Happy Halloween

Nauvoo, IL pumpkin walk

pics by phone. I am sorry!

Look at the center pumpkin. Wow!

Hey.

It's been awhile, I know. I suddenly got back into the mood of blogging. Go figure. Had a little vacation last week, along the western state line of Illinois. Kind of wove back and forth over the Mississippi river into Iowa a few times, not all of it intentional.

This trip started out by me picking up Pat and heading to Galena, IL. If you have never been there, it is a quaint little town full of history, surrounded by some very nice country scenery. Most of that scenery is in the form of hills, and can scare the crap out of you, but still a good time. We then headed south along the river towards Nauvoo, IL. This is south of the Quad cities.

So. Let us discuss Mapquest and GPS. You would think that using both of these services would afford you the fastest, shortest route from point A to point B. That's what I thought. Turned out I was wrong. I had printed out all of the directions on Mapquest, and realized the evening before we left Galena that hey!, Mapquest would take us miles away from the river and drop us down in a straight line from the Quad Cities to the general area of Nauvoo. Screw that. So we used GPS off of Pat's Verizon phone. What a vast improvement. It took us miles away from the river, after crossing us into Iowa, and dropped us south towards Nauvoo, then crossed us back over the river.

Did I mention that Pat is afraid of bridges over water? Because she was focused on the directions at this point, I kind of didn't tell her we were going over water until we were actually on the bridge. Not a happy camper, and a tad pissed off at GPS.

Nauvoo, IL. was the second settlement of the Church of the Latter Day Saints - Mormons. This is the general location of Joseph Smith being charged with something (locals were unclear on details), and assassinated by an angry mob. Brigham Young then lead the Saints to Salt Lake City, Utah. There is a Temple, but visitors are not allowed inside except for a short time in the summer.  The town itself is  beautiful, and the "old town Nauvoo" has been preserved. We toured that by car and on foot. More pics to come. On the Saturday before Halloween, the town has the annual pumpkin walk, and the main street is lined with hundreds of pumpkins carved by the residents. At dusk they are all lite.

We had a great time, but following the "Great River Road", either on the Iowa or Illinois side is deceiving. There is not a great length of road where you actually see the Mississippi, except from Nauvoo south to Lock No. 19. That is a 12 mile stretch that is gorgeous.

Thanks for stopping by.
Linda