Friday, September 30, 2011

Church History Tour - Day Eleven

Our final day in Nauvoo began with a visit to nearby Carthage Jail. On the drive over, the tour director sang a heart-felt rendition of a Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.

The mood at Carthage was somber. This was the first time in the trip I really wished we were in smaller groups, but we felt the spirit just the same. I asked about the blood spot on the floor I remember from before. I was told President Kimball asked that it be removed.

We returned to Nauvoo and did some shopping in the upper district. We returned to Nauvoo Park for our final meal there to find a cake for Eldon's birthday. He seemed pleased. For gifts he got a book on the Mountain Meadows Massacre and American Moses.

We were set free to finish our visit and spent time at the print shop and Browning's house and gunshop. We finished by walking the Trail of Tears down Parley Street to the monument near the river the commemorates the saints that died on the plains. Then, like the saints, we loaded our wagon and left Nauvoo, headed west.

On the bus, we sang "Come, Come ye Saints" near the spot where William Clayton wrote it. We stopped in Garden Grove, Iowa, for a dinner put on by the Iowas Trails Association. Although there are no members there, the town's identity is closely aligned with the saints as evidenced by the Mormon Trail High School name and fight song, "When the Saints Go Marching In".

We finished the day for a short drive to Osceola where we stayed in an Inn next to a, wait for it . . ., Wal Mart! We were back in the twenty-first century.

1 comment:

Neil said...

I love that picture of Rachel and Robin ? at Carthage.
I'm really impressed with all these videos and blogs created on the fly while the rest of us were sleeping or reading the paper.