Road Trip 3 - Freeport, Illinois

We finally arrived at Cori & Jesse's beautiful home where grilled barbecue pizza and chocolate chip cookies were waiting for us . . . what could be better after a long road trip?

We went to the parade in downtown Freeport on Memorial Day and it was delightful. There were lots of farm implements, a few bands, and lots of veterans in the parade, and they received lots of cheers from us - Grace is cheering loudly here on the right . . .

The kids amassed tons of candy and even some large stuffed animals were given out. It was a great parade!

We spent some time reflecting here at Debate Sqare, where Lincoln and Douglas held their second debate.

The Walker family gave us a special treat - they let us join them at Rock River where we had a great rainy day picnic - and rode on the jet skis - it was a really fun day!

We had just set up the table and picnic, when it started to rain - it took quite a while and a whole team of scouts to get the charcoals going. . . but it was worth the wait!

Cory & Brittany at Ulysses S and Julia Grant's home in Galena, Illinois.
Sandy & Brittany overlooking Galena, a beautiful town with steeples rising nearly on every block

Cory, Hunter & Ashton, Grace and Papa Ray - Missississip River in Dubuque Iowa.

Ashton - watching the turtles at the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque Iowa. A lovely museum and aquarium that we all enjoyed. They have a lot of hands on things for the children to do.

How would you like to reel that one in

sometime? Grace checking out a mighty big catfish

Grace & Ashton man the controls of the dredge boat on the Mississippi

Playtime - - - Grant, Ashton & Grace

And, aaaah, a stop at Culver's

Road Trip 2 - To Omaha & Beyond

We planned to stop in North Platte,
Nebraska for a quick lunch and move on, but Ray discovered that the largest switching railroad yard in North America was in this little town, so we had to go see it. Our only wish was that Jacob and Charlie could have been there with us - there were hundreds of engines and thousands of train cars - and the cars are pushed up a small incline and let go, and they are routed and switched by a computer to join the right group of cars.

Arianne, Ray, Ethan and Megan at The Golden Spike Tower in North Platte - this five story tower gives a very nice view of the whole train yard

And several hours later . . . we finally get some lunch! A & W is the place!

When it rains in Nebraska - it really rains. As we were driving down the freeway, things started to get very dark and we were soon deluged with rain. So many cars had pulled over to the side of the freeway and so we did too, we waited for a while for the storm to pass over, then went on.

We stayed at the Marriott right next door to this Cabela's store in Omaha - and it is - well, huge! I believe it is the largest Cabela's store.

Arianne and Sandy - at the
tribute to the handcart Pioneers
at Winter Quarters, Nebraska

Learning more about the pioneers at Winter Quarters, Omaha, Nebraska

Our second day finally took us to Omaha, where we visited with Jan & Lucia N. It was so fun to see them and hear just a few of the great experiences they are having there in the mission. We know they are well loved, as the missionaries we met out at Winter Quarters spoke of their mission President and his wife and their family with love and gratitude.

The beautiful temple in Omaha, sits next to Winter Quarters and the cemetery where many Saints (mostly children) were buried as the waited out the winter and prepared to cross the plains in the spring.

Road Trip 1 - To Ft Collins & Beyond!

Friday, May 22 we headed out after Ray's work, picked Arianne up in Salt Lake City, then drove I-80 to Green River, Wyoming where we met up with Ethan & Megan and stopped for a picnic lunch.

This monument is a tribute to The Mormon Pioneers, who came this way 162 years ago. We have many pioneer ancestors and this trip gave me a greater appreciation for them, their faith, courage and obedience, than I have ever had before. I am so grateful for them and the difficult choices they made to follow a prophet, to stay faithful when the going was extremely rough, to be true to the covenants they had made. I hope I can emulate them in those ways and many others.

We drove on to Ft Collins, where Megan's brother Ryan, wife Sherri and their family kindly hosted us for the night.