Rain did not dampen our spirits!

One thing we learned about a night of rain - the frogs love it! We probably had 2 inches within 2 hours last night and it continued to rain all last night. I think there are more puddles than dry land at our campground. I heard they closed a highway about 20 miles south of us because of flooding. Sure is different than Nevada!

After breakfast we crossed the Mississippi to the East side (Illinois) and traveled along the Great River Road to Nauvoo. There was still mud on some of the road and the road crews were already cleaning it up. We had made reservations for the 11:00 session at the Nauvoo Temple and were excited to be going.

We asked a young man to take our picture at the front steps after we came outside. When we were at Nauvoo several years ago they were just beginning to rebuild the temple so it was a great experience to be able to come back and actually go in for a session.

Looking from the temple toward the Mississippi was the statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith as they looked upon the temple being built on their way to Carthage Jail. They were never to return.

This is taken from the statue looking back up the bluff to the temple. We went to lunch and then traveled to Carthage to see the jail where Joseph & Hyrum were martyred.

The building in the background is the actual jail. The building housed a debtors cell on the first floor and the "dungeon" on the second floor. The family that watched over the jail lived in the building as well.

The second floor dungeon only had a couple of slits in the wall and very poor circulation so it got quite hot. The caretakers knew that Joseph and Hyrum were there on trumped up charges so they actually let them stay in the master bedroom instead of the dungeon.

This is the actual door that shows two of the bullet holes from the mobbing and killing. The people who owned the building knew the importance of keeping everything from this home because of the historical significance and very little is changed.

Gary is sitting to the left of the window from which Joseph Smith received two of his gunshots. The other two came from the back of him and he fell out of the window. Sorry to be so detailed but the ability to be there and really have the chance to hear the story retold was an important part of understanding all the history and sacrifice of the Saints.

It rained most of the day so we decided not to try to go to the pageant. We will come again and spend more time in Nauvoo. Since we had been to the town before we chose to do and see things we did not get to do last time though we both agreed we needed to come back again.

Back at camp we spent time talking to fellow campers, doing some laundry and checking on some maintenance issues with the motor home. We will head to Indiana tomorrow and plan to do a few nights of "Walmart" camping on our way to Pennsylvania. There are a few sights we may stop at along the way - I'm still checking them out in our AAA tour guide. I found a railway trip that sounded interesting, but it only operates on Fri, Sat and Sunday. Darn it! If we did not have the tour books we would need to stop and an information kiosk in each state, but for now we are okay. Who knows what adventures will be coming tomorrow?