which has expanded by the way). Now there are vacation rentals, rental cabins, bed and breakfasts, etc.
Michael was not in a good mood today—we went to the gunsmith, school, blacksmith, bricklayer and bakery. He enjoyed the brick, cookie, nail ring and chance to draw on the chalkboards. Other than that, we basically just drove around or looked at the outside of the buildings. He only wanted to go to Pioneer Pastimes (which is closed other than during the summer) and was bummed that pioneers didn’t have swings and slides.
There were a few buses of tourists going around and then some who had finished a session at the temple and decided to visit. I really wanted to eat at the buffet at Nauvoo but because Michael was asleep we nixed that. There was a gas station for sale on the main drag—we thought that would be cool to buy until we saw the Casey’s General Store and Gas Station 2 blocks away.
I told Jeremy to PLEASE turn the GPS off once we crossed the river into Ft. Madison since Highway 2 goes right to Leon where my cousin lives. However, the westbound Highway 2 was closed so we had to pull out the GPS to find an alternate point to catch the road outside the construction zone. We ended up eating our second meal of the day at 6 p.m.—we stopped in Centerville and let Michael have a Sonic kid’s meal (they are EVERYWHERE in Missouri and he kept begging for a pirate toy). Since we wanted something more filling, we cruised the main road and found a quaint place called Jing Jing’s Chinese Buffet.
O.K., you’re probably thinking, a Chinese buffet in a small town in Southern Iowa? Yeah, me too. Apparently, the locals LOVE it—it got busy as we were leaving. They let us bring in Michael’s meal. Right in the middle of the restaurant, Michael said, “We need to pray.” He insisted on us saying it out loud too, bless his little heart. They had crab EVERYTHING—crab with cheese even. Not much for desserts and the salad was lacking but seriously, growing up in Iowa we planned every meal around the meat and a potato or corn anyway. We got to my cousin’s house right at nine—it was a little tough to find her house because it was dark and she had painted the house since my last visit (it is now brown but used to be blue). It was good to visit and catch up—we went to bed at 10 p.m. in preparation for Sunday, the most relaxing day of our trip.
