Going west-Home

Wednesday---Oct. 8th, 2014


Here is our apartment when we walked out to leave.

                       


This is our  wonderful kitchen..
We had so many cupboards that we couldn't fill them all..   We also had the washer and dryer in the kitchen...

Down at the end where the table was, was the best because we could watch the deer come up close to the patio and we could watch the turkeys and squirrels..

To the right I took the picture looking toward the front room from the back door. It was a very long kitchen and it was so  homey...

Looking at the length of our Kitchen...

This was our bedroom below...

To the right was two large closets for our cloths, awesome!!

 I loved the picture of the Mississippi River that hung above our bed...

We really felt blessed because of the beautiful place that we were able to live in at the end of our mission.  Here is our front room with Elder Harris seating on the cough.

We are packed up and ready to travel on our trip to the west. 
We drove past the Pioneer Pastimes.  Here is some pictures.

Here is a small log cabin that children can dress up and play house.The girls really enjoy this area, on the other side of Pioneer Pastimes is a small school log cabin which the boys dress up and enjoy.  You also can play pioneer games which I learned to play them all.

We are driving down the Trail of Hope for the last time and to see the Mississippi River to say good-bye.

We past this wagon that is by the Mississippi River where the pioneers went across the river on a cold winter day.

Here is Elder Harris 
saying good-bye to the Mississippi River and our fun times we've had in Old Nauvoo.

 We had never put our feet into the water so I reached down and touched the water with my fingers.

 

We are loaded with everything in the trailer and in the back of the car.  We are on the road again leaving to go out west, home!!

We drove to the Red Brick Store to buy my last gifts I wanted.

We bought a hurricane lantern and the large plate, saucer, small plate, and salt & pepper shakers that were called "Willow" which was the dishes that Emma had in the mansion. They are blue and I just love them.

As we drove onto 96 road leaving Nauvoo we say good-bye to these geese that have been on this grass when they were babies and have grown up ready to fly away. They are so fun to watch. They know they should not go on the water because it is duck season and the hunters can't shoot them if they aren't on the river and they are save on the grass, they're so smart.

We went west  though out the day and after about 2 hours we stopped at Pella, Iowa.  This is the tulip  place of the states.  We weren't able to go see all the tulip display in Aug. or Sept. but we did stop and see the cool large wind mill and the town.  Here are some pictures..

This is the entrance into the Vermeer Mill/Mall...It was neat!!

Here I am at the entrance to the Mall.. Elder Harris right next door at the Wind Mill Historical Village Museum. We didn't go inside because we needed to get on our way...

As you can see it was a beautiful sunny day.






Here are some more pictures around the mall.

We walked around the town and found this really neat place so we sat on a bench and listened to the music when you look up in the window their were these cute dutch people dancing...

Here is where the curtains open and the dutch people dance, it was very clever!!  

This flower arrangement to the right was behind the bench where we sat. What a wonderful atmosphere as we sat and relaxed. The clock says 3:05 p.m.  

 


As we walked through the town back to the car we past these beautiful flowers and the Tulip sign.  This town is well known for their beautiful Tulips in the season.

We are on our way to Council Bluff at arriving about 7:00 pm. We couldn't find Winter Quarter Temple so we ask for help and they sent us on a street that we drove and drove and we never saw the Temple.  We were in the country and decided to turn around but it was hard with the trailer.  The road was narrow and we had to turn off on a road and turn around in someones yard.  On our phone we found a Motel 6 so we put it on the gps but it sent us all over the place and we were lost. Dark, tired and decided to just get on the Free way 80 and leave but ever road we went on their was not a ramp to get on the Freeway.  Jim was really getting up set so he went into a store and ask how to get on the Freeway 80.  I had found a way how to get on when he came out and the Freeway 80 was right close to us. So we got on the road and just left without seeing the Winter Quarter's Temple. What an experience we had.  We thought if we could find the Motel that we would get up in the morning and go see the Winter Quarter's Temple. I guess it was not meant to happen. Their was road construction and I saw the Motel 6 sign as we past the exit and we were so happy to be on the Freeway we just said forget it!! We drove to the west side in Omaha and we stayed in a pretty good motel and by the motel was a Cracker Barrel Restaurant and I bought a really cute Christmas Village. In the morning we had breakfast there and was on the road again. This was all done on Wednesday Oct. 8, 2014. Long Day.....

Thursday Oct. 9, 2014

We are driving to Cheyenne, Wyoming. We got there in time to find a place to stay. All we saw all day was corn fields and more corn fields, lots of farm land but not a lot to see. We saw a Motel 6 so we went to it but I didn't like what it looked like, Jim said "let's go see it anyway." The whole place looked so dirty and the one man behind the desk was talking to the other man about the room would be $55.00 dollars and didn't act like he even knew we were there.  We had been waiting for a while.  Jim looked at me and said," Do you want to go and I said Yes!!" So we walked out.  There were signs everywhere that said, " We are not responsible for anything that was lost or stolen." With our trailer full and car we decided we would go somewhere else, I didn't have good feelings about this place anyway.  We drove under a railroad track to a Super 8 Motel.  It looked like a nice clean place. 

We walked about 3 blocks looking for a place to eat. We didn't want to drive the trailer to a place to eat anyway.  It was windy and felt like rain was coming but we still walked, it felt good to get out of the car and walk somewhere. The food we had was really good.  After walking home from the restaurant their were trains going up and down on the tracks by the road and blowing their whistles.  O Boy, that was a bad sign...We had trains traveling all night long ever hour blowing their whistles.  I won't miss the trains when we get home to Blanding.

Friday  Oct. 10, 2014

We had a good breakfast at the Super 8, Waffles and orange juice and on the road again to Laramie, Wyoming.   We stopped for a short time and on the road again. We stopped at Rock Spring for lunch, Taco Time then drove to Evanston, Wyoming. We stopped for gas and a snack then on the road again to Kisti and Matt's home for the night. It was 4:00 O'Clock at this time and we arrived at their home between 5:50 or 6:00 pm. 

Sister Harris went with Kisti-Jo to one of her Laurels Wedding Reception and it was amazing. Her father paid a pretty penny for that Reception.

Saturday  Oct. 11, 2014

We had a fun time playing with the Grandchildren we hadn't seen for about one year.

Sunday  Oct.12, 2014

Kisti's ward had their Primary Program today and she really wanted us there because it was Jens' last time since he is advancing to the Young Men's Program.  Kisti's family also sang a special family song in the program. It was so fun to see Jens, Joey, and Charity sing and they knew all the words.

Thy knew all their parts and said them loud and clear. Their ward started at 11:00 O'clock so we could sleep in a little because in Nauvoo we had to be to church at 8:00 O'clock.  Wonderful special  Sunday.

Monday  Oct. 13, 2014

We started for home today and stopped off at Tami's for a short time then on for the Four and half hours ride to Blanding home.

               WELCOME HOME SIGNS!!

Last Day at the Nauvoo Temple

Tuesday- Oct. 7, 2014

Well, we got up early and read scriptures that just makes the day better.

We went to the Nauvoo Temple and Elder Harris and I did a lot of Sealings which was Elder Harris's family names.  We had a great morning and when it was over I asked a worker in the Temple if we could go up to the top of the Temple since we go home tomorrow.  He said he had time so he went and ask President McArthur if we could and he gave him the key to open the door so we could walk way up high, which would be 72 or 74 steps to get to the top of the Temple.  On the 5th floor is where they do live marriages and sealings.  We had never been on that floor before and he showed us the Sealing Room.  It was beautiful with light lime green chairs that matched the lime green in the carpet.  He also showed us the rooms where children play and the waiting room for family members to wait until they go in the Sealing Room and watch their family be Sealed.  We had never seen any of this before.  We tried to attend the Nauvoo temple once a week and most the time we have completed that goal.

Then he unlocked the door to go up stairs.  As we climbed the stairs you could see the space between all the stairs.  I became a little nervous since I am afraid of heights.  We were up in the square area of the temple; then we were where the bell is.  We were so glad that it was not the time for the bell to ring.  It rings every hour and when it is 8:00 a.m.  It rings 8 times and then 9 times and then 10 times and so on.  Then we climbed up one more level.  Elder Harris and I walked around and looked out the 4 windows that are around by the clocks.   When we looked below us we could see the blue star windows.

As we looked up we could see the top where Angel Moroni would be.  I said I was high enough and was contended to not walk up one more level.  We could look up and see it.

Boy, it was some kind of a thrilled to looked out and see all over Nauvoo and see the Mississippi River and across the river.  We looked all around the temple and saw everything, really cool!!! As we started walking down the stairs my thighs were really sore and so were Elder Harris's.  The temple worker took us over and let us look down the round stairs.   It looked so cool as we looked from the top to the basement which was the baptism floor.  Then we walked down several floors to the dressing rooms.  Our thighs were burning as we walked out of the temple.  The whole experience was so beautiful that we took many pictures outside the temple. It was worth the walk to the top.

I took Elder Harris's picture as we walked down the stairs of the Temple. Here he is waving good-bye.

We were sad this was our last time to be in the Nauvoo Temple since we leave and go out west tomorrow morning, Oct. 8, 2014.  Here is Sister Harris standing in the front of the temple sign.

A young family just got to Nauvoo and offered to take our picture together.  It was wonderful to meet kind people and to have such beautiful flowers on the Temple grounds and Memories of Special  times in the Temple!! We will miss this Temple!!!