The Great 2013 Vacation: Carthage & Nauvoo

There had been a couple of times during the trip where Ben suggested recording our effort to put up our tent.  With our usual late arrival to the campsites and the amount of time taken to put the tent together, doing so wasn't a good option.  What we finally settled for were several pictures of our tent just to prove we had accomplished this feat of engineering--here are two Jennifer took of the boys Monday morning while I was in the bathroom getting ready.

The boys had to fight the morning sun on this side.





Ah, that's better.

This was going to be the longest day of continual driving we had faced since our four day marathon to reach New Jersey.  Our travels would take us through the remainder of Ohio and across Indiana and most of Illinois to the eastern edge of the Mississippi River.  The drive skirted us along the boarder of Ohio and Michigan.  In Indiana, we passed by South Bend but didn't really catch a glimpse of Notre Dame.  It was a little after 1 o'clock when we reached Gary, Indiana.  Rumbling tummies informed us it was time for lunch, but we decided to hold off for a little while longer because when we crossed into Illinois, we entered the Central time zone and had another shot at the noon hour.  As we approached Joliet, I saw a sign for a Cracker Barrel Store.  We had seen many signs or actual stores during our trip and I was finally intrigued enough to check one out.  The funny thing was when I saw signs advertising the store, it would say "general store," but when Jennifer saw signs they would say "restaurant."  Turns out we weren't crazy, the Cracker Barrel is both.  I have to admit being disappointed in the store side.  I was expecting a lot more food items; instead I got knick-knacks.  We didn't have time for a sit-down lunch, so the restaurant side didn't appeal to us either.  Just as we were about to leave empty handed, I came face to face with a rack of potato chips; a desert oasis (cue heavenly choir and lights)!  Remembering how we had liked the Utz brand chips in Pennsylvania, we tried Cracker Barrel's brand of Buttermilk and Herb and Cheddar chips--if not for Jennifer taking the bag from me, I would have devoured the Buttermilk & Herb flavor; they were very good. :)

 

For the same reasons we had driven to the Whitmer farmhouse first on our way to Palmyra, my itinerary plan was to visit the Carthage Jail (where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred) first before continuing to Nauvoo.  Eventually, we left I-80 and made our way south.  We were doing petty good with following our map until we reached Macomb.  As we drove into town, the road signs disappeared, causing just enough uncertainty that we decided to stop for gas (it was needed) and to make sure we were heading in the correct direction.  At the same time, a light rain began to fall.  While I pumped petrol, Jennifer checked with the guys behind the counter . . . and found they were as clueless about the directions as we were (lovely).  Luckily, a customer overheard the conversation and she told Jen we were correctly motitavin' (Chuck Berry's "Maybellene" was a song on the trip mix) toward our intended destination.  After leaving the gas station and driving another five miles or so, we reached a signal light.  As I waited for the left turn signal to change to green, the wind became stronger; the rain fell harder; and a weird moaning noise sounded above the music inside the car.  As I watched trees and signs blow crazily in the gale, the clouds seemed to drop down in a way that gave me visions of Dorothy, Toto and flying houses.  Instead of sending us to Munchkin Land, Mother Nature popped a gigantic water balloon over us, sending a deluge of rain pouring everywhere.  I made the turn, but about 500 yards later, I could barely see through the curtain of rain.  I've been in a few gully washers in my time, but this was nuts!  Even more crazy was the cars with Illinois licence plates zooming past us as I crawled along at about 30 mph with my hazard lights flashing.  Finally, I decided that I didn't want to drive the road alone; after a pick-up truck zoomed past, I used its tail lights to guide me through the low visibility.  The storm lasted for at least 15 to 20 minutes.  Finally, it abated and we were able to continue the final 10 to 15 miles to Carthage and the historic jail.  After everything we had gone through to make it there, we were happy to arrive in one piece.

I don't know if I can properly describe the feeling, but I will say there is a sacred reverence to the grounds of the jail.  The only other place I have felt this was when we visited Martin's Cove in Wyoming where the Martin handcart company was stranded and eventually rescued in October of 1856.  I remember as we walked along the trail of the cove, we talked in hushed tones as if we had entered a prairie cathedral.  I can't say our voices were necessarily hushed as we left the parking lot, but I did feel that same type of hallowed feeling.  From the parking lot we walked along a paving stone walkway featuring quotations from different times of Joseph's life.  This walkway culminated with a statue of Joseph and Hyrum.  Ben and Isaac wanted to have their pictures taken with the statute.  Afterward, we made our way to the visitor's center where the tour began.

 

 

I will have more to say in my "impressions" post, but throughout the tour, I tried to picture the events of June 27, 1844.  A couple of things I learned: 1) the walls of the jail are so thick and sturdy that it is used by the missionaries as their "safe house" if a tornado was to strike the town; and 2) Willard Richards pulled John Taylor into an adjoining jail cell and threw a mattress over him to protect him in case the mob came back after Hyrum and Joseph were killed.  I have probably read that fact before, but for some reason, over the years, I thought John Taylor continued to hide under the bed in the room where Hyrum was killed and Joseph jumped out of the window.  By the way, if you visit and are over 6 feet tall, be sure to duck down when you go through the doorway of the cell, I didn't (too busy taking video) and barked my head against the top of the door frame.

We spent over an hour at the jail.  When I looked at my watch, it was dinner time.  We had noticed in our travels that the fast food chain Hardees has the "happy star" that we equate with Carl's Jr. here on the left coast.  Curious to find out if the same type of burgers were offered, we decided to eat dinner at the local Hardees which was about a block from the jail.  Sadly, our familiar double western or super star or big carl were no where to be found.  We all settled for the promotional "monster burger"--I think it had some sort of tie in to the new Superman movie--when the food arrived, disappointment was forgotten and the feeding frenzy commenced.  Dinner eaten, we got back in the car and drove the final 25 miles to Nauvoo.

We stayed in the Motel Nauvoo--a quaint little motel on the main street into town.  When we got there, a sign on the door of the office said we needed to go the Hotel Nauvoo to check in and get our keys.  A short walk down the street got us to the hotel, but there were also emergency vehicles and electrical workers on the adjoining street.  From the splintered tree trunk, I guessed that the earlier rain storm had also struck Nauvoo and torn a tree apart, smashing it into a nearby power pole.  The electricity was knocked out at the hotel (I'm glad we weren't staying there, I heard the next day from other people that the power didn't come back on until 11:30 or so that night).  With the electronic equipment not working, we couldn't pay our bill but the lady at the front desk gave us our keys and told us to come back in the morning to take care of it.  After unloading our luggage as much as we wanted at the time, we drove to the visitor's center to see what was available.  The building was closed; the center and the historic houses close at five.  There was an outdoor stage, however, and a program put on by the missionaries was coming to a close.  I had found out that the a cappella group Vocal Point from BYU would be performing on the same stage about an hour later, so we decided to find some seats.  Before leaving on their second mission to France, my parents had given us a Vocal Point cd for Christmas.  We listened to it and thought it was good and had left it at that.  Seeing these nine guys perform live gave us a totally different perspective of them.  We had a very good time at their hour long (or so) show and decided we wanted to come back to see them again the next day.  The final thing we did before calling it a night was to walk down to the Nauvoo Temple that evening to take pictures.  Ben and I got to participate in an abbreviated "temple walk" that Jennifer had put together for the young men and young women of our ward at the beginning of June.