Busy Week

We had a very busy week this week. We left Keokuk, IA on Monday and drove to Clear Lake, IA so we could tour the Winnebago plant. It was an interesting tour. Then on Wednesday we drove up to Minnesota and drove along I-90 into Sioux Falls. We are now legal residents of South Dakota. Sioux Falls is a nice city, very flat, but with the Sioux River flowing through it. We went to Falls Park to see the falls the city is named for. (Howard & Andy had to wait until I went back to the truck to get my camera.)

Andy is definitely a water dog. He loved the water from the falls. The falls cover a large area and this is just a small part of the falls.

This was taken way down the falls from the last picture. We were getting wet from the spray. It was really windy.

We crossed a bridge to go to the Overlook Cafe to eat lunch. this was taken from the bridge. The cafe was part of a flour mill and power plant that used to be on the river.

The "Monarch of the Plains" statue and the cafe where we ate lunch.

The visitor's center had a 5 story tower attached so we went to the top and took this picture of the falls. After visiting the falls, we drove around the area so we could see some of our new "home." One thing we didn't get to do was go to the mall. It is advertised as the biggest mall between Denver and the Mall of America. We drove around it looking for a visitor's center and it was huge!

We had to take pictures of bison, after all it is South Dakota. From here we drove to Lincoln, NE. Saturday we drove into Omaha and visited the visitor's center at Winter Quarters. After visiting there we drove to the USAF SAC Museum (United States Air Force Strategic Air Command). They had lots of planes on display. We had our weather radio on again last night (a must for traveling). Two things we do when we camp: 1) find out what county we are in and 2) locate the closest shelter. The radio woke us up twice last night, but nothing like when we were in Nashville and the tornado touched down close to Nashville. We are now headed WEST. Looking forward to seeing mountains again!

Nauvoo

We camped in Keokuk, Iowa. The owner of the RV park suggested we drive on the Iowa side of the river to Fort Monroe, cross the river and drive down to Nauvoo. We did and it was a beautiful drive! This is a shot of the widest spot on the Mississippi River. That little spot out in the middle is a huge barge.
Driving along in Iowa we passed through Montrose. This is the view of the Nauvoo Temple from Montrose. You can see the temple for miles either way along the river, it really does dominate. It's really beautiful.
The Nauvoo Temple with a statue of Joseph and Hyrum. We got to Nauvoo late on Friday, but the Visitor's Center was still open so we got to go through it. We got to see the new film about the life of Joseph Smith. It was a really good film and good to see again. We also got to get tickets for the Rendezvous program that night that is put on by the missionaries. It was really fun! We got to have dinner in the Nauvoo Hotel during the time between the Visitor's Center and the play. It was a good evening.
The Nauvoo Temple is beautiful. If you are going to visit don't pick the day before it closes for two weeks for cleaning!! Needless to say I didn't get to go to a session. NEXT TIME!! We got to spend the weekend here, but it poured all day Saturday so we didn't get to go anywhere. We went to the branch in Keokuk on Sunday and watched the rain all afternoon! It is finally slowing down now (7 p.m.) It is a beautiful area to visit and so much history. It is a very special place!! Nauvoo really is beautiful!!

St. Louis, MO and Springfield, IL

Our first view of the St. Louis Arch was from our RV, across the river from the Arch. Really a pretty picture. We took the Metro Link across to visit the Arch.

This is the cool "artsie" picture from the Metro Link station at the Arch. We too the tram up to the top -- 650 feet tall!! It was worth the trip. Really a neat experience. We also got to go to the IMAX Lewis & Clark movie and the Museum of Western Expansion. It was a really good day.

Lincoln's home in Springfield. Last time I was through was 1964, before the neighborhood was made a National Park. We also went through the Old Capital and the Lincoln Museum. Both were really great and well worth the time and cost!

This little covered bridge was within a few miles of our campsite near Chatham. It was cool to walk through. We could see how the bridge had been made, no nails! Next stop Nauvoo!!!!!

Nashville

The non-singing Gossages on stage at the Ryman Auditorium (the "old" Grand Ole Opry). Below are pictures from the Ryman: Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl, Confederate Balcony, the new outside entrance, the stage at the Ryman.

This is the stage at the "new" Grand Ole Opry and pictures of a few of the performers we got to see Friday night: Vince Gill, Bill Anderson, Ricky Skaggs, and Little Jimmy Pickens. It was a really fun experience, one we will definitely do again if given the opportunity!

There were tornadoes in the area yesterday, but none really close to Nashville!

Visit to Memphis

Yeah, we couldn't go to Memphis without seeing Graceland. We were surprised by how much smaller the house was than we expected. It was in a beautiful setting though. Elvis only spend $100,000 to purchase it in 1957. The area is very commercial with lots of Elvis shops and displays, but it was fun to experience.

Our favorite thing to do in Memphis was to visit with Chris & Russ O'Dell! I met them in family housing in Moscow in 1987. They are still some of my favorite people. We went out to dinner at the Olive Garden and talked for about 3 hours, just like old times!

On Sunday, before conference, we went for a drive across the Mississippi River into Arkansas. We got to drive by St. Jude's Children's Hospital in downtown Memphis (didn't know it was there) on our way to Arkansas. I had to take a picture of all the flowers at the Arkansas Visitor Center, they were just so beautiful! We had a good drive since the first session didn't start until 11:00 am! It was a good weekend, with Graceland, good friends, and thought provoking talks at all four sessions of General Conference!

Atlanta to Tupelo

It was cloudy and rainy while we were in Atlanta. Since Betsy's allergies were causing problems, we didn't do a lot in Atlanta. We did make a quick trip downtown to see CNN, Coca-Cola and the Aquarium. Above is Olympic Park with the circle of flags in the background. Lots of trees in bloom surrounding the park.

This is the Aquarium from Olympic Park. Again, lots of flowering trees. It was cloudy, but really pretty.

Coca-Cola was a neat building to go through. We got a free bottle of Coke and lots of free samples of Coke products from around the world.

We went inside CNN and took the tour. Our first step was to go up the 8 floor escalator into the globe. It was neat to actually see the studios where news is broadcast from (we watched one broadcast).

These pictures are for the grandkids! We went to the Atanta Zoo. This picture has a rino, giraffes, and zebras. Pretty cool.

There were several families of gorillas, but this guy was the biggest and was posing to be photographed.

Pandas really are cute! Not too cuddly though, too big. It was lunch time when we visited.

Natchez Trace was a cool drive in Mississippi. The Trace goes from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN. We went over a 40 mile stretch near Tupelo, MS. It was a beautiful drive with lots of cool scenery. This picture is of Twenty Mile Bottom.

Howard and Andy walking a trail on the Trace. We enjoyed the history and the beauty of the short part we got to experience.

Had to take a close up of the dogwood. The sun was shining through the tree to pretty and there is dogwood everywhere you look as you drive through this area.

Can't go to Tupelo without seeing Elvis's birthplace! It's small, but we saw it. Today we drove to Memphis. Yes, tomorrow we'll go to see Graceland. Betsy's allergies are doing better so we get to tour some while we're here. We'll stay over the weekend so we can watch Conference on Saturday and Sunday. Looking forward to it!