July 15th 
Friday,
July 15, 2005 “
Carthage, etc.”
"Well,
tonight we have internet access – Yeah! -- so I can fill you in.
Wednesday
we blew into the Nauvoo area. Visited
Ft.
Madison
first though, which is a War of 1812 fort that did not see action directly
against the British but did see lots of action against their minions – the
Sauk, Fox, and Winnebago. The Winnebago were the worst because they could drive
their big motor homes right up to the fort and shoot from inside ;-) Kidding
aside, this was the outermost outpost of the
U.S.
in 1812 or so and was not a good place to be – most soldiers were sent there
as a punishment (outer
Siberia
) and many died.
We
did lots more things in Nauvoo and Barb and I attended the pageant both nights
– getting closer seats the 2nd night. The boys undertook a ‘service
project’ of moving trapped frogs and toads from the old drainage ditch of
Nauvoo, under the stone arch at the south of town, to the Mississippi. The project saved some but was abandoned as they encountered many spiders as
they moved upstream – NICK does not like spiders. ;-) It makes him yelp little
girly screams ;-)
Frog
and Toad loving Trolls?, and the Mississippi near the Arch.
Today
was Carthage Jail, Adam-on-di-Ahman,
Far West
, Hauns Mill, and Liberty Jail. We are skipping
Independence
because the visitor center is not open and without that there is not much
reason to go there. Barb drug us to yet another Amish area – Jamesport. We ate
at an all you can eat Mennonite place – yes we gorged ourselves. We ate at an
all you can eat Amish place in Pennsylvania Dutch country earlier in the trip.
All this reminds me of that scene in ‘Witness’ where the old Amish guy says
at breakfast, ‘Eat up Mr. Books’. BTW, Hauns mill was way back in the dirt
and gravel back roads and we got the Expedition pretty dusty and dirty . . . but
we found it . . . just was we headed back out on a dirt road, a Winnebago showed
up – boy those Indians really get around ;-)
Tomorrow
we will stand at Winters Quarters and
Omaha
and look across the prairie towards
Utah
– the same the pioneers crossed. Then we’ll take the interstate ;-)
(Chickens!)
Love,
Barb,
Steve, Nickapopulanous, and Jamicus"
Hauns
Mill road and the bridge over the river there (no one knows the exact location
of the mill), Adam-on-di-Ahman, Liberty Jail, and the temple site at Far West.
NEXT: On to
the next message of the trip . . . 
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copyrighted by P.S. Neeley -- copyright 2005