On The Road Again....Our Journey to "Zion"

We left on a Monday from North Carolina to make our trek out west. We felt like pioneers without the handcart...thank goodness! Jack stayed behind with Grandma Karla so he could be flown out instead of having to be strapped in his carseat for 40 hours. We missed our Jack but were very grateful that he was not in the van with us...none of us would of been happy! So we headed North from Western North Carolina into West Virginia. The "mountains" were gorgeous! I think it was the prettiest state we saw! I thought they were "real" mountains until we got to Colorado! That afternoon we arrived at the "Holy Land"----The NFL Hall of Fame! The kids had a blast and we enjoyed it too.





Tuesday was a fairly easy driving day. We went from Canton Ohio to Iowa where we stopped and had a wonderful visit with Mark's niece Jessica. I don't know why we didn't take pictures! Her husband is in chiropractic school there in Davenport and it was fun to talk "chiropractic" with them for a while. Along the way we did see Norte Dame and that was pretty cool. Iowa is not a place I would want to live, but our stay there was nice. The hotel was on the Mississippi River and it was neat. We actually stayed in Le Claire Iowa, about 2 hours from Nauvoo.


On Wednesday we spent the morning in Carthage Jail and in Nauvoo Illinois and headed down to Kansas City that afternoon. Carthage was amazing! The spirit was so strong and the kids really enjoyed the narration about the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Nauvoo was also really cool. We visited several little places in the town, saw an interesting movie about Joseph Smith, saw the temple, and saw the spot by the Mississippi River where the saints left Nauvoo to go west. What an amazing sacrifice they made to leave their beautiful temple to go into the unknown! They had amazing faith! We got to Blue Springs, Missouri that night and had a lovely home cooked meal with Anne and Jay Leake, some friends of ours. The kids went over to my best friend from Missouri's house, Jennifer Noland, and played with her four boys while Mark and I had a wonderful visit with Jennifer and her husband Eli. The Leakes let us stay at their house and they were so kind! I forgot to take pictures of our dear friends! Sorry guys!







Thursday we went from Missouri to Colorado. It was probably the most boring driving day because we went through Kansas. We did get to see "Arrowhead Stadium" where the Kansas City Chiefs play. Luke was born there and that's his favorite team. When we got to Colorado Springs that night, Mark's brother Brian and his wonderful wife Mindy and daughter Krista fed us a great dinner and let us stay there for the evening. Their oldest daughter Marissa came to chat with us too and we had a great visit with her. Mark and his brother look a lot alike and they had a great "brother bonding" experience while we were there.



Our final day we drove from Colorado Springs to Utah. If I would of known the route we were going to be taking, I would of had my pharmacist friend Melissa hook me up with some valium! I'm not kidding!!!! We drove on 70 and it takes you over mountains that make the Smokeys look like ant hills. The road felt like it was teetering off a cliff and I was terrified! I literally put a pillow over my face and laid down in the back seat. I almost had a panic attack FOR REAL! But we survived and I will never go that way again. We did get some gorgeous pictures. We arrived after a long day relieved and a little tired. I will post pictures of the house and our latest adventures soon.