Carthage, IL

 We left Columbia this morning, drove through the rest of Missouri, in to Illinois.

First stop was Carthage.

Old, falling down house in Carthage.

Inside the visitors center were some lovely paintings and furniture. The whole area was peaceful and park like.

The walls are two feet thick.

This is the well outside the upper-floor window that the Prophet Joseph Smith fell from after being shot to death by a mob.

Park, monuments, benches.

This is a REALLY cool side-board.

The scene in this painting was mentioned during the missionaries' presentations.

Some houses were NOT falling apart. 

Midwest USA has some really pretty towns. And back roads. And rich farm fields, and a really big river. Here's a view of that big river from the bridge at Hamilton. 

And the river as we approached Nauvoo.

Hmmm. "I've seen worse"

 It's very remote, this VRBO cabin in the woods.

The view from the front door.. . The only door, now that I think about it.

Mike, rolling his eyes at me. "How did you find this place again?" 

I think a couple of hundred yards past those trees is the Mississippi River.  Yeah. And my brain is totally turned around here. Seriously. 

Unfortunately, the sofa, which is terribly uncomfortable, reeks of dog.  It took me more than a minute to register that. 

But, the TV works. ( Mike found BYU-TV and he is a happy camper!! I have wifi with which to blog, I brought my own soaps. But not dish soap. I have enough to wash the dishes I'll use, but that's about it. There's no hand soap in bathroom! The bottle of soft soap is empty. So sad. 

We haven't figured out yet if the bed is comfy.

I found out my nice bag of beautiful, washed-and-ready-to-eat apples are back home in my fridge. :-(.     Oh well. We just had to settle for Oreos and milk for dessert to night. We had cheese quesadilla with ham for dinner, queso and chips, celery with peanut butter. And Oreos! We won't die. Oh! And the fridge is full-size so we can refreeze our jugs of water for our cooler.  It's all good. 

Just a little REMOTE. Haha.

View from the windows:

Views around the room:

A bed. On blocks. 

Bathroom vanity. It's not an antique. Or restored vintage. It's just really old. And kind of dirty inside.

And same with kitchen sink. It's just really old. And dirty inside with no extra dish soap. Or dish towels.

This kitchen thing may just be antique. All three bottom drawers are rounded metal "bins". That's cool. Only the drawer are kinda yucky. Empty, for the most part. But, again, no extra towels or kitchen clothes.

BYU TV sports. I suppose Mike has been going through withdrawals since he watches more than one BYU sports shows each day, and he hadn't seen any since Saturday!!! 

I think the place is about a 40 x 40 foot square box of a cabin house with a bathroom in the corner, bets set up in the perimeters. . . Well, it's called "Hayfield Cabin."  Less than $80 a night. I can't complain. Our single night hotel room in Columbia was more than that I think.

But Mike said that we shant be scrimping when we vacation back east in the Fall. Ha! I'm using HIS credit card for our $400 per night rooms in Boston, MA. Haha

Day 2, May 12, 2026

 We got an early start from Katie's this morning after we said our goodbyes the night before.

We drove, or rather, MIKE drove and drove and drove. Clear across eastern Colorado, all of windy Kansas, and half of Missouri to our hotel destination in Columbia. One purchased ice cream snack, two gas stops, one picnic stop for lunch.  Beautiful country. There's so much green and so much water out her, compared to our desert West. I did drive for a bit and Mike snoozed. But mostly it was Mike driving.

Tomorrow - Nauvoo!!

May 2026 ROAD TRIP

 Mike and I left on Monday morning close to 6:15 am and drove to The astle Rock, CO. We stopped and had lunch in Glenwood Springs-- in a parking lot at a gas station by the mighty Colorado river. We brought lunch food in a cooler, drinks and plenty of snacks. It was a nice drive. His truck is very comfortable.

At Katie's, we got to eat dinner that Corbin made. He cooks for them a lot. Beef and chicken fajitas. Yummy. I brought the Chocolate Lasagna for us to enjoy. We watched " Night at the Museum" because the twins are doing biography reports on characters from history, both of whom are in those films. We watched the first and second. That first film is 20 years old!!!

Day one-- ✔️.

Wide open spaces and blue skies of Eastern Utah

The Swell. Otherwise known as the San Rafael Swell. 

I took this shot of the view from the rear view mirror 

It's a really cool rift. Or swell. Or uplift rock feature. I don't remember the correct term.

This cracked me up at Katie's house. She's always so good at seasonal decor. This party time, not so much. Haha.

Mothers Day, 2026

 This week in Relief Society we decided to serve all the women in our Ward, and the Young Women, too, a nice treat that the RS Presidency made. "Chocolate Lasagna." Yep, it was really good, but we made too much. And not enough sisters stayed. . .some went home. I gave away one whole pan to one family( Thompson's) and took a half a pan to my house. 

We had a nice Mother's Day luncheon/early dinner at my house at 11:30 a.m. with Robert, Janet, Caroline, me and Mike. Then Mom went home with Robert and Janet. She wants to attend a graveside service for her friend's husband up in Springville. Lynn Hammond Harlow's husband, Mike. It's not till the 19th, but she thinks she can stay up there in Provo that long. 

Donna sent Mom lovely flowers, Robert and I got her a card. Janet gave her a cute little teddy bear, too. Caroline brought flowers for me and Mom, too. I brought mine to Katie's House.

And I took NO pictures of our Applebee's dinner  on Saturday night, our Sunday luncheon. . .our RS Activity. No photos of pretty floral arrangements . No pictures of the beautiful, fancy desserts. No photos of Mom with her matching wrist corsage. Bad me. But it was all fun!

Here's a fun gift from Damian and Tandy.

Here's Mom and Me at the Our House Mother's Day "Tea".