September - Week One - Home from Wedding

While Xela and Trevor spent the next week on their honeymoon in Mexico, we Scotts traveled back to Indy via a few National Parks.

We spent Saturday night with the Ellis's, went to church and had dinner with them and, while waiting for it to get dark enough and late enough that we could drive long enough to make it Monday before getting gas, Todd took the kids and I on a hike to the Castle Rock (thus the name of the city).

Overlooking Castle Rock

On our way back down, Neta found herself
a little nook

I love sunshine pictures like this

We drove to Ft Collins and pulled off to rest and wait for Monday. At some point after midnight, Eric and I woke up, filled up the tank and headed to Devil's Tower in Wyoming. I remember it from the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and it's something that I've always wanted to say that I'd seen; I'm fairly confident that I was the only one excited to see it.

Glow worm

Good morning!

Monday Sept 2 - Before getting there, we passed through miles of terrifying fog. I'm glad Eric was driving; he was confident enough to drive 30ish mph. I would have been going 10. We were always grateful for any kind of car in front of us to literally light the way with their brake lights. We could barely see far enough in front of us before we got their.

Here's a little video sampling:

Riding the Sinclair dinosaur
while we got gas after the fog

They could have cared less.
Opal wasn't allowed on the trail around the base,
so she stayed in the motor home with Eric
who slept.

A few hours away from Devil's Tower is Mt. Rushmore. Again, something I've always wanted to see, but had no reason to be in that part of the country until this trip. It took longer to get there than I thought and when we were getting closer, and making turns, I deceiptfully told myself that we'd see it around the next corner. Wrong. Wrong. On one of those corners, where one state road merges into another, the motor home lost power.

We made it to a triangle spot in between the two roads and excused the kids to go to the side of the road with the dog, in the shade, where it was cooler than in the motor home. It apparently overheated. Eric took the cap off the radiator and green fluid came flowing out of it. We waited for a bit and then added some water from our stash to the radiator. We got it started and then moved it to the side of the road where we let it rest a little while Eric and I crawled under to see if we could see any leaks in any lines (trying to eliminate other issues with the engine as the overheating was just an educated guess - we're no mechanics).

I know there was a prayer in my heart and I assume in everyone else's that the motor home would begin, and continue, to function so we could get home. We did NOT need to be stranded in South Dakota. After this cool down and watering of the engine, she started again and we got to Mt. Rushmore.

Now I can say I've seen it. :)

Four kids and their dog

Ro didn't really care to get up close and Opal
again couldn't go on any of the trails, so
Ro went back to the motor home to do homework.

We fixed dinner in the motor home before leaving Mt. Rushmore and heading to the Badlands, with prayers in our hearts that nothing else would go wrong with the motor home.

As we got closer to the Badlands, there were billboards for WALL, SD, which is maybe two miles from a Badlands entrance. It intrigued Eric, so we stopped to look around. It's basically an outdoor mall. I wasn't all that interested, but was happy to get out of the motor home, so I walked Opal around while he and the kids walked around the shops. There was an indoor common area of sorts where I met up with the family and had Opal with me. No one seemed to care.

Ro with Anne Oakley

We pulled into a Badlands Pinnacles entrance after dark and there was no attendant, so we just continued to drive until we found the first overlook parking area, which didn't take too long (Pinnacles Overlook). We pulled in and this one, thankfully had a bathroom. YAY!!

It was dark enough that, with no one else in the parking lot or any traffic that we could see, the kids and I laid in the parking lot to look into the heavens. SO BEAUTIFUL!! No light pollution whatsoever, so we could see constellations and the Milky Way. Such a gorgeous night sky! We could have laid out there for hours.

We decided to spend the night in the parking lot, sleeping in the motor home of course as it didn't make sense to try to find the campground, where we would have to pay for a spot. There were a few people that came into the parking lot, but they didn't stay.

Tuesday September 3 - A beautiful morning!

Sunrise in the Badlands

I was the first one up and out of the motor home.
I followed the trail to the overlook and took a rare selfie.

This is one of my favorite pictures

Gotta have proof that kids were there.
Her shirt accurately describes her feeling about having her picture taken.

Within minutes of leaving our night stop, we saw a car stopped on the road and found the following:

After that brush with wildlife, we saw the herd, drove by it and went to another overlook. Opal was desperate to get out, so we let her (I think it was afterwards that I read animals were supposed to stay on leashes - oh well).

Then we went to Fossil Exhibit Trail, where Dunahees said the kids could climb on the rocks, which Graigry was DYING to do. Eric kept Opal on a leash and she got to explore too.

And then, as they were walking down, I saw this little post seen in the video below:

Eric and Opal came down, but the kids continued to explore.

We stopped for an hour or so at Cedar Pass Lodge because they had wifi and Aurora had to turn something in for a class. I should have caught up on work emails (mostly deleting unnecessary ones), but I didn't. The kids and I did a little souvenir shopping instead while Eric stayed in the motor home.

I bought a medallion magnet for each of the two ladies that were covering for me and I really liked what this sign said about the medallions. I gave Carolyn an angel and Wendy a sun while I bought a horse for myself. On the back of the medallions was one or two words; the horse said powerful. I can't remember what the other two said, but it described Carolyn and Wendy quite well.

Soon it was time to get back into our traveling home. We wanted to get to Winter Quarters in time to do baptisms and that was about a six plus hour drive.

"Get your stupid hat off me, Human."

The goal was to get to Winter Quarters temple in time to do baptisms, but that didn't happen. Because the motor home had to stop more often for gas (there was some sort of leak in the tank that we found out about on our way out), the mileage was poor making it difficult to travel at the pace I'd hoped for. We did make dinner and eat in the temple parking lot though.

Once dinner was done, we headed out and decided to plow on through to Nauvoo.

Wednesday Sept 4 - Good morning Nauvoo! I got out early for a run around Nauvoo. Eric stayed in the motor home and watched a movie with the kids and slept. It was kind of nice to trot around Old Nauvoo and pass by some sights by myself. I did five plus miles (needed to get some miles in as part of training for the Monumental Half Marathon the beginning of November).

At the Mississippi River at the end of
the Trail of Hope

After showers and some food, we all got out to wander around. We took a leisurely pace, walking everywhere. We saw most of the usual sites, taking time to "tour" and taking time to rest. Eric more often than not sat outside with Opal. Because we were hitting it off season, there were no crowds and in a number of places we let Opal off her leash to explore. She did really well staying near us and coming when she was called. I was impressed

Not far into our day of walking,
Neta and Opal park in the shade for a rest.

That evening, we did a baptism session at the temple. We were the only people doing baptisms, which is always fun because you get the individualized attention instead of the crowd herding chaos. We loved it. It was the Graigry got to baptize Eric, which was neat to see.

After we were changed and before we left, we met with a member of the temple presidency in the chapel. He pulled out a relatively small piece of chain mail and then talked about linking ourselves to our ancestors which links us back to Jesus Christ. Then he pulled out a piece of chain mail armor, just the suite and went into a little more detail about how we need    . It was a cool analogy/metaphor.

Nate came out of the temple saying, "That was awesome! Ro missed out!" (Her recommend had expired so she stayed in the motor home.)

Smiling faces; Happy hearts

Before heading back to our camp site, we drove down to the Mississippi River. It was dusk and beautiful. There were some other, older, couples there who, after seeing me take some selfie pictures, agreed to take a few silhouette pictures of us and we took some for them.

I can't decide which one of these pictures are my favorite

As is tradition, we go to the wall to point out our ancestor
from the Miner side.

Thursday September 5 - Final Stretch

We headed out of Nauvoo early with a stop at Carthage. I hadn't looked at the Carthage schedule and didn't realize that the tours didn't open until 10. We got there about 8:30. We made some breakfast and walked around, but then, sadly, had to get back on the road. 

Ro had to be in class Friday morning for an 8am class and I had told the kids teachers that they would be back on Friday. We pulled out of Carthage somewhere around nine and drove the last six hours home. Final moments for homework and rest.

Ro enjoyed the last few moments of time with Opal, playing with her in the car.

The longest part of the final leg was the piece between Muncie and home. We were so much closer, but it seemed to take us forever to get there, as it does with most trips.

It was a long, but rewarding week. I very much enjoyed the cross country adventure and hope that the rest of the family looks back on it with fondness.