Our travel Journal - Authored by Granny

Day 1 of our trip to Nauvoo for our Temple mission.

Our plan was to leave our home in Foothill Ranch around 9:30am, but like all plans things change, we ended up leaving around 11:00am.


We drove 2 hours to Barstow, where we stopped for lunch, then on the road again.

Our next stop was Needles,

(we didn't buy gas in Needles)

then on the Kingman for gas. Then another 2 hours to Flagstaff, our final stop for the day. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn. Our total drive for the day was 8 hours - we had a good day.
Oh, by the way, just before we got to Flagstaff we saw a big patch of snow along the roadside.

April 13 - Day2

Before we started our journey today, we enjoyed a very tasty continental breakfast. After breakfast, we packed up and set out for the day. We will be driving to Albuquerque, it is going to take about 4 ½ hours, so we plan to make some stops along the way to see the sites and to get some exercise.
Our first stop was the Homolovi Ruins State Park. They are the ancient homes of the Homolovi people (around 13 &14 century) known today as the Hopi people. We also saw a Mormon cemetery from 1876, very interesting. We took a little nature walk to see some petro glyphs, they are a form of rock art symbols of communication from people of earlier ages. We saw a large Bear Paw, three (stick) human figures, and my favorite a snake. Along the trail was a sign with this word TSU’VO which I didn’t know the meaning until right now, it means Path of Rattlesnakes! Great!
Ok moving on, our next stop was in Gallup, New Mexico, a small old town. We enjoyed a nice lunch at the Cracker Barrel, and then it was back in the car and on to Albuquerque, another 2 hours. Yea! The country is very flat. Old and flat.

Finally, we made it to our hotel in Albuquerque. The town reminds me a lot of places in California. We had a nice dinner and were ready to retire for the evening. Good night.

April 14 - Day 3

Today we slept in and enjoyed a leisure morning. We left Albuquerque about 11:00am. Our drive today is 4 ½ hours, not too bad. We will be driving to Amarillo Texas.

After driving about 2 hours, we stopped at a little town on Route 66 called Tucumcari. Not much happening in this town, but we did find the Tucumcari Historical Museum. It was located on three floors of a 1903 schoolhouse. They had a variety of artifacts and memorabilia from the surrounding area. They had thousands - and I mean thousands - of items on display, including a 1926 Chevrolet Fire Truck, original to fighting fires in Tucumcari and it is still in working condition.

After leaving the Museum, we picked up a little snack and continued on our drive. After about 2 hours, we arrived in Amarillo, Texas, Yaw Hoo! Texas is very flat and has a LOT of steak restaurants. We found our hotel, which is the Amarillo Fairfield Inn. After checking in, we drove about 10 minutes to check out their big, famous park. It has a Zoo and a huge picnic area. It’s about 600 acres. We drove back to the hotel where we just relaxed, then went to dinner, and back to the hotel, and said goodnight

April 15 - Day4

This morning we woke up to a not so pleasant scent (cows) just a reminder that we were still in Texas. After a nice breakfast, we started our drive to Tulsa, Oklahoma, just a short 5 ½ hours away.

After about 30 minutes, we came upon the largest cross in the world. They say you can see it 20 miles away, I say you can see it about 10-12 miles away.

(The little figures at the bottom of the cross are life-size statues of Christ carrying a cross)

After that exciting stop, we continued on. Two hours later we came to a town called Elk City. We stopped to see their Museums. They had a Farm and Ranch Museum, and the National Route 66 Museum. We saw a lot of old farm equipment, kinda interesting. Then some Route 66 memorabilia. Fun stuff. It was a nice warm day but very, very windy.

After a little lunch, we hit the road again. It took us a little longer to get to Tulsa due to us getting lost, but after a couple of phone calls, and some nice people giving us directions, we found our hotel, and we were really ready to take a break from the car.

After checking in, we went to dinner and got some gas, ($3.09 - the best so far) then back to our hotel for the evening, where we can get a good night’s sleep, and start again tomorrow. Good night.

(Side note) I think Oklahoma is a lot prettier then Texas. It seems (at least the part we saw) a little more green, and it had some hills, small hills, but hills, which makes it nice to look at instead of flat, flat in Texas.

(Side note #2) After one of our phone calls, we found out that the hotel we were going to say had over-booked so they bumped us to another hotel, which was ok because they gave it to us for free. Yes, I said free. You can’t beat that.

April 16 - Day 5

Today we were up early to get a start on our day. After a bite to eat, we hit the road for a 51/2 hour drive. After about 1 hour, we stopped in a little town called Miami Oklahoma, where we went on a tour of a very old Theater. It’s called the Coleman Theatre, built in l929. It was originally a vaudeville theatre and movie place, built by George L. Coleman.

In 1989, the city of Miami wanted to sell it, but the people protested, so the city said they would keep it if they would restore it, so restoration and renovations have been going on since l990. It looks really nice, with its Louis XV interior design. They found the original Wurlitzer organ, and many other things that had been misplaced or sold over the years.

The lady who took us on the tour was very interesting. She told us many stories of how they went about putting the theatre back to the way it was years ago, and about all the ways they raised money for the different things they needed. Sometimes people just came and liked what they were doing, and just donated money. And sometimes a LOT of money. The children at the school save their cans, and give the money to the Theatre fund.

The lady also told us that they have a couple of ghosts who live at the theatre. I don’t know if that’s true, but it makes a good story. Today they use the theater for many things like, plays, silent movies, Jazz and dance bands, organ performances and many other things that I won’t go into at this time.

After that great tour, we were back on the road. As we were traveling along, we ran across the World’s Largest Gift Store, so we had to stop and check it out. However, I couldn’t find anything that I wanted from that gift store, so we moved on, but not before we went into the largest candy store, and we did make a purchase in this store.

Then 2 more hours and we finally rolled into St. Louis Missouri. Yea! We found our hotel, checked in and we will be here for two nights. It will be nice to have a break from the car. Also, I forgot to tell you how nice the drive was, from Tulsa to St Louis. The countryside was real pretty, green, with hills, trees, so much nicer than the Texas area. I think that’s all for now.

This is the view from our room tonight

April 17 - Day 6

Well, today is our day outside the car. Yea! We had a relaxing morning, and left our hotel about 11:00am.

We walked to the train station just about 2 or 3 blocks away where we caught the train to take us to the Gateway Arch. To our surprise, for some reason today was free to ride the train to the Arch. Our lucky day.

Well, when we arrived at the Arch (by the way it’s huge) we bought our tickets to go inside.

They put you in this small, small elevator that holds 5 people. (It reminds me of when you ride the tea cups at Disneyland. That’s about how big it is) is made of concrete, or rather steel, with no windows, they shut you inside and up you go. It takes about 4 minutes (a LONG 4 minutes) to get to the top where you can get out of your elevator and walk around. It’s all enclosed with small windows to look out and take pictures if you so choose. You can stay on top as long as you want, then you get back in your elevator and down you go. Let me say just one thing, never, never in your life do you ever want

to take this adventure. If you think it would be fun, it won’t be. I did not care for it all, nor would I recommend it to anyone. Ever. The little elevator door was just 4 feet high! Awful. Awful! I think Dad enjoyed it more than I did. (Note from Dad – I thought it was amazing. But Mom was right. The little elevator was so small, there was only one seat of the five that had enough headroom for me to sit straight up, and they were REAL close together)

(Look what building we found by the arch)

When we got back down, they had some movies you could watch (for a price of course), then they had a Museum about the Native Americans, Lewis and Clark, cowboys, pioneers, and the people who created the American west. We did walk through the museum and that part was ok. Well, after that fun experience, we decided to get a bite to eat to settle our stomachs.

After lunch, we were feeling much better so we were off to our next adventure. We found out that just 4 or 5 blocks on the other side of our hotel was the Scott Joplin House. Mr. King of Ragtime. It took us about 20 minutes to walk to his house. When we got there, we could take a little self-guided tour. He was born in 1868 and died in 1917, only 49 years old. He was a great musician. He played several musical instruments, and composed and improvised his own music. We know him best from songs like Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer. That was fun to see his house and learn more about his life. After our tour, we decided to go to the store to find something to eat for dinner. (Just a wee bit tired of eating out.) After dinner, we just hung out in our room, and that ends yet another day. Good night.

April 18 - Day 7

Wow, earthquake! What? In Missouri!?!? The first earthquake in 40 years, and we were able to experience it. Great!

Well today, we will be driving to Nauvoo, just about 4 hours away. Can’t wait. We really don’t have plans to stop along the way, so not much to write about. We had a little rain, but not too bad. We stopped in a little town called Keokuk about 20 minutes from Nauvoo. We had some lunch and picked up some food to get us through to Monday. After filling our tummies and getting our food, we drove into Nauvoo.

We stayed at the Temple House Hotel. A young couple had moved to Nauvoo about nine months ago, and bought this Hotel and a Bed and Breakfast. They had just finished fixing up the hotel and they said we were only the second couple to use the room, so that was fun.

(This is a photo of the temple from our room)

It was really nice. They did a good job. After we checked in, we took a walk down through town, which didn’t take a lot of time.




We also drove around the Temple, which is very nice, and large. We can’t wait to go inside. But that won’t happen until Tuesday, when we get set apart as Nauvoo Temple Workers. Well, after seeing some of the sites, we had dinner at the Nauvoo Hotel and then retired to our room for the evening.