NAUVOO, ILLINOIS

The next day, we drove across the Mississippi.  The Main Street of Keokuk turns into the highway that goes across the bridge to Illinois.  We turned north and after a short drive, were in Nauvoo.  The road going north is part of the Great River Road that runs the entire length of the Mississippi River.  By the way, the Mississippi River is in flood stage right now so the water was very close to the road in some places. 

Anyway, we found the Joseph Smith Visitor’s Center and when we walked in were told that they would be closing in a few minutes so everyone could go to a Memorial Service for Joseph and Hyrum Smith.  As it turned out, we chose June 27 to roll into town.  If you don’t know or remember, as we didn’t, that was the anniversary of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum in Carthage.  So we started out our visit to Nauvoo by driving to the Smith Family Cemetery for a very interesting memorial service.  They had the Nauvoo Brass Band play the same songs that were played when the bodies were brought back to Nauvoo from Carthage.  They also sang some of the same songs and followed bits of the program done at the funeral in 1844.   We enjoyed it very much and afterwards were able to take pictures of the roses that were placed on the grave markers.

People gathering before the service

The Smith home and family cemetery are owned by the Community of Christ Church which originally was the RLDS.

Marble grave marker with roses

As you remember from Church History, Joseph and Hyrum were buried in unmarked, well hidden graves for fear of the graves being desecrated by the mob.  Many years later, their graves were found and their remains were reinterred here in the Smith Family Cemetery.

Grave marker with the Homestead in the background

Markers for Joseph’s mother and father

Homestead with view of the summer kitchen (log cabin)

Homestead well and Mississippi River in background

Front door of Homestead

Mansion House.  This is where the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum lay in state in a large room on the back of this building.  That room was destroyed years ago and no longer exists.  This building is also owned by the Community of Christ Church.

We enjoyed being at this Memorial Service and we later walked around and took a few pictures of the Smith properties.  We also walked over to the Red Brick Store which is on the opposite side of the cemetery from the Homestead.  The original Red Brick Store, run by Joseph and Emma, was destroyed many years ago and has been reconstructed.  It was interesting to browse through the goods on display and we made a couple of purchases.

We then got a better map of Nauvoo and found the Historic Nauvoo Visitors Center which is owned by the LDS Church and is at the other end of town.   We went there and got the information we needed to tour the other homes that have been restored in Nauvoo.

KEOKUK, IOWA

We will be here in Keokuk for about two weeks.  It is right on the Mississippi River and is very humid.  The first afternoon/evening we were here we drove out to the river and walked out onto an observation deck and watched barges go through the locks.  That day there had been some rain so it was very, very humid and very hot.  When we left, we didn’t turn off the AC so when we got back, it was almost dark and we noticed the RV windows were all fogged up.  We couldn’t see out at all, then we realized the fog was on the outside of the windows.  The glass had gotten cold enough for the hot humid air outside to condense on the windows.  Here are the pictures we took of the Mississippi and the locks.

Our first peek at the Mississippi

Barge in the lock

Water almost pumped out

Lock open

Barge leaving lock

It was a big one

Tug

Working hard to turn the barge into the channel

Out into the channel

As one pulls away, another one is ready to enter

Small one so it passed quickly

It was interesting to watch the whole process and we thought it was well worth our time to wait for the lock to empty.  We were about to melt by the time it was over.

SALEM, SOUTH DAKOTA AND KELLOGG, IOWA

We left the beautiful Black Hills and headed east and South Dakota soon took on the flat prairie look.  We loved our RV Park in Salem and took a few pictures of the little town of Salem, population about 1100. 

Our spot.  It rained quite a bit while we were there.

Swimming pool and a nice play area for the kids

Downtown Salem.  Pretty wild!

War memorial by a school

Light’s not good but we thought this was an impressive building

With time on their hands, they paint the fronts of their businesses

Flat land as far as the eye can see… and corn fields

Oh, wow, more corn.  Highest thing around is an occasional silo

And the town water tower

Entrance to the RV Park

We left Salem, SD and drove east into Iowa.   Our next stop was Kellogg, IA.  We got there just after they had received more than an inch of rain.  We had to set up the RV in a lake as the rain had puddled so bad and we got our feet wet.  I couldn’t send anyone a postcard from Salem or Kellogg because there were no postcards to send.  Actually, nothing of any interest for anyone to take a postcard picture of.  We couldn’t even find the town of Kellogg.  We saw a sign welcoming us but no town.  We didn’t take any pictures while in Kellogg either and were glad when it was time to leave there.  At lease the lake the RV was setting in had finally dried a little.  We saw thousands of fields of corn.  Many more silos and barns and then more corn fields.   It was pretty and green but very boring as we made our way across South Dakota and Iowa.  We were glad to get to Keokuk, Iowa where we finally stopped.  It’s nice to see something other than corn fields.  Now we see the Mississippi River.

SPEARFISH, SOUTH DAKOTA

We spent two weeks in the town of Spearfish and enjoyed it very much.  It is a clean, cute little town and we took some pictures of downtown streets.

We loved our stay in the Black Hills and were sorry when the time came to leave, but since we’d seen about all we could handle, we decided it was time to move on.

RAPID CITY–THE CITY OF PRESIDENTS

The last place we visited while we were still in the Black Hills was Rapid City.  We drove there from Spearfish mostly just to take a tour of a jewelry factory where they make Black Hills Gold.  We found the factory just fine and since it was well away from the main business district, they had a large parking lot.  We took the tour which was surprisingly interesting and we learned a lot about what Black Hills Gold is and how they make the unusual design on the jewelry.  All the steps involved, how many times each piece has to be fired, and all the time it takes many different people to hand craft all the intricate details is mind boggling. 

Black Hills Gold has a unique design and color. If you remember seeing Black Hills Gold, it is always of leaves and grapes.  The leaves are usually two, one with a green tint and one with a pink tint and the grapes are natural gold color.   This style was started years ago when a French goldsmith went to the Black Hills to seek his fortune in gold.  However, his gold prospecting did not work out so well so he decided to go back to making jewelry.  He wanted to make something that was different than everyone else was making, so he came up with the leaves and grapes because he had seen many grapes growing in the wild while prospecting and it reminded him of his home in the wine country of France.  To make the leaves green, they are alloyed with silver and the pink leaves are alloyed with copper.  Then with a very fine precision instrument, the veins in the leaves are carved into the gold.  By Federal Law, this design on jewelry can only be made in the Black Hills.  So if you see any jewelry with the green and pink leaves and gold grapes, it was made in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  It’s really beautiful, but quite expensive and we understood why after we took the tour. They wouldn’t allow us to take pictures during the tour.  We had a good time there and enjoyed it very much. 

That was before we went into the main business district of Rapid City.  We wanted to find a visitors center and some parking but both eluded us.  We could only find parking for a short time and we wanted to take a trolley tour of the city and see the presidential statues in the business district.  We couldn’t find parking and it was late enough in the day that we had already missed the last trolley.  We did finally find the information center for the City of Presidents but they didn’t know where we should park either.  There was plenty of private parking but we couldn’t find any for visitors.  We bought the postcards and a book that has a picture of each of the statues and a brief biography of each president.  I found it very interesting and humorous.  We took a few pictures from the book.  Hope nobody sues us.

John F. Kennedy and his son, John, Jr.  Kennedy is holding a toy airplane in his hand, about to give it to little John.

Back cover.  The pictures are of Washington, J. Q. Adams, Lincoln, McKinley, Roosevelt, Reagan, Polk, and Garfield

Lincoln has been reading the war report which is in his lap, informing him of all the lives that have been lost and he gazes at his young son playing with a toy cannon on the floor.  Lincoln’s expression is one of great sorrow.

Teddy Roosevelt in his Rough Riders uniform

“Stonewall” Jackson in his defiant, no compromise stance.

FDR as he delivered his “day that will live in infamy” speech.  The artist showed his leg braces peeking out from under his trousers.  Apparently it was with great effort that FDR was able to stand and move to the podium, which he was griping tightly with his hands.

Different view of JFK and John, Jr.

The only way to see all of the statues is to take a walking tour and go up and down all of the blocks taking pictures, and hopefully shopping along the way.  This is really quite an amazing place and we wished we could have spent more time there.  Unfortunately, Rapid City is also the City of NO PARKING!!

BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK

We took off one morning for the Badlands of South Dakota.  We got on the freeway and went through Rapid City and east to Wall, SD. The best thing about Wall, SD is that it’s where the turnoff toward the Badlands is located.   My, my, a tourist trap if I ever saw one.  We had been reading billboards for Wall Drug for 50 miles, which provided some entertainment, so we decided to check out Wall Drug to see if they really did have anything worth buying.  Lots and lots of other travels had been reeled in, too.  It was interesting and we did find a few things to buy and then we decided to try out their “homemade” ice cream.  We would have preferred a McDonald’s soft serve.  Never have had such tasteless ice cream in my life.  We did, however, buy some very tasty penuche.  So, all in all, we were glad we stopped at Wall Drug in Wall, SD.  By the way, that’s about the only thing in Wall, SD.  Just a great big complex of many small shops that each sold something different.  More like the Wall Mall but not roomy and nice.

We took off toward the Badlands and traveled through a portion of the protected grasslands.  I’ve read about the prairie grass many times but never quite envisioned what it was like.  Well, its grass.  Nothing else.  Grows tall and thick and I could easily imagine huge herds of buffalo grazing as far as the eye could see.  It’s prolific and it’s everywhere.  This time of the year it was beautiful and green and it was hypnotic to watch it wave in the prairie wind.

When we got to the Badlands and saw the bare soil and rock formations with the green grass as a background, it was breathtaking.  We really loved going through the Badlands and we were glad it had been made a National Park.  Hiking trails everywhere and we saw wildlife here and there.

We took lots of pictures and we sent you all a postcard from the badlands.  It really is that amazing.  Here are some of the pictures we took.

We stopped at an overlook

We didn’t walk out to this further overlook.  We’re good at going down a hill but not so good at climbing back up.  We went out to many others that were more on the level.

Very interesting formations and beautiful vista

The more adventurous could walk out on trails on top of the hogbacks

Herd of buffalo

Prairie dog mounds all around the big guy

Deep canyons

Pinnacles in the distance

Different colors in the soil layers

I loved this.  Deep canyons all around with a green meadow in the center

The air was so clear out here we could see for 30 miles, as far as eagle’s nest butte.

Most of the drive so far was up on the plateau looking down into the canyons.

Then, the road took us down into the canyons looking up

Wildflowers competing with the prairie grass for sunshine

An interesting skyline view as well as the knifepoint ridges down the sides.

A little window.

The Badlands are made of soft soil with layers of rock.  The formations are being eroded at the rate of 1 inch per year.  It has taken 500,000 years to create these formations and in only another 500,000 years, they will be gone.

We very much enjoyed our day in the Badlands and are very happy we decided to take the rather extensive drive out to see them.  It was well worth our time.  Going back we got on the freeway and stopped in Wall (again) where we had something to eat then headed home.  We were very tired at the end of that day.