Day 1: Draper, Utah through Wyoming to Sidney, Nebraska.
This pretty much sums up our view through the wind shield for most of the trip:
You can see the Corolla that Steve and Allie were driving, the Penske truck that Steve and Michele were driving, a long stretch of road, and a big blue sky. The scenery did change from time to time, but those factors remained the same. Here is a little taste of Wyoming:
Windmills
Tunnel
Rock Formations
The most popular Hampton Inn destination on the planet.
Sidney, Nebraska is home to Cabela's headquarters. We visited the store there, but it was smaller than the one in Draper. I took a picture, but it was pretty dark.
By the way, what is up with these oddly shaped water towers? Maybe I'm the only one who thinks they are odd because it seems to be commonplace across the Midwest. Where I'm from, water towers look like this:
Or they look something like this:
They do not look like this one we saw in Nauvoo (and many other cities):
Nor do they look like this one, which is located in Ypsilanti where we now live:
(In case you were wondering, this building was named the world's most phallic building in a contest held by Cabinet magazine. If you weren't wondering, I apologize for telling you anyway.)
That concludes today's study of water towers. We'll get back to the trip.
Day 2: Sidney, NE to Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs seems like it is basically one city with Omaha, NE. They are on either sides the border between the two states. At this stop, we were able to visit Winter Quarters, the church history site. It was beautiful, but I didn't realize how hot and humid it would be along the Missouri River.
LDS Temple at Winter Quarters
Excuse the poor quality of these pictures of the Missouri River as they were taken through windows. What can you do?
From the car
From our hotel window
Day 3: Council Bluffs, IA to Keokuk, IA
I didn't take many pictures on this drive, but after we arrived in Keokuk to drop off the truck, we drove to Nauvoo and Carthage in Illinois. Again, I didn't realize how hot and humid it would be, but we were right on the Mississippi River this time, so it was.
Nauvoo was really pretty. We visited the Scoville Bakery, the Webb Blacksmith shop, the Jonathon Browning home and gun shop, and the Land and Records office. I think the blacksmith shop is where they told us about making the Nauvoo bricks, which was interesting, and they give you a brick at the end. At the Browning home, they told us about Jonathon Browning's company, and they showed us the tools he used to make his guns. We went to the Land and Records office to look up one of Michele's ancestors who had lived in Nauvoo. It was really cool - they were able to tell her which plot of land her ancestor had lived on so we could go look at it.
Nauvoo Temple
Behind the bakery
View from Browning's back porch
There were so many butterflies on these flowers at the temple grounds. I just thought they were pretty.
This is a view of the Mississippi River from the cemetery at Nauvoo.
We were too late for a tour at Carthage Jail, but we're pretty sure that the window at the top left of the picture below is the one that Joseph fell from.
Day 4: Keokuk, IA to Cincinnati, Ohio
This was a long day. We drove all the way across two states: Illinois and Indiana. There were a lot more corn fields than I was expecting in Illinois. It helped me to understand Children of the Corn and other rural horror movies. There is just an eerie feeling to driving through miles and miles of corn. I can't explain it. This picture pretty much sums up what we saw for most of that day.
We ended up in Cincinnati, where we dropped off Steve and Allie at his parent's house. Day 4 was my birthday, so Steve and Allie had raced ahead of the caravan to buy a birthday cake. It was really nice of them, and the cake was delicious! Steve's family invited us for dinner and ate birthday cake with us. It felt nice to be in a home again, even if it wasn't ours.
Day 5: Cincinnati, OH to Ypsilanti, Michigan
Our new apartment was a short four hours from Cincinnati. I never thought I would say a four hour drive was short, and maybe I never will again. But that day, it felt short. Ypsilanti (pronounced IP-sil-ant-ee) is like Ann Arbor's Orem. The locals shorten it to Ypsi (ip-see). What should be their claim to fame, although I had to read about it on Wikipedia, is that Ypsilanti is where Domino's Pizza was founded. Seriously, Ypsi? This is big stuff - figure it out.
Anyway, we're here, and we're trying to get to know the place better so that when all of you come to visit us, we'll have cool places to take you!
