This week was fun. We got to go to Karson's T-Ball practice on Tuesday night. The boys were so cute and Karson did a good job. During practice, Kate tried to play with Andy. Afterward we went to DQ and had ice cream. Wednesday Jenn and Betsy had a "sew day." We made sun dresses for Kate and Claire. Jenn picked out some really cute vintage style material for the skirts. They turned out really good and the girls wore them for family pictures Thursday night. We drove to Boise-Meridian RV Resort on Thursday and went to dinner with Loriann. On Friday we went to Nampa and visited Betsy's Mom. She's doing well, but tires quickly so our visits have to be often, but not too long. This afternoon, we're taking stuff over to Mom's to barbecue and hopefully most of the family will be there. Should be fun! We'll be here for about 2 weeks visiting family before we head north to Moscow for all our doctor's appointments and visiting friends in Moscow.

City of Rocks

Sunday, after church, we drove south of Burley to City of Rocks. The California pioneers went through this valley and thought the rocks looked like an old abandoned city, thus the name. Its a beautiful valley, but very rugged!

Some of the rocks with the snowy peaks behind. We had rain this past week, but it snowed on top of the hills. Sunday we had 80 degrees! I love Spring weather -- if you don't like it, wait 5 minutes, it will change!

Kate and Jenn and I went on a hike into the rocks to see the valley. Got a good look at some of the rocks. There were lots of climbers all over the place. They like to climb the bigger rocks.

This was taken from the trail Jenn and Kate and I went on. While we were doing this the boys walked around a big rock.

We weren't sure if this was graffiti or markings with axle grease that were done by pioneers. It was a really neat afternoon. We found a campsite and had a picnic and then walked around the park.

Graduation & Shoshone Falls

Not the greatest picture, but she did it! Jenn received her Master's in Health Education on Saturday.

The Jones Family. The kids were excited. I don't think they understood what the fuss was all about, but they got to go out to lunch afterwards.

Jenn was excited two of her siblings could make it to graduation! It was a neat Mother's Day weekend gift for me too, I got to have three of my four kids together for awhile!

Jenn with her very proud parents.

There's still a lot of snow on the hills north of Burley and the Snake is running really high. We asked at Shoshone Falls and were told they would keep the water high over the Falls for about another month before they "turn them off." They have a water gauge at the entrance that marks how high the water levels are and it was pushed as high as it would go!

They call Shoshone Falls the "Niagara of the West." It is really beautiful, especially when this much water is flowing!

I took this shot to get perspective on how big the Falls are. There are groups of people standing at the observation point just to the right of the falls on the rocks. They are so small though you can't really see them!

This angle was cool with the rainbow. What a neat experience!

This was taken on the observation point that you can't see in the other picture! Karson didn't want to get too close to the rail. It was really loud! If you're close enough to visit, we highly recommend it!!!!

Went a long way this week!!!!

Brochures say this is the most photographed spot on the Trails (Oregon, Oregon & Mormom). It is impressive. We saw it coming from the west and could see it for about 12 miles out. The pioneers could probably see it from a lot further out coming from the east. At this point they were a third of their way west and only through the easiest part of the trail.

Scott's Bluff is about 20 miles west of Chimney Rock (about two days travel for the pioneers). Those on the Oregon and California Trails had to pass through the little pass about half way along the bluffs. The Mormon Trail was on the north side of the North Platte River so they didn't have to go through the gap.

This is a close up of the gap in Scott's Bluff. The road was very narrow and rocky so going was slow up through here.

This is the Oregon and California Trail between what looks like mounds on either side of the path. The ruts were so deep they were indented about four feet. Usually the Trail was many wagons wide, but anywhere they had to go single file really scarred the landscape to the extent the ruts are plainly visible today.

After leaving Nebraska we drove through Wyoming. The brochures we bought said the landscape in Wyoming is much the same as when the pioneers crossed in wagons over a 150 years ago. They aren't kidding, we really had to plan fuel and camp sites. There were sections where we drove 25-50 miles with only exits to ranches or coal plants, no towns or fuel stops.

It was just nice to see a road that curved and a hill higher than a few hundred feet. We camped at 6700 feet just outside Green River, Wyoming. As we were breaking camp to move it started to snow and snowed most of the morning, off and on, first we'd seen since last year! None was sticking on the road so good day of travel.

We met some good friends and neat people in Florida who are making their first trip to the west this summer. We were trying to explain to them that sometimes you just see an exit for a ranch way out in the middle of nowhere. When we saw one, we had to put it on our blog.

This is Emigrant Pass. The Railroad now goes through this pass and some of the California and Mormon Trains went through this pass. Found some really good booklets put out by the Department of the Interior on the different trails, landmarks along the trails , and some of the history of each trail. They were really good for describing each trail and some of the stuff the pioneers went through. Would love to follow the trails from east to west one summer.

The Devil's Slide is in Ogden Canyon. Its pretty impressive.

This winter, one of our friends asked if we knew what a cattle guard was. Howard pulled off at a random exit with cattle guards, so I had to get a picture of one. We've had a great adventure driving from Florida to Idaho and it has made us realize how much more there is to see. So much history along the east coast. Every area is beautiful in its own way. We really do live in a beautiful country and when it comes to traveling: we are not done yet!!!!!

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!!!!!