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             Kansas City Area

    We arrived in Kansas City late on the evening of July 4th after having stopped to see the fireworks in Junction City, Kansas.  We spent the night at the Wyndham Hotel.
    The night of the 5th, we were so miserable from the heat and humidity that we tried to find a hotel to stay in instead of camping.  We couldn't find anything in our price range so we went ahead and camped at the Trailside Campers Inn in Blue Springs.  It turned out to be a pleasant evening and we all swam in the pool and cooled off.
    Most of our time was spent in outlying areas visiting LDS Church historical sites.
   After visiting Independence, we got back on the road to St. Louis.

    LIBERTY
    Joseph Smith and others spent a miserable winter here in the Liberty Jail.  The jail had no heat source, was dark because of only a few small windows, and the ceiling was not even high enough to some of the men to stand up straight.  It's a humbling experience to think of what they went through.  The Church maintains a visitor's center at the site which includes the remains of the jail.

    FAR WEST
    After being driven from the state of Ohio, the Saints settled here in this beautiful area north of Independence.  It is beautiful farming country and they built a substantial community here including a temple site.  The church maintains the temple site which includes a marker and the four corner stones.  It's a beautiful, peaceful place.

    ADAM-ONDI-AHMEN
    North of Far West is the Valley of Adam-ondi-Ahmen, near Gallatin.   This, too, was a place that the Saints settled.  Joseph Smith has said that this is the place where Adam dwelt and also where he will return.  Looking over the valley from the property that the church maintains, it's easy to imagine this once being the Garden of Eden.  It's a beautiful, peaceful valley.  Joseph Smith also stated that the Nephites lived in the area in Book of Mormon times.
     This was Becky's favorite stop on the trip.

    INDEPENDENCE
    Here we visited the LDS Church visitors' center.  It was a very informative tour and helped us understand the saints' time in Missouri.
   It is interesting to note that the RLDS Temple is directly across the street from the LDS church visitors' center and an LDS Stake Center.  Also right down the street from the visitors center is the RLDS auditorium.  Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit there.