First Stop on the Journey West

Our first days destination was Nauvoo, Illinois, as we decided that it would be a great start to our adventure if we stopped along the way at some of our LDS Church Historical Sites.

The drive was fairly uneventful, despite my concern for the load of stuff strapped to my car roof, but it held, and we rolled along at a pretty good clip.

However, one thing did annoy me… Mel had a habit of taking the top off of his pop (soda) bottles to drink, and not putting them back on, then drift off to sleep while holding the bottle, and spilling it in front of him. I am not anal about my car, but I was not pleased with the prospect of sitting on a wet seat when he took over to drive.

The first time it happened I startled him awake, when I made a “point” of telling him of my displeasure over his “habit”, and of course, during the remainder of the journey, I kept reminding him to put on the top! I think this started to annoy him....

Keep in mind that Mel is kind of a “rotund” guy, and got sleepy along the way, so he tended to pour his drinks over the top of his belly..........unless of course I woke him up when I noticed a topless beverage....I began to keep personal tabs on the where abouts of his bottle tops, ever fearing that I would glance over and see the liquid pouring out on the front of his shirt!

We made it to Nauvoo prior to Midnite, and got a pretty nice two bedroom suite not far from the Temple and other historical sites, at a pretty good price for midweek and off season.. and we promised to return there one day with our new wives, which we were sure to find when we made it to Utah/Idaho!

In the morning I went out to the car, while Mel took his shower, and when I returned to the room there were these white footprints leading out of the bathroom. With a quizzical tone in my voice, I asked Mel about the suspicious tracks, wondering what in the heck could have caused them.

He shared with me that he always generously used baby powder on his body after showering…this was not a “visual” that I was expecting! But I did find it funny that a guy our age "powdered himself up" and I laughed it off, although I suggested to him that it was not polite to leave powdered footprints on the floor, and perhaps he should conserve the amount of baby powder next time.

We then took a long walk through the historical village of Nauvoo, which for Mel, was a little tough, as he has some health issues, but he was a trooper, and made it back to the motel without the need of oxygen or a ride to the emergency room.

For those of you who are not LDS, this is a very interesting historical period for you to become aware of, as you may not know that the LDS people were driven out of their homes, and even murdered, all because of their religious beliefs. Its hard to believe that these things happened in the United States, a country which was founded on those religious freedoms.

We left later that (Wednesday) morning, and headed to a place little known, even to many of the LDS Faith. It is called the Valley of Adam-ondi-ahman and it is located near Gallatin MO, north of Independence.

This is a spot that according to our Church doctrine, was a sacred place of gathering in ancient times, and will again be a site of special spiritual manifestations in the future.

I had an impression before we got there that we were going to meet someone special, and sure enough we did, when we met Brother Buck, who is there on a Mission for the church, as a caretaker for the place.

He told us of a special location on the hill overlooking the Valley, called Preachers Rock, where if you stand and speak in a regular voice, persons down in the valley hundreds of yards away, can hear you, and can speak back to you in just the same way.

One of our church apostles was there this summer with his grandsons, and he sent them down into the valley, and stood at that spot, and spoke and they heard him loud and clear. Pretty Cool!

This phenomenon is similar to stories of Prophets of old that stood and spoke to the multitudes that could hear them clearly, and is also evident in places such as the temple ruins of Ancient cultures in South America.

Following our visit there, we set off for a long drive through Kansas (pretty boring!), finally stopping for the night in a motel and enjoyed a good nights rest, after a long days journey, and planning for a stop in Colorado, and to make it to Utah the next night!