Well we are finally here in Ohio! Most of our trip was obviously driving, so this isn't the most exciting post but I did want to highlight some things we did on our long car trip. It went much better than expected for us, but unfortunately I can't say the same for my parents. We headed out on Aug 11th and had only been driving for about 4 hrs when our first tire blew on the moving truck. (Yup- our FIRST tire. More to come later on...)
My parents generously sat out on the side of the road for almost 2 hours so that we could keep driving and get Kaylee to a hotel. The next morning we headed out again and had made it another 3 hours or so when our second tire blew! My parents, again, were the ones to deal with it and waited for the guy to come change the tire so that we could move on. We drove all day long and finally made it to a hotel in Nebraska with enough time to end the night with a swim.
This was the longest day of driving for us but it actually went by pretty fast. The next day we drove to our destination (Nauvoo, IL) by about 2:00 and had lots of time left to explore the city. As we were crossing the bridge that goes over the Mississippi River I got really excited for the first time on our drive. It was SO beautiful and green everywhere and the river was massive.
However, I was disappointed in the city of Nauvoo. I guess because we talk about it so much in the church, I expected it to be a big city. But it is basically one main street that has a couple of little cafes, a tiny grocery store, and a gas station, and then of course the historical sites. But it was really cool to see things like the Nauvoo Temple
Joseph, Hyrum, and Emma's graves
and the Red Brick Store where the Relief Society was started.
The next day, my dad was checking out the front tire of the moving van and noticed it had several big cracks in it. Not wanting a repeat of what had happened TWICE already, he called U-Haul and asked them to change this tire before it blew. We are very lucky that he checked out the tire because when the guy came and looked at it, he said it would have blown for sure. So three new tires later, our moving truck was finally ready to go for the rest of the trip. Before we left Nauvoo, we went to church in the morning and then stopped by the Visitor's Center. The best part about the Visitor's Center is the Women's Garden which has a bunch of statues surrounded by TONS of beautiful flowers.
We were the only ones there and it was really peaceful to walk around and look at all the neat statues they have celebrating women. We were sad to leave Nauvoo but excited to keep going on our journey. Monday morning we headed out on the road and I could hardly believe that we were actually going to sleep in our new house that night. When we finally crossed into Ohio, I was practically jumping up and down in my seat and it made the last leg of the drive go a lot quicker. This isn't the best picture in the world but was our first glimpse of Columbus:
Pictures of our new apartment will be coming soon, but it's enough to say that we LOVE it. It is WAY bigger than anything we've had before, not to mention newer, nicer, and has a lot of amenities we've never had before (like a dishwasher- hooray!). We had so many miracles happen on our trip, I know that we were very blessed and that Heavenly Father was watching over us and protecting us on the way. Just to mention a few- even though we had so many problems with the tire, nothing happened to hurt my dad while he was driving or other people on the road. We could have had a huge disaster with that 3rd tire, but we were protected because my dad followed through on his feelings to check the tires. Also, I get motion sickness pretty bad when I'm in the car and I had to sit with Kaylee in the back almost the entire drive. But for some reason, I was not sick AT ALL. And finally, Kaylee was an absolute angel. She loved to help her Daddy out with anything he was doing:
I was most nervous about how she would do driving all this way but she was amazing the entire time. Out of the 27+ hours we drove, she had a tough time for MAYBE 2 hours of it. Most of the time she slept or was content just playing with whatever was on hand. She slept in every hotel room without any problems and never complained about getting back in the car, even when she had to take her naps like this:
She has had a little bit of a hard time since we've been here, adjusting to all the "newness" of everything but she could not have been better behaved in the car. We are so grateful for all the miracles we had on the way and that we are finally here and loving Columbus!
