Nauvoo

The last leg of the trip was to Nauvoo. We started with a wagon ride around the sites to see what was there. It was about 50 minutes and gave a nice overview of everything you could see. The church owns and maintains a lot of sites in Nauvoo, so it's a lot more than Palmyra or Kirtland.


After the wagon ride, we went to the Community of Christ sites. They own the Smith family home sites and the land where Joseph and Hyrum Smith are burried. One of the most interesting stories was regarding the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum. Emma Smith got their bodies and prepared them for burial after they were killed, but she was afraid that someone would come steal the bodies because there was still a $1,000 bounty on each of their heads, dead or alive, from Missouri. She first hid the bodies under the family home, but moved them from there when additional contruction was going to start on the home. She put them under the cold cellar outside the home and asked to be burried in a spot close to that. She kept the sites secret her whole life. The bodies were finally found in the 1920's when the RLDS church paid to have a dig to find them because of fears that the bodies would be lost with flooding on the Mississippi. When they were found, all three bodies (Joseph, Hyrum, and Emma) were burried together in the Smith family cemetary.


We had lunch at a small, sad deli and then did a session at the Nauvoo temple. That temple is amazing. I have not been in another temple, other than Salt Lake, that had more beautiful workmanship inside. It was awesome in the true sense of the word. After that, we took a nap. I was so tired this whole trip. In the evening we went to two shows. The first was called Sunset on the Mississippi. It was a fun variety show and we really enjoyed the fun. Then we went to the Palmyra Padgeant. It was basically the story of Nauvoo from the time it was settled until they left to go West. It was really well done and we thought it was great. I could recommend it to just about anyone.

On Friday, we went to several of the sites including the blacksmith shop, the print shop, the post office, and bunches of others. Except for the heat and humidity, it was really good. We also did some shopping before going off the beaten path. We went to a man's house outside town who has stones from the original Nauvoo temple. When the new temple was being built, the old rubble was dumped not too far from his house and he grabbed some of the stones and breaks them up and gives them to folks who stop by. We also went to a glass maker's studio where he showed us around and told us all about his shop and his work. We really loved those little side trips.


We also saw one last show that day, which was fairly entertaining, but not as good as the shows the day before. It was in an air conditioned building though, so we managed just fine. We also went to Keokuk, Iowa for dinner. The dinner was unremarkable, but the views of the Mississippi along the way, especially on the way home with the sun setting, were lovely.

On Saturday, we did some last-minute shopping, toured the Mason Hall, and headed for St. Louis so we could come home.

No matter how much fun the trip is, it's always so nice to get home and sleep in your own bed.