Day 46, Friday, Oct 17, Nauvoo, IL

Thursday, on arrival in Nauvoo, we found lodging at a locally owned and operated hotel, convenient to the Temple. We dressed in our Sunday best this morning and after checkout from the hotel we went to the Temple and participated in an endowment session with about 24 other patrons.

It was such a sweet experience to go inside this holy temple, carefully structured after the design and decor of the original. The spiral staircases that adorn the interior at the four corners of the building are so beautifully crafted. Except for those who need the elevator ( a modern addition) patrons use these spiral staircases to ascend to the endowment rooms.

What a special experience for us to attend the Nauvoo Temple today!

We motored on down river and crossed over the bridge and took a room at the Marriott Fairfield at Keokuk, Iowa, there being no rooms available for us in Nauvoo. We plan to remain in the Nauvoo area through Sunday and attend church services there and see more of the historic area maintained by the Church as part of the Illinois Nauvoo Mission before we continue westward.

Today, we are trying to recover from BYU's disappointing loss at TCU. The very best way to do that was a deeply satisfying and uplifting session at the Nauvoo Temple, followed by a drive along the Mississippi.

This picture was taken on the east bank of the river about 5 miles south of Nauvoo.

Day 45, Thurs, Oct 16, Bloomington, IL to Nauvoo, IL

We arrived in Nauvoo in the mid-afternoon on a very beautiful, clear Autumn day. It was such a feeling to see the Temple gracing this prominence above the Mississippi on the very spot where the original Temple once stood.

We visited the Temple site 24 years ago when we picked up our son Jeffery from the mission field in West Virginia (Jan, 84). We stopped in Nauvoo on our way home.

This Temple is affirmation of the history and the destiny of this great Church and its mission to the world!

How wonderful to be here! We took a room at a hotel a short distance away and settled down to view the BYU-TCU game.

We are hoping to prepare ourselves in the morning to attend a temple session after we check out of our hotel.

So, what do we find when we arrive at the banks of the mighty Mississippi River?

That's right! A rock tht says "Lincoln Spoke Here."

This is in the tiny village of Dallas City, Ill, just a few miles upstream from Nauvoo.

You can tell Illinois is the land of Lincoln. We see signs of "Lincoln Slept Here," or, as in this case "Lincoln Spoke Here."

This an old building in downtown La Harpe.

This old City Hall building in La Harpe caught our eye. This is how city government should be organized. Police, Fire and City Hall all wrapped in to one efficient location.

This morning dawned clear and beautiful after a night of some rain and quite a downturn in the temperature from the unseasonable warmth to more of a Fall-like day.

We continued our journey west across rural Illinois, heading toward Nauvoo. This is the bridge that spans the Illinois River at Pekin, a suprisingly large city, just south of Peoria.

Again we forsook the Interstate and took to state route 9 which took us through the communities of Canton, Bushnell, Good Hope and La Harpe. And at La Harpe we had to slow down and drive some side streets and take some photos. It was such an interesting little town.