Well everyone, we've reached the "back again" portion of our tale. It feels so strange to be writing this from home, and I keep thinking that there's so much more we should have done and seen; in fact, I had a dream last night that involved us turning around and heading out on yet another road trip. Of course, in my dream we didn't have to deal with pesky things like no air conditioning and massive heat waves. Or spiders. I really hated the spiders. We'd set up camp and less than an hour later the trailer crawled with eight-legged creepy-crawlies. You should have seen me helping put down the trailer at Bob and Beth's; there were so many webs and spiders on the trailer I couldn't figure out how to put the thing down and avoid touching them at the same time. In the end, Dad came to the rescue with the broom and, though I twitched like mad whenever I thought I saw movement, I helped get it down.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Since we got home from Williamsburg so late on Saturday night, we decided not to worry about packing up and putting down the trailer until after church Sunday morning. We drove twenty-five minutes to the same ward we had attended the week before, and we got to hear some wonderful talks about the pioneers and missionary work. There was a special spirit in church as we celebrated the sacrifices of the pioneers and the continued power of missionary work. I had completely forgotten that it was the 24th of July (Pioneer Day), and it wasn't until Sacrament Meeting that it clicked. Jaye had forgotten as well, and when Dad reminded him that the annual breakfast at Elkridge would be held the next morning, he got a little upset. ("But I've never missed the breakfast before in my entire life!") If he could have, I believe Jaye would have given up the last week of our trip just so he could be back in North Logan for the breakfast, parade, and our little family BBQ. But, though we missed celebrating Pioneer Day with all of you, we were able to celebrate our heritage in an amazing way in Nauvoo. But I can't tell you about that quite yet. Quit distracting me!
After Sacrament Meeting, we made it back to the Cottage and packed everything up without incident. Bob and Beth made us a wonderful Last Supper (err, lunch). Their home is so beautiful (and air-conditioned) and they were such wonderful hosts that I'm sure I wasn't the only one who had mixed feelings about leaving. But all good things must come to an end, and after just one more picture and several goodbyes, we drove away late Sunday afternoon. (By the way Uncle Bob, if you guys are wondering where that red D.A.R.E waterbottle came from, that's mine. I somehow saw Jaye's Steelers hat tucked away on the floor by the chair but completely missed my bright red waterbottle sitting out in plain sight.)
It only took us a little over three hours to reach Hagerstown, and, apparently having forgiven us for ignoring her for most of the trip, Ms. "G" led us straight to the KOA. (Although she seems to have gotten a little more demanding; she tells us three times instead of twice now when we have to turn.) I admit I wasn't too optimistic about this one to begin with, but we got a spot in the shade, and, lo and behold, the bathrooms were clean, air-conditioned, and spider free. Yes! So we set up camp, Dad cooked us a wonderful supper, and then we headed to Antietam (dragging Jaye by the heels, might I add, because he didn't want to stop reading long enough to go sight-seeing. Since when does Jaye not want to go see a battlefield?...) Anyway, we got to the visitor's center just as it was closing, so we just walked around to the different monuments and read about the battle itself. I had no idea that it is considered the bloodiest battle in the Civil War; 23,000 soldiers died there, and thousands more were wounded--all within 12 hours. Sobering, to say the least. You'll get to see the pictures at the end of this post, but we got there just as the sun began to set, so even though it felt sad, it looked beautiful too.
That Sunday night we all had a hard time sleeping. It wasn't as hot as it had been in Williamsburg, but I don't believe it ever left the 80's, even in the small hours of the morning, and there really wasn't any breeze to speak of. Jaye and I got along well enough because we had fans blowing directly on us, but Mom and Dad's fan wouldn't cooperate and so they had a really tough night, I think. You may have heard this before, but it needs to be repeated: Poor Mom! Poor Dad!
But we survived and morning found us, yet again, hitching up the trailer and driving down yet another road. Our trip really did turn out to be a lot like the Lord of the Rings; anyone who has ever read those books knows that an unhealthy portion of them is devoted to the mundane monotony of travel. At least I don't spend pages and pages describing the landscape (mostly because I slept through a good portion of our drives. Hey, it's a coping mechanism. You remember Jaye, right?). Oo! Speaking of Jaye, this was the only portion of the trip where Jaye suffered from car sickness. You know, I should have known something was up when he stopped talking and stopped watching his video. Thank goodness he asked Dad to pull over when he did! He made it out of the truck in time, and really at this point I have to add a hint of admiration to the narrative. Not five minutes after he'd puked his guts out, Jaye hopped back in the truck, announced "all better" very brightly, and picked up right where he left off. The kid didn't even skip a beat.
Moving on. We made it to the Baker's home in Bellefontaine, OH (and remember, Dad, no matter how it's spelled, the locals still pronounce it, and will continue to pronounce it, "Bellfountain") a little before dinner time and with no more puking incidents. I can't remember what exactly he said now, but as we drove up the lane to their house, Jaye saw the chickens pecking around the yard and said something like, "Those things don't bite, do they?" Apparently it's not the big guard dogs you have to watch out for--those chickens will get you every time.
Despite the killer poultry, we got out of the truck (Jaye carrying his musket) and greeted the Baker family. Of course I love Bethany and I was super excited to see her again, but there is just something so wonderful about her family. You can't help but smile and be happy when you're around them, and it's sometimes a little creepy how alike our two families are. In fact, I was up in Bethany's room catching up with her (and stealing one of her books to read) when I heard someone singing out in the yard. Immediately I shook my head and said, "Really, Jaye?"
"Not Jaye," said Bethany, "that's Johnny!"
Sure enough, we looked out the window and saw Beth's 20(?) year-old brother heading to the car and singing at the top of his lungs. Seriously, he sounds just like Jaye (only with a much better-trained voice. He did major in music for a while). Until that moment, I never believed Beth when she told me just how much Jaye sounds just like Johnny did at that age. Poor Beth. Poor me.
So I got to meet Beth's little (if you can call 6'7" 'little') brother, Johnny, and her uncle Chaz. We also got introduced to all the animals, and then while Beth and I attempted to make a cherry pie and mostly just made a mess, Mom helped Mama Baker prepare dinner and Dad went grocery shopping. After dinner I shadowed Bethany while she milked the goats (I sooo wish we could have convinced Jaye to try it, but as soon as Dad mentioned that Jaye might benefit from the experience, he mysteriously disappeared) and then I watched Johnny exercise one of their horses for a while. I wish we could have stayed with them another day! But since we had a long drive the next day, everyone else went to bed early, leaving me, Bethany, and Johnny to entertain ourselves into the wee hours of the morning. I swear we weren't drunk, but Bethany and I seem to bring the craziness out in each other, and Johnny took some rather incriminating footage on his camera phone sometime around 1 o'clock in the morning. Who knew that Bobby-Slide could get so violent?
We experienced a rather wet and misty dawn Tuesday morning, and I, for one, was not ready to leave. But after breakfast we said our goodbyes and headed out as quickly as possible. I honestly don't remember how long it took us to get to Nauvoo. Somewhere between seven and eight hours, I think. Either way, we pulled into the state park before dark, took a good look around, and then promptly drove back out again. I'm afraid the facilities weren't quite what Dad had thought them to be. The bathrooms were a bit of a hike from our camp, and they had almost zero ventilation, spiders on every toilet, and showers with no temperature control that spewed water so hot you couldn't stand directly under the spray. Oh yeah, and no air conditioning in said sauna-like bathrooms. We also found that while each campsite had electricity, the only water was a shared pump a few yards from our camp. Unfortunately, we couldn't find anyone in charge and there really were no other options, so we set up camp anyway. You know, it really wouldn't have been so bad except for the heat, and the fact that we actually needed a good place to cool down and really clean up before we went to the temple. I had the hardest time of it, I think. My body seems to be allergic to the heat, because I immediately began developing heat blisters, a persistent headache, and nausea every night. It makes a big difference when there is literally nowhere to go to get cool.
It should say something, then, that despite all this, we can all say with complete conviction that Nauvoo made the entire trip worth-while. Had we done nothing but go to Nauvoo, we would have counted our trip a success. We decided to spend all day Wednesday touring historic Nauvoo, and then go to Carthage, the temple, and the pageant on Thursday. It turned out to be the perfect arrangement. First thing Wednesday morning we showed up at the visitor's center (one good thing about the state park is that it's less than ten minutes away from historic Nauvoo). We took all the pamphlets and maps that we could, signed up for a wagon ride through Nauvoo at 11:30, and then planned our day. We started out by watching a short video on Nauvoo and Joseph Smith, and then while we were waiting for our wagon ride to start, we drove over to the Family Heritage Center and looked up some of our ancestors. Did you know that Martha McBride became one of Joseph Smith's wives just three months before his martyrdom? This totally blew Jaye out of the water, and he proceeded to tell just about anybody who would listen about our ancestor, Joseph Smith's wife. We looked up several names and downloaded all of their information onto cd's that the Center provided, so if anyone is interested, let us know and we'll provde a copy.
We got back to the Visitor's Center right on time, and we actually became one of the lucky few who actually got to ride, because they shut down all the wagon tours after ours due to the heat. If you ever find yourselves in Nauvoo, I would highly recommend that you start out your visit with their wagon tours. They took us around the town, and a missionary gave us a brief history of the town and the different buildings that we passed. She gave us advice on where to start, what the different buildings had to offer, and different questions to ask while we were there. She read us jokes from the newspaper that was printed in Nauvoo, and told us a little bit about the people who lived there. By the time we got back to the Visitor's Center, we had a good idea of where we wanted to go, and what was closest. I won't go into much detail here about the rest of the day, because I'll fill most of that in when I post the pictures. We had a terrific day, despite the headaches and the heat.
Thursday morning Jaye and I got a special treat; we got to sleep in! Mom and Dad went to the early session of the temple and didn't get back until about 11:30, so we two lazed about the trailer, sprawling under the fans and reading (or in Jaye's case, watching the Three Stooges). We ate lunch as soon as Mom and Dad got home, and then jumped into the truck and headed to Carthage Jail. You'll read more about that when I post the pictures.
After Carthage, we headed right back to Nauvoo so that we could gather up our things for the temple and spend a little time in some of the tourist shops (they're located on the hill behind the temple, along with the rest of non-historic Nauvoo). We only had about 45 minutes to browse, though, because we wanted to get to the temple by 3:30. Mom had found out that just to the north of the temple, they had a place specifically for visitors to use to prepare for the temple. They had showers, bathroom stalls, and an area for make-up/blow drying, etc. What a relief! So we went to the temple early and used those facilities to really wash up and change. The missionary couple overseeing the building became great friends of ours (Jaye especially loved them, and I'll let him tell you a little bit more about them) and they were the ones to tell us (in very conspiratorial whispers) that if we got to the temple by 4:00, we could hear one of the temple presidency speak. Good thing we got there early. What an amazing opportunity!
At this point, I'm not even sure what to write. How does one describe such an event? It is one of the most sacred experiences I've ever had. The temple is absolutely beautiful, and being there with my family gave me the kind of quiet, pure joy that can't be described. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried like a baby, and I want everyone to know that I have never seen our mother look so beautiful as she did that day in her temple white.
After we left the temple, we went back over to the visitor's building and I took a long, cool shower. While I got ready, Jaye and Mom chatted it up with the missionary couple and got some recommendations for a place to eat. We ended up taking one of their suggestions, and went to a small restaurant that had delicious food, freshly made and local-grown (even the meat). By far it was the most relaxing and enjoyable meal we ate in the month of July. The food made Jaye so ecstatic, he begged to return to the visitor's building and thank the missionaries who'd told us about it. Unfortunately, it closed only a few minutes before we got there.
Anyway, we had a little time to kill before the pageant started, so we browsed a few more shops and I am so glad that we did. We found the neatest little store less than a block away from the restaurant. I could have bought everything there! Dad even found the perfect anniversary present for Mom. Right when we walked in the door, we saw a beautiful tapestry depicting the Nauvoo temple with Mom's favorite scripture embroidered on the bottom: "...As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord..." Well done, Dad. Well done.
Anyway, we all spent more money than we should have there, and then we just had time to grab some frozen custard before heading back to the trailer, and then the pageant.
The Nauvoo Pageant may have been much smaller and simpler than the Palmyra Pageant, but we all agree that there was just something special about it that the Palmyra pageant lacked. It seemed much more...intimate. It told the stories of individual saints as they arrived at and lived in Nauvoo. It showed how much they accomplished, and how much they loved the Prophet Joseph. We all cried and laughed shamelessly. It even rained a bit at the end (it felt amazing, by the way. So glad I did not bring an umbrella).
Chelsey had called us a few days prior to this and told us about Chuck's funeral/viewing, and then she mentioned that Jamie was in the pageant and that if we could make it, we should go and find her. "She's wearing a pink dress," she told us. "You can't miss her."
Do you have any idea how many bloody pink dresses there were? After the show, we had about four or five cast members looking for Jamie, and just when we thought we'd have to leave, there she was! She looked wonderful (though half-melted, poor girl). We got to chat with her for quite a while, actually, and I especially enjoyed it because I finally got to talk to someone about Chuck. We all wish we could have been there for the service, but after the temple and the pageant, I feel that we were able to say our own kind of hello and goodbye.
We spent our last night in Nauvoo under the stifling heat of a thunder storm. It poured rain and flashed lightning through most of the night, but thankfully the thunder kept itself to a kind of muted rumble. Mom and I both noticed the difference between thunder storms in the East and West. There the waves of sound hit the earth and then roll outward, grumbling along the hills and flat places like water dumped from a pitcher. Just this last week we experienced a storm here that didn't flash nearly so much, but produced thunder that cracked and reverberated from peak to peak. Eastern thunder actually lulls me to sleep.
Anyway, we got up as early as we could and scrambled to make it out of the campsite by eight o'clock. No more hot, sweaty, spider-infested showers and toilets! If I hadn't been in such a hurry, I might have done a celebration dance. Or lit the bathrooms on fire. Lucky for everyone involved, I restrained myself on both accounts and settled down for the six hour drive to Winter Quarters.
What an adventure that turned out to be! We made fairly good time, until we took the highway that should have led us straight to Winter Quarters. Instead, after about twenty minutes, we hit a detour sign. The roadway had flooded! We had to backtrack for twenty minutes before we could get on another road that would lead us in. Mom kept muttering under her breath about being late and how "a sign before we turned off would have been nice!"
But despite the extra stress, we made it to the Visitor's Center before 5 o'clock, and as soon as we walked in, who should we see? Jessie! Err, Sister Hawkes! Mom relaxed, Dad loosened his stiff muscles, Jaye couldn't stop talking, and I tried my best to wake up (it really didn't go so well). But even through my lethargy, I managed to communicate how happy I was to see Sister Hawkes, and we started a quick tour of the Visitor's Center right away. We had an excellent tour guide, and we all enjoyed it immensely. Sister Hawkes looked wonderful, and she loved hearing all our stories about her family. She told Jaye that Mason had written her a letter and told her how sad he was that Jaye left; now he doesn't have anyone to play with. It's a mutual feeling, since now all Jaye has is a sister who, instead of dying properly when shot, claims she's surrounded by an indestructable force-field. Jaye and I argued about this through two states. Trust me; it's indestructable.
Anyway, Sister Hawkes practically glows, and you can tell that she really loves where she is and what she's doing. Good for her! Unfortunately, because of our detour, we didn't have as much time with her as we would have liked. She had to leave for a meeting, and we had to continue driving for two more hours before we reached our KOA. Before we left, we did take time to walk over to the temple and the old cemetary that sits right next to it. How cool is that? It's an amazing place, let me tell you.
Despite everything, we still managed to make our campsite before dark, and it actually cooled down that night. I'm not sure, but I think it got below 70 degrees. Woo-hoo! And the bathrooms were amazing (meaning air conditioned and clean). What a great way to end our trip.
So Saturday morning dawned, and off we drove. It took us a good eleven hours or so to drive from Nebraska to Utah, but despite my habit of sleeping through our travels, I barely shut my eyes the whole way. The funny thing is that Jaye was the one who'd been talking non-stop about how excited he was to go home, yet he slept more than I did.
I didn't realize it until I saw them again, but the lack of mountains had been a mild irritation, a thorn you don't really notice until it's pulled out. And the sunset! Saturday night as we drove through Wyoming and into Utah, the sun turned the sky a brilliant orange. I breathed in so deep my chest hurt. Every night this month I watched the sunsets and came away with a vague disappointment, a feeling of "not quite finished yet". Once we left the western states, the sunsets all turned shy and slipped away into an apologetic kind of pastel in-between that's neither here nor there. When I saw the sunset on Saturday, I actually said out loud, "Finally!" A sunset you can really sink your eyes into. I missed that!
It was the perfect welcome home present. We drove a couple more hours and pulled into our back lot around 10:30 pm. I didn't even mind when Mom and Dad insisted we put the trailer up and shuttle all the food from the fridge into the house, and I slept the best sleep I've had in a month. Best part? Well, the coolness and the soft bed, of course, but mostly... no spiders!
So now I'm home, staring down the throat of my last blog entry and wondering; first, who in the world would be interested enough in our travels to read this horrendously-long narrative; and second, how in the world am I supposed to end it?
Hmmm. Perhaps the solution here is; I won't.
"In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate." -- Isaac Asimov
No, really. I'm not done yet. Here are all the pictures from the last week of our trek.
Here we all are for the last time at the Cottage. Thank you, Uncle Bob and Aunt Beth for your wonderful hospitality! We loved staying with you.
We were driving to Hagerstown when we rounded a corner and this suddenly popped up out of nowhere. How beautiful is that? One of my seminary teachers told me once that they had to dim the lights of the D.C. Temple because people paid more attention to it than the road. Woops.
Just chillaxin' at the Hagerstown KOA. Notice anything different about our dear old Dad? (Besides the extra grey in his hair?)
Look again. He thinks it's a heat rash (Mom got a little of it too) but just to make sure it wasn't poison ivy or oak, he suggested he test it by rubbing his leg on mine. Naturally I voted against such an act of extremism. Mom sided with me and Jaye didn't get to vote, so I guess we'll never know for sure.
Here we are at the battlefield of Antietam. Apparently it was so named because of the little creek that ran through the area: Antietam Creek. Such a quiet, unassuming place. If it wasn't for all the monuments, you would never know that just a little more than a hundred years ago, the bloodiest single battle in American history took place here.
See that crazy look in his eyes? That's because he has to go to the bathroom. No, really. Dad and I were busy wandering around the battlefield when Jaye suddenly went a little crazy and waved us over. We left much more quickly than we arrived.
Look at how quiet it is! Nothing but rolling hills; trees and farmland. It hasn't changed much at all since the Civil War.
Stopping for lunch on our way to Bellefontaine. We ended up mostly standing while we ate due to all the ants.
All set up at Bethany's place. That's their puppy, MacGuyver. Can you believe that brute is only seven months old? He's a handful, that's for sure.
There's the Baker Gang. Welcome (back) to Ohio!
Oh, those kitties could practically taste the milk!
A little midnight snack. Hey, no judging!
Good morning!
How beautiful is that? Ok, it almost made waking up early worth it.
Dad helping with the morning feeding.
Papa Baker, showing us how it's done. Don't worry, Jaye, these are the non-homicidal variety.
The other guard dog, Brutus. He lives with the goats all the time, and he takes his job very seriously. He growls when a car even slows down on the road that passes by the pasture.
And we're off! We left Bellefontaine and, when we stopped for lunch, Dad found some decidedly unwelcome guests hitching a ride in our trailer: Ants. And their larva. Dad had to open up the trailer a bit and use the broom to forcibly eject them.
All right, at this point I need to stop and start another post. Too much material in one post! So stop here and scroll up to the top in order to continue our adventure.
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