A Levitating Bus in Independence Missouri then onto Nauvoo

 An early start today, we had to be on the bus at 5:30m to catch a plane from Cleveland Ohio, to Kansas City, Missouri, via Chicago. We headed to our lunch spot- The Big Biscuit. We drove past the Kansas City Temple and briefly stopped so people could take photos.

Lunch at the Big Biscuit, unfortunately no salad or veggies in sight!

Not my normal lunch but was pretty good.

After lunch we headed to the Independence Visitors Centre  which was on the site of the Liberty Jail.

This was a life size  model of the Liberty Jail where Joseph Smith and others were held for 5 months.

Then it was across the road to the Independence temple site.

This was the Community of Christ Convention Centre. The Community of Christ was originally the Reorganised Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Then we were heading to the hotel via a monument down a narrow road that Hank wanted to show us

The plan was to reverse the bus back down the road, the driver decided to try and turn it around while he was waiting for us.

Unfortunately what he thought was solid ground, turned out it included a ditch covered by leaves

Despite the efforts of all the men on the bus and their ideas, a special tow truck needed to be called. This was going to take a few hours, we were about 20 minutes from our hotel, so we started calling Ubers to come pick us up- we all made it safely to the hotel- Bindi is slowly being desensitised to catching Ubers and slightly less concerned that she will be picked up by an axe murderer.

The bus had to be picked up by the tow truck and moved up from the ditch and back onto the road.

The next morning we left Independence, Missouri to head to Nauvoo, Illinois.  First stop was the Richmond Cemetery. Some of the early saints had been buried here as well as Oliver Cowdery one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. The cemetery had been abandoned for 70 years, tornadoes had picked up the the headstones damaged and scattered them. The church offered to come in and restore the cemetery, they planted trees and grass. The damaged headstones were restored and placed flat in the ground, it was a very peaceful spot.

There was a monument to the Three Witnesses in the cemetery, as Oliver Cowdrey had been buried here.

Then we headed out to Far West, still in Missouri. This was a spot where corner stones where laid for a temple and the first missionaries to go overseas left from here.

This was rural Missouri

Then on to Adam-ondi- Ahman

These were the group of ladies from the bus tour that we made good friends with .

Then it was time to head to Nauvoo

Fertile soil, green prairie land

We stopped for lunch in a small town, found a place that served good food!

The courthouse for this small town, seemed  big for a small town.

Then it was Keokuk where we are staying for the last few nights of our tour.

Nauvoo is half an hour up the road- this is the Mississippi River another geographical location to tick of my list.

The Mississippi River, due to dams and locks, it is wider than it was back in the 1840's

We drove to Nauvoo and we had a quick through the current town of Nauvoo and then down to historic Nauvoo, which the church has brought and restored. They have Senior Missionaries and Sister Missionaries that run tours, we will have time tomorrow to visit this area.

A bald eagle was spotted up in her nest

Dinner was in this barn, they had caterers come by and drop of the food, we sat outside and ate our dinner, it was lovely sitting outside.

You could see the Nauvoo Temple in the distance.

Here we are looking up at the buzzards that were flying up above, we had seen them a number of times.

Just across from the barn was the Sarah Granger Kimball house- this is where the idea of forming a women's organisation began, which eventually became the Relief Society.

It was a lovely house and had beautiful flowers.

I think Bindi would have stayed here all day taking photos of the flowers.

I loved the story of Sarah Granger- she married Hiram Kimball, who was not a member of the church, but eventually did join. They were a wealthy family and he helped the church a lot.

"The Kimball Home is notable because of an exchange that occurred within its walls. Margaret Cook, a seamstress who worked for Sarah, wanted to assist with the Nauvoo Temple’s construction by sewing shirts for the builders. One day in 1842, the two women discussed creating a sewing society to help with the effort, and days later about a dozen other women in the neighbourhood met in this home’s parlour for the society’s first meeting. It was from this small sewing society that the  Female Relief Society was formed. Eventually this group would become a worldwide women’s organization known simply as the Relief Society."