Farewell Nauvoo & Carthage

Wednesday, July 4th

After being up late writing Tuesday night I set my alarm for 6.30 am but got woken up by a phone call from McKay at 6.  "Dad, I caught a huge cat fish but I can't get the hook out."  So I got up, fumbled around for the pliers, woke Matt up cuz I knew he would want to see it, and stumbled down the hill to help him.

Sure enough - it was a huge catfish.  It weighed between 3 to 5 lbs.  We got the hook out and let him free.  I went back up and down the hill a few times to refill the kayaks with air (they stretch out) and I tried to wake up Nate, but he was too tired to get up.

After this, I didn't have a lot of time to be able to keep to the schedule that I had planned for the day, and part of that schedule was to make sure that we beat the heat.  But I got a quick in.  On my last morning in Nauvoo, where did I go?  The temple of course!

On the way back I found a nature trail that I would walk around part of the lake.  It was really pretty.  Once I got back to the RV, Nate wanted to get up now and join the boys:

I had broken down most of the camp the night before in the dark when it was cooler.  Then this morning we rallied everything around so we could get to the Visitor's Center as early as possible.  We loaded up, and then dumped and filled on the way out.

We rushed down to the Visitor's Center and my heart dropped when we got there.  The local ward and the missionaries had combined to do a flag raising and breakfast, and so when we got to the Visitor's Center at 8.45 AM so I could get in line to get tickets, there was hundreds of people at the Visitor's Center.  I figured surely all the tickets for the things we wanted to do that day would be gone.  The day was already extremely hot and muggy at 8.45 AM and I knew that if we didn't get to things early, we wouldn't last.  I said a little prayer as I walked into the Visitor Center (which was open early because of the people there) and walked up to the counter.  I am not sure if it is because they had just opened the ticket counter, or what, but we were able to get 10.10 AM tickets (early in the day) to the Carriage Ride, and then got 7 tickets to "Plain Ol' Anna Amanda" - the show at the Cultural Hall at 12.30 AM.  Perfect!  Another little miracle!

We hit a couple of quick tours before the Carriage Ride.  At this point, we dubbed these tours as "optional".  So we weren't forcing the kids to do these remaining tours.  So some opted to stay in the cool RV.  I wanted to see the 70's Hall, which was the Nauvoo version of the MTC.  I got to play one of the parts of one of the missionaries that reported back from their missions.  The tour was full of a bunch of rowdy and noisy little kids, and so it was a bit hard to feel the Spirit.  But as I stood and read the part, I got a small glimpse of the Spirit of that building.  The sacrifice those men made to serve missions leaving behind family, livelihood, and everything was amazing!

Gracie wanted to see the small schoolhouse re-creation of course.

We then headed over to the Carriage Ride.  Different than the "Wagon Ride" (both are horse drawn covered carriage rides) their purpose is very different, and that is why I chose to book-end these different rides on our time in Nauvoo.  The Wagon Ride is more like a normal tour-style ride that you would get.  "On your left, is such and such.  Over there, this was .... "  It goes thru the flats and shows most of the more known sites.  Good intro to make a list of things you want to see, so I do recommend doing that one early in the trip.

But the Carriage Ride you start at the Visitor's Center and head towards the bluff away from the more common attractions.  It takes you up into and thru the forested parts.  From the very start, there is a Senior Missionary with a headset that is telling you stories of faith of the Saints who settled that area.  He recounts miracle after miracle of these Saints.  While I don't particularly remember any 1 of the stories, I do remember that multiple of the stories had me wiping my eyes behind my sunglasses.  And I remember the Spirit of it capped off this time in this great place.  It was hot, and some of the stories were longer, so some of them lost the kids.  But the older kids felt the impact of these stories as well.  The level of faith that these Saints have is something that I pray to ever achieve!

We then went over to the oxen ride.  It was so hot, but in the shade, and sipping on some cold water, it was manageable if you were having fun.  And this was a really fun one definitely not to be missed.  We learned why they used oxen instead of horses, but got to witness first-hand why the downside of using oxen was their stubborn nature.  Stubborn, but dependable, the oxen are a powerful creature and a big part of this heritage.

Visiting with the Senior Elders after the ride was of course one of the best parts.  Everywhere we went McKay got paraded as he would tell the missionaries that he was call in hand and "45 days" away from leaving.  Everyone was so excited and it was fun to see McKay's excitement.  What a great way this has been to spend some of his last days before leaving and what a great way to prepare him to go.  Karson declared at some point that our first mission together will be serving in Nauvoo.  Yes!!!  :)

We headed over to go watch the play at the Cultural Hall - "Plain Ol' Anna Amanda".  The Cultural Hall has such a fun Spirit, and the show was geared for kids, but was a lot of fun, even for adults.  My kids thoroughly enjoyed the singing and dancing live.  I wasn't sure how much they would like this, but these shows turned out to be most of everyone's favorite parts of Nauvoo.  While we waited, we also got to see the Brass Band, which is awesome.  The dedication of these performing Elders and Sisters is amazing to be so diligent in this nasty heat!

At the end of the show, they call one kid to come up onto the stage.  Our kids were front and center on the first row, so they grabbed Nate.  At first I didn't think he was going to go, but he went and did awesome!

We went up to do some last souvenir shopping.  It was funny to see the things the kids picked out.  The 2 little boys found these letter-opener swords with a sheath that had nothing to do with Nauvoo but they fell in love and there was no getting those swords out of their hands.  We ran into our old good friend Dena Peterson - and Karson and her reconnected for a few minutes.  While we were there, we found this card which explains the Inverted Star.  It is a symbol that you see around Nauvoo a lot, and one we had a lot of questions on - so it was fun to find these answers to this question:

After this, it was time to bid our beloved Nauvoo farewell.  I know that it sounds silly, but the Spirit of this place is amazing!  And as you leave, it truly feels like parting with an old friend.  But I know that my kids have felt the Spirit of this place, and this has given them a hunger and we have definitely seen them feel the Spirit of Elijah as their "hearts have turned to their Fathers".  

In parting, we went down the Trail of Hope.  It was hot, and I wanted them to feel the Spirit of it, so we drove slowly down Parley St and I told the kids to imagine the wagons lined up ready to leave for the last time.  At this point, missing home, growing journey-weary, they could feel of the little that the Saints felt in packing their belongings and leaving.  We read all of the plaques most of the way down.  They go for at least 1/2 a mile:

At the end, I parked the RV, and had the kids get out and look at the statue of Joseph and Brigham and explained how this was such a point of transition between these great men.  I then took them into the monument that shows the names of those that died between Nauvoo and Salt Lake.  It is sobering, but powerful to impress upon them not only those who gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives, but the families that that represented as brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, who lost loved ones along the way.

As we turned our eyes towards Carthage, we talked about another departure.  We talked about what lead up to Joseph's last trip leaving Nauvoo.  We drop up by the temple, and followed a similar path to what Joseph would have.  We talked (in the RV) about what lead to the Prophet's leaving and the feelings and emotions he and Hyrum must have felt as they rode from this place.

We then took one last look over Nauvoo, looked over the flats towards the Mississippi, looked longingly at the temple, and then turned out backs and headed towards Carthage.  

Our plan had been to spend that whole day in Nauvoo, and head over to Carthage to grab the tour at the very first in the morning Thursday morning.  However, with it so hot, and since the kids had done even better than I had dreamed they would at knocking out all of the tours, we hit Carthage at approx 5 PM Wednesday afternoon.  Part of the reason we were going to stay in Carthage that night was as the county seat it was going to be where the fireworks were.  The kids new there was a hotel waiting for them Thursday afternoon, and they were anxious to do that.  So ... they voted that they didn't care about seeing fireworks this year, and we decided to accelerate our plans by half a day.  So we decided we would do the Carthage tour Wednesday afternoon.

I had built up Carthage a lot because it was at Carthage as a 15-year old boy that I had my very first, unequivocal witness of the Prophet Joseph Smith.  We had gotten personal tours by the performing Elders when Anna had been there, and for me, it was a powerful witness that was an early and power piece of my testimony.

So it probably build up the expectations around this tour a bit much for Karson and the kids.  We did the tour, which starts with the great Mormon Message talk by Elder Holland (I was going to have them watch this talk, so they did it for me 😁 ) and then we proceeded to learn about the jailor's family, and then to see the prison cell, and then why they prisoners were in the jailer's bedroom at the time of the attack.

The Spirit in that place was strong.  You definitely felt an amazing Spirit.  This was hallowed ground.  However, the tours were busy, and it felt rushed.  The Senior Elder tried to take time to let us feel the quiet of the Spirit of the place, and you did feel it.  But at the same time it felt hurried.  The Spirit enveloped you similar to the Sacred Grove, but with the pace of it and the amount of people in a small space, it did lack the serenity of the Sacred Grove.

After the Elder left us in the room, I explained a little more to the kids what happened in the actual events of the room:

But it was amazing.  There was no doubting for my kids the power of the testimony of the men, and that these mean died as they had lived - testifying of the mission that they were on.  "The lived great, and they died great."

My only advice to those following the path - I would catch this one at a 9 AM sharp.  I bet it would be less busy, and might capture a little more of the serenity.  But I am being ultra-sensitive.  It was definitely a powerful part of the tour.

We then took off.  We started late in the day, and the goal was Liberty for first thing in the morning, so it wasn't a long ways.  We watched the fireworks go off alongside the Interstate as we drove.  We stopped at a truck stop about 10 minutes from Liberty Jail, and crashed out for the night.

Here is the path we drove:

And another little treat at the close of the day: