Days 8-11, June 16-19, 2010

We left Nauvoo on the morning of the 16th and drove to Council Bluff, Iowa.  What took the pioneers four months to cross took us a day.  However we did not have as easy time either.  We left at 9:35 a.m.  We originally planned to get there early enough to maybe see my mission president who is serving there currently at the temple.  It took 9 hours and we got there at 6:30 p.m.  We stayed in the Country Inn and Suites.  We were so tired we just ordered pizza and relaxed.  President and Sister Oaks was attending a play so we got there too late to see them.

It was extremely windy and we were nervous about the trailer since its hard to pull in wind so we went slower.  Also we waited too long to get gas and the light came on and we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere.  We found a gas station on the GPS so we took the exit.  The right looked more promising but we went left since it said it was on the left.  When we got to it it was burned down and no where to turn around the trailer.  We ended up on a dirt road in the middle of a cornfield running on fumes.  I finally convinced Ray to turn back towards the freeway and we made a big circle and ended up in a small town on the right of the freeway (yes if we had gone right we would have hit a gas station within a mile.) 

We had wanted to stay a little bit in the morning and see President and Sister Oaks but because we had such a bad day and the distance was just as long we decided we had to start early.  I had tried to cancel reservations and make new ones (which I did for one of the nights but couldn't for that night.) And that proved to be a smart idea to leave early.

We left at 9:15 a.m. and didn't arrive until 7 p.m. Mountain Time.  We had a time change and so it really took almost 11 hours.  We camped at Lake McConaughy, NE.  It was a white knuckle ride with lots of wind.  We finally got off the freeway and took the highway across the river (the Mormon Trail.)  While driving across Nebraska our trailer mirror on the passenger side flew off and shattered all over the road.

We stopped at a Walmart before the campground and since it was so late we just ate dinner at McDonalds.  Once we got to the campground we had to unclog our black tank with a stick.  Then we took the kids to a playground.

On the 18th we drove from Nebraska to Rawlins, WY.  We originally had planned to camp in Green River, WY but because of the bad days of driving we cancelled that reservation and made one for the KOA in Rawlins.  It took just under 8 hours of driving that day.  We left at 9:15 a.m. and arrived at 5 p.m. 

The pool was closed because of storms that had caused it to flood and they were working on getting their chemical levels back up.  So we just played at the playground.  We met another family there and Sheila and Timmy played with their daughter. 

On the 19th we had planned to drive just to Echo, UT.  It was only 3 hours from my parents but it was supposed to be a heavy drive again and a lot of mountains.  However driving over the mountains was a lot easier than we anticipated and so when we reached Echo it was only 3 p.m.  I called my parents to let them know we would be arriving that day.

The kids enjoyed a little hike up the mountain with dad at Echo.  We arrived at Rupert, Idaho at 7 p.m. We had planned to get some dinner at Snowville.  There use to be a subway there but when we got there it was closed down so we ended up eating dinner at the truck stop at the Flying J.  We just got some of the deli stuff they have there.

It was so good to finally arrive.  We got our trailer hooked up and then spent the evening with Mom and Dad and catching up.  The kids initially were scared of Freckles but they soon warmed up to her.