Road Trip 2014 Nauvoo, Ill Nauvoo Temple

Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States, on the Mississippi River near Fort Madison, Iowa. The population of Nauvoo was 1,149 at the 2010 census Wikipedia

While trying to map out our road trip to South Bend, Indiana I noticed that we could go a different route and go to Nauvoo, Illinois. This is a place on my bucket list to go and see.

I am a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I have read Joseph Smith story and I had heard about how beautiful this place is and I always wanted to come. If you have read my last post on Fort Madison, you would have known I have never been to the Mississippi River, well this town is located on the Mississippi River and so nice.

Well we found the Temple right away, Oh my, I felt the spirit there, just beautiful. I hope you can tell by my pictures how beautiful this place is. The temperature was perfect, a few clouds, just made it perfect day for seeing the Temple and then to see this amazing Temple, words cannot described how I felt.

We walked around the Temple grounds and saw all the beautiful Flowers, everything was so lovely and well taken care of. I could have spent hours there, but we needed to go see more, we wanted to go see Historic Nauvoo. But I just wanted to make sure I had been to this Temple. I am so thankful that we were able to stop and see this Temple and see the sites in this town. I will be doing another post about Historic Nauvoo in the next few days. I hope you enjoy my pictures.

Just a little info from LDS.org

Milestones

Apr 3, 1999 Temple Announced

Oct 24, 1999 Groundbreaking

May 6, 2002 Open House Start Date

Jun 22, 2002 Open House End Date

Jun 27, 2002 Dedication Date

Why Latter-day Saints Build Temples

Throughout history, the Lord has commanded His people to build temples. Temples are literally houses of the Lord. They are holy places of worship where individuals make sacred promises with God.

Road Trip 2014 Leaving Fort Madison.

One of the places I wanted to see when we were in Fort Madison, was the bridge, I love seeing bridges. But the bridge was flooded, and the park next to it is flooded. Here are some pictures I took. We did manage to find a Walgreens, I was surprised that they had no info about the town there as the Walgreens by my house seems to have plenty of Arizona souvenirs and maps. I love collecting magnets and didn't get one from Iowa. Oh well. I guess I will look online for a magnet.  

This first picture I took was just the view outside the Hotel we stayed at in Fort Madison, I thought it was pretty, they said the weather was suppose to be raining all day, but yet it was beautiful.

This is a picture of the Army fort in Fort Madison, it is flooded. So we didn't get to stop and see it.

This is the bridge that we crossed the Mississippi River, It was a beautiful day.And there was no toll to cross the bridge, which is really nice.

Here is some info I found on the internet about the bridge and the Army Fort. I thought it was interesting.

Amtrak's Southwest Chief crosses the Mississippi at Fort Madison, making its way from Los Angeles to Chicago on the world’s longest swing-span double decker bridge, the only remaining example of this type of structure on the Mississippi River.  It opens its gates to barges and riverboats moving commerce and passengers along the major waterway. I found these pictures on the internet. (no copyright infringement intended, just want to share.)

This first picture is taken from the Army Fort, with the little park nearby that was flooded as we drove by.

Historic Old Fort Madison was the first permanent U.S. military fortification on the Upper Mississippi.  The fort was the site of Chief Blackhawk's first battle against U.S. troops, making it the only real War of 1812 battlefield located in the state of Iowa & the first U.S. military cemetery in the upper Midwest.  Fort Madison was one of three posts established by the U.S. Army to maintain control over the newly acquired Louisiana Territory.  Fort Madison was built to 

control trade and pacify Native Americans in the upper Mississippi River region. 

The last two are just a few more I found on the internet. I hope to go again some day. I really enjoyed my trip there. I can't wait to share my next post about Nauvoo. Another wonderful beautiful place.

Diana

I found the info about Fort Madison on their website: Click here to see it for more info.

First 4 images are from my camera, the other images I found on the WWW. 

Road trip 2014 Oklahoma to Iowa

After driving over 1000 miles we stayed the night in Oklahoma City. We were exhausted. We easily found our hotel that we were staying in, right off the Interstate. The Hotel was nice and clean, we had two rooms, one for the boys and one for my Mom and I. We ate dinner and then went to sleep. Derrick fell asleep early, he was tired from sitting in the back seat the whole trip. 

We woke early, the weather was nice, compared to the heat from Arizona. The hotel had free breakfast and so we took advantage of it and ate well. After we ate we left, found a gas station, then we were off for Fort Madison, Iowa, where we were staying the night. 

The drive from Oklahoma City to Fort Madison, Iowa is 600 miles. So easy compared to the day before.
 The first thing I noticed when we left was that we will have toll roads all the way through Oklahoma, something that we don't have in Arizona. The roads were nice, the view was beautiful, nice easy drive through Oklahoma. 

Once we got into Missouri, the first stop was for first rest area we saw, it was a nice place. I took a picture of it, the sign anyways:

The picture below is of my son, the whole wall is decorated with licenses plates from different states so cool.

So green so different than Arizona.  We went through Springfield, and then went through Jefferson City, which I advised everyone that Jefferson City is the capitol of Missouri. Everyone was surprised and I am sure the only reason I knew this was from going over states and capitols with my boys as they were growing up.

I love bridges and love taking pictures of them, so you will see them through out this series. The first picture below, you can barely see the Jefferson State Capitol. I wanted to stop but we didn't so I did the best I could on getting a picture of it.  

Of course here is a picture of my GPS, it did a great job, between using the GPS on my iphone and the GPS on the window we got every where we needed to go. 

The picture right above is the Mississippi River. My first sight of the magnificent river. We made it into Fort Madison by dinner time, we checked into the Hotel and found a place to eat. I thought my food was good, but others didn't like it. 

Here is a view of the sunset in Fort Madison, Iowa:

I thought it was beautiful, just thinking how Heavenly Father made this for us, and all the beauty. 

The Town of Fort Madison is really cool, I didnt take to many pictures, I wish I had. They have some awesome old buildings, beautiful old churches. They also have an incredible history. 

Here is what Wikipedia has to say:

The city of Fort Madison was established around the site of the historic Fort Madison (1808–1813), which was the first permanent U.S. military fortification on the Upper Mississippi. Fort Madison was the site of Black Hawk's first battle against U.S. troops, the only real War of 1812 battle fought west of the Mississippi. It was also the location of the first U.S. military cemetery in the upper Midwest.^[8] The fort was named for James Madison, fourth President of the United States.^{[9] you can read more click the link}

There were many cemeteries there, I had commented to my Mom about that fact before I knew the history of the town. The also have the Army Fort there from the War of 1812, but it is flood at this time, as a levy has broke and flooded parts of the area. But I would love to go back to that town again and see everything. 

Well tomorrow I will be talking a little more about Fort Madison, and then we went to Nauvoo, Ill. Hope you enjoyed these pictures and more and better pictures tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Diana