Our Cross Country Adventure, Part 2

Tuesday took us to Omaha, NE. I changed our hotel reservation to a Hawthorne Suites - it was basically a studio apartment - for about the same price as the Super 8 was going to be. That was a good switch. It worked out well. We put Derek's bed in the kitchen. :) It kept him separated from the rest of us well enough. That evening I knew the boys just needed a place to run and play, get some energy out. We went to McDonalds for dinner, hoping the playplace would suffice. Elliott had fun, but Derek couldn't do a whole lot. So, we found a nearby park and just let them play. It was nice.

On Wednesday morning we headed to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. It is supposed to be the best zoo in the country. Surprisingly, the boys kept saying they wanted to be in the car instead of at the zoo. Regardless, we all had some fun. They had a great aquarium, where the sharks swim around you. That was pretty cool. My favorite part was the rainforest. It was huge and awesome. Just walking the dirt trail through the rainforest took a long time. It was really humid in there (as it should be). It was really amazing. There were animals, tons of trees, and waterfalls. It was a pretty impressive zoo.

After the zoo, we drove across Iowa. We spent a lot of time not on major highways, so we really saw lots of farm country. It was pretty and a nice change. We made it to Keokuk, Iowa, which is just across the river from Illinois. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn. We were there for 2 nights, so we wanted something nice. Plus, I got to spend the evening doing laundry. That's what happens when you're living out of suitcases for 2 weeks. They had a nice pool there. I went to Wal-Mart, which was in the same parking lot as the hotel, to get some swim floaties for the boys. They had a great time swimming.

We were really fortunate to have great weather on our trip. We avoided the rain all the times we wanted to do something outside, at least until Thursday. So, we headed to Nauvoo in the rain. It was really neat to visit Nauvoo and see where the early Saints lived and where so much happened in the early history of the church. We took a covered wagon tour to see all of the sites. It was interesting to hear about all the buildings and the people who lived there. After the tour, we went to the Family Living Center where we learned how to make rope, candles, pots, barrels, and more. We even got to make a rope to take home. Derek got to play with the pioneer toys. He was excited to sit on the sheep too. After the FLC, we were able to visit some of the shops. We saw the blacksmith shop, the tin shop, the bakery (where the kids were happy to get a cookie), the post office, and the gunsmith shop. A trip to Nauvoo wouldn't be complete without seeing the Red Brick Store. I am glad we had the opportunity to visit Nauvoo. I am so grateful for the pioneers who sacrificed so much for the truth of the gospel. It was disappointing to not spend as much time in Nauvoo as I wanted. The rain put a damper on things.

Later that evening, when we were back at the hotel, Elliott said, "I thought we were supposed to see the rocking horse." I felt terrible. He read in The Friend about the rocking horse that John Taylor made for his son and went back to Nauvoo to get after starting their exodus. We forgot to visit the John Taylor home. We made a special trip back to Nauvoo the following morning before heading to Carthage. I didn't want Elliott remembering that he went to Nauvoo but didn't get to see the rocking horse. He was happy to see it. We even got to take a picture next to it.

Carthage was amazing. It was a special experience to be able to visit the Carthage Jail and see where Joseph and Hyrum were martyred. We watched a video at the visitor's center before taking the tour of the jail. It was neat to be able to go into all of the rooms and see what it was like. We learned things we didn't know before. There was a very special Spirit at the jail. I'm glad we were able to have that experience together.

Elliott is standing in front of the window Joseph fell from as well as the door with the bullet hole from one of the bullets that hit Hyrum.

We were very surprised to see 3 different people that we know at Nauvoo and Carthage. Brent saw someone from the MBA program at Nauvoo. He didn't know him well. I ran into my old roommate Alison and her family. They were there for a friend's sealing the next day. At Carthage, we saw the Shirts family, another MBA family, on their way to OH for an internship. Who would have thought we'd run into anyone we knew in Nauvoo. We randomly saw the Shirts again the next day at a Service Plaza off the Ohio Turnpike. Crazy.

After Carthage, we made our way across Illinois. A friend told us about an awesome candy factory in Merrillville, so we made a small detour to check it out. It's called the Albanese Candy Factory. It was totally worth it. We got there in the early evening, so the factory itself wasn't really busy, but we were still able to see them making some candy. We also saw the robots sorting and boxing things. It was fun. The candy selection was incredible and delicious. We chose a few things to buy and then enjoyed eating them in the car. The gummy snake was pretty cool. It was 27" long for only 99 cents. Elliott picked out chocolate covered Oreos. They were delicious. Everything else was too. That night we stayed in Elkhart, Indiana (about half way through Indiana) at the Comfort Suites.

On Saturday we finished crossing Indiana and went to the eastern border of Ohio, where we stayed in Youngstown at the Comfort Inn and Suites. The hotel was the nicest because it actually had a separate bedroom. Of course it was the most expensive, but by that time in the trip we needed something nicer. :) Ohio was the most boring of all the states we drove through. There wasn't any variety to the landscape. We were just on the I-80 the whole time. There aren't really even normal exits on the turnpike. There are just service plazas you can stop at to eat or get gas or whatever. We were planning on swimming at the hotel that evening but then found that the heater on the pool was broken. Elliott and Derek didn't want to get in once they felt the water with their feet. I was glad because I sure didn't want to get in an unheated pool. We took the Wii along, so Elliott got to play for a while instead of swimming.

On Sunday we finally made it to Pennsylvania. We drove across the entire state. We live about 30 minutes from the New Jersey border. The drive was beautiful. There was almost nothing but forest the whole way. It was so pretty. We drove through the mountains to get from I-80 down to our new house. It was a nice drive to finish off our adventure. We were so happy to arrive. It was a long 9 days in the car. The boys did surprisingly well. Most days there was a little bit of complaining and/or crying, but really not too much. Saturday was Derek's worst day. It was his birthday and I'm sure he would have rather not spent the day stuck in the car. He cried for an hour or two, but we all survived. He did better again on Sunday. The boys spent their time coloring, reading, and watching movies. Elliott had some workbooks to do as well. Our friends, Mike and Lis, gave Elliott a fun bag of stuff to do and yummy treats to eat along the way. He loved it. Thanks! Brent listened to a 20+ hour book on CD and I read a new book called Mistborn. We all had things to do to pass the time. It was really nice to be out of the car when we finally got here. We had a good trip, but I'm not looking to do it again anytime soon.