Sunday the 1st: DAY 4

We were able to sleep in today which was very nice since we were both fairly exhausted. After showering, we went down for breakfast where Tessa and her mom made us delicious French Toast. Afterwards, Tessa took us on a small tour of Burlington.

We were able to stick our feet in the Mississippi River, go down Snake Alley (an extremely curvy road once used for shipping ale in the winter), and see the beautiful architecture of the old town.

It was a very nice morning. We then left Tessa’s around 12:30 pm to head to Kearney, Nebraska. We left a little later that afternoon because all we had waiting for us I Kearney was an empty hotel room. It was much more fun to spend our time with Tessa.

After leaving Tessa we drove and drove with mini stops in between. We got gas and made a dairy queen run…gotta love ice cream. We tried to stop at a Danish Windmill and Museum town but it was unfortunately closed down by the time we arrived. We tried to take pictures with the monuments so that the excursion would feel worth the effort. (Ironically, that was when the statue-less Hans Christian Anderson monument block bit me, and the camera froze in front of Ash-Lee's cottage) We stopped for dinner at an Italian place because we were craving spaghetti (I blame this on Eat, Pray, Love where she talks consistently about eating in Rome). The Italian place we found was kind of fast food, kind of sit down. It was not the greatest meal. Jamie ordered cheesecake for dessert and it came in a plastic wrapped package. It was pretty awful especially compared to the cheesecake we had at the Race City Diner. Also, my stomach did not feel so well after the meal but that might be because I have been eating many many sweets on this road trip.

After the not-so-good Italian place, we ran to the store to pick up some stain removal goodies because Jamie had a few spills during the day. She managed to go through three shirts today either with ice cream stains or tomato sauce. It was quite entertaining J We also picked up a cord to hook the ipod and the computer to the radio for more entertainment. We then headed on our way to Kearny, Nebraska. We stayed at the wonderful Holiday Inn express this night because Jamie unfortunately knows no one in Kearny, Nebraska. We got in around midnight and headed straight to bed because we had an early morning the next day.

Saturday the 31st: DAY 3

Day Three was kind of adventurous, well we drove a lot. So you know how we thought we would be just fine with going to bed late and getting up early… That did not work out too well for us. We needed to leave Beccy’s by 4am so we could make it to Nauvoo, IL early in the day. We wanted to explore this historic city because it was a city the pioneers of our church settled in the late 1830’s. Nauvoo is now a tribute to these early pioneers with demonstrations on how people lived in the that time from rope weaving to running a brickyard. Well, Jaime thought I had set an alarm and I thought she had set an alarm. Never assume. Beccy came in at 6:30am to wake us up. We changed super fast and were out the door by 6:45am. Today was not a day for stopping. We had to get going! So we drove and drove.

I started the drving this morning because Jamie was pretty exhausted. She was up a little later than me. We stopped once at Panera Bread for a bagel and a cheese loaf to nibble on. We stopped a couple times for gas as well, but we pretty much drove most of the morning. We were able to make it to Carthage, IL by 1pm.

(Who knew you could get to IL via MEXICO!)

We stopped in Carthage because here is the jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred. They have restored the jail and now give tours to visitors. We were able to take a tour and really reflect on the sacrifices of Joseph Smith and the early saints. We both felt a strong Spirit as we pulled up to the jail and were guided through the tour.

We then headed about 30 minutes down the road to Nauvoo. Here we were able to walk around the beautiful temple, see various demonstrations on brick-making (they even gave us a souveiner brick), games played, and iron-making (we got prairie diamonds here).

We also went shopping of course in the general store where we got a few postcards. We also went to the fudge shop. Who can resist delicious fudge.

Later that evening our friend Tessa who we know from Athens met us in Nauvoo. She is staying with her mom in Burlington, Iowa which is just 40 min from Nauvoo and they offered us a place to stay for the evening. So Tessa met us around 6pm in Nauvoo and we went to this amazing restaurant for dinner. It was the Historic Nauvoo Hotel. While they have a hotel in the upper portion of the home, the bottom portion is a very nice restaurant. We all three had the buffet which consisted of an amazing salad bar, entre and side buffet, and a dessert bar. Jamie’s favorite dish was an orange salad while I enjoyed the rice/stuffing bake and Tessa loved the mashed potatoes. It was all delicious though and we were all stuffed to the brim after that big meal.

We then headed to the Nauvoo Pageant. This was like a musical/play about the pioneers in Nauvoo. Church members volunteer their time to perform in this pageant. It was a beautiful show, very tastefully done, and inspiring.

After the show Tessa led us to her mom’s home in Iowa where we stayed the night. We do have to mention how wonderful and hospitable Tessa, her mom, and stepdad were to us as well as how gorgeous their home is. They live in a beautiful Victorian townhouse with a clawfoot bathtub and ceilings you can trapeze in. Tessa’s mom is also an antique collector so we were able to see gorgeous furniture pieces, dishes, etc. She showered us with undeserved but much treasured gifts.She was just too sweet to us. We were very blessed to be able to stay with Tessa and her family.

Friday the 30th: DAY 2

So after sleeping in Memphis in the wonderful Hampton Inn we got up fairly early on Friday and headed out for Bolivar, Missouri where we were to stay with one of Jamie’s best friends, Beccy and her family. Jamie started out driving to at least get us out of the city, but she actually ended up driving the whole day. We stopped a lot though so she was totally fine. I promise I did offer to drive J

Our next state we entered was Arkansas, again another state we did not realize we would be going through. On our morning travels we listened to our new and Joe inspired Elvis CD. We loved it tender. As we made our way through the beautiful rolling hills of Arkansas and Missouri we decided to Antique shop. We stopped and found a nice blanket, Indian Wedding Jewelry (Jaime loves the Indian culture), and lots of children’s books for dirt cheap(I will soon have an abundance for my classroom). We stopped in Cabool, Arkansas for lunch. It was a very quiet and small town and they had a nice Mexican restaurant which is where we decided to eat lunch. Here we did some more antique shopping finding more children’s books, movies, and Jamie found two crystal potpourri dishes which were of the exact make she inherited from her grandmother.

Along our route we also found a huge camper/ trailer turned into a pink seashell. We wanted a picture but our camera died before we could get the picture. Our camera dies quite often L While in the car we were able to listen to Eat, Pray, Love which Jamie and I are both loving.

Finally after much driving and a few wrong turns (Dale helped us out), we made it to Bolivar where Beccy and her beautiful family were waiting for us. We visited for a little while with them and then we headed out for dinner. Beccy took us all out to Bandanas which was a local bar-be-cue place. It was really good and it was so nice for Beccy to take us out. Jamie held Evelyn the youngest girl all evening because she just could not get enough of that sweet baby. Nelly who is two was such a cutie and loved her butterfly wings Aunt Jamie brought her. That night was filled with Jamie and Beccy catching up and visiting. It was nice to see them together and meet one Jamie’s very best friends, We went to sleep fairly late that night even though we needed to have an early morning. We thought we would be just fine…

Thursday the 29th: DAY 1

Our goal for today… Memphis TN where we were to see Elvis! On our way through the great state of Alabama where we discovered the Talladega Nascar track. We say discovered because we had been seeing Talladega signs for the last 30 minutes. Talladega Forest, Talladega home cookin’, Talladega yada yada yada. So when there forest breaks to reveal the race track itself, clear as day, Jamie was uber excited. You see, for Jamie’s Birthday she got a Dale Earnhardt Jr. GPS to have a little Southern with her on the journey home. The “Dale Earnhardt Jr.” actually speaks the driving prompts to us and we are even a racecar on the screen as our arrow. We ate lunch at the Race City Diner where we had the pleasure of enjoying a truly southern lunch buffet which consisted of fried chicken with gravy, green beans with bacon, sweet potato soufflé, franks and sauerkraut, fried okra, rice cake, succotash, and best of all CHEESECAKE!

Back on the road (and anticipating many more detours) Jamie decided to put in an audio book she had burned for the trip. It was Sense and Sensibility and Sea monsters… I fell asleep through a good portion of this because it was not really my kind of book. We are going to try to listen to Eat, Pray, Love soon which I am excited about! When we were not listening to the book, we were both singing “ I put on my blue suede shoes and boarded the plane…touched down in the land of the delta blues in the middle of the pouring rain.” We could not get it out of our heads, it seemed our Memphis theme (though ironically, not written or ever performed by Elvis).

In Mississippi (which we did not realize we would be going through, another Talladega like reaction) At a Mississippi rest stop we had our first sighting of Elvis (a paper cutout). I gave him a kiss on the cheek! I took the wheel after this rest stop, me driving is something you may not hear about often, not that I don’t offer, Jamie is just crazy obsessive about her truck. We passed through one horrendous rain storm (Jamie has named the storm “the 3 minutes of terror”) until we started getting close to Memphis. (Really it was just off and on rain showers, Jamie is too dramatic). Keeping in theme, Memphis surprised us too! One minute we were driving along the interstate, the next we were surrounded by cars and halted at a stop light. There was not a great place to stop the truck so at the next stoplight we did an old school Chinese fire drill and she took the wheel again. It was quite exciting. It has been a while since either of us have done one and never with such urgency.

So we were finally in Memphis! Yay! We found the Rock n’ Roll Café easily which is where our Elvis would be performing and decided to tour around the sites until the show. We were not allowed to go up and look at Graceland, having missed visitor hours, so we took a picture by the gate, and then our camera died. After setting up the camera to charge we did what any self respecting set of girls would do…we went shopping of course! We bought an Elvis CD and Elvis postcards. Jamie got some Elvis matches…she likes to get matches wherever she goes. Oh and we found these awesome gold sunglasses which I wanted real bad. They looked super cool. Don’t cha’ think!

The Joe Kent Show (dinner included) began at 8, we arrived early to snag great seats and order dinner before the show. We were pretty hungry and ended up ordering a lot of food, which included the famous Elvis Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich. Then I got a Turkey Melt which was not as great as I thought it would be. Jamie got the Hunka Hunka Burnin’Burger which was HUGE! Then we settled in for our Elvis Impersonator, Mr. Joe Kent!

He was Fabulous! He was funny and a pretty good singer (lucky for us). We were right up front and in the action. Jamie had a love song sung to her by him and I got a kiss… let me explain. He was giving out these scarves and I wanted one of course, so after several other requests had been given to him that night. Jamie wrote a request for a scarf for me to take to him. He said “well of course you can have one. I just need some sugar on my cheek.” So I went to give him some “sugar” on his cheek and he totally turned his face at the last second, giving me a kiss on the lips. I was totally embarrassed and all Jamie could do was laugh. Oh Elvis! It was a great show though.

(This picture was taken as he stood on our table. . .)

We are having a blast so far and it is just the beginning. More adventures to come J