Our shoe rack was our dining table for our last few days. Since we are moving out of the country we got rid of a lot more things than we normally would have. So we invited people over to basically come grocery shopping and scrounge through all the things we weren't taking. It actually went really well and we didn't end up with too much stuff at the end.
In true Yates fashion we put up a white board for our to-do lists and made a calendar of the last month before moving. This is where we decided to road trip back to Utah instead of drive. I really wanted to take our time and see some church sites along the way, so I was really happy when the cost of flying/Barrett driving the car home turned out to be more than just all driving together :)
We had our last walk to the local ice cream shop in Hampden we loved, called the Charmery.
A last look at the view from our balcony before leaving our Baltimore apartment. (I was a little sad we didn't have a last walk through campus, but Barrett was able to)
Goodbye high-rise living. Goodbye Johns Hopkins. Goodbye Baltimore.
All ready for "Baltosal".
The bike made us feel like legit roadtrippers.
And luckily this happened frequently on our long trek home! She really did amazing staying entertained during our long drives.
First stop: Kirtland, Ohio
We loved Kirtland and were so happy to be able to go there. We stopped by the Kirtland temple first. It was amazing to stand in the place where all the keys of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were restored. And to know that Christ had stood in that room! It was an amazing feeling. I also had the opportunity to play the "Spirit of God" on the piano while everyone sang.
Random picture, but isn't that a giant bush?
Then we went over to the area that the Church owns and saw the Newel K. Whitney store, other houses, the saw mill where supplies for the temple was made, and watched a great movie describing the Saints time there. Another great spirit being with the missionaries constantly testifying.
After dinner in Kirtland we were on the road for a few more hours to our first hotel stop in Angola, Ohio.
We drove most of Sunday and made it to Nauvoo that evening. We stopped to see the Nauvoo temple first.
I went to Nauvoo when I was 11 with my family, but I didn't remember that much about the town. I had forgotten how small and remote it was. The temple stands out above everything. We made it to the Family Living Center to learn how ropes, barrels, bread, etc. was made when pioneers lived there. It was hard finding somewhere to eat, but we researched and discovered this great pizza place inside a gas station. Seriously the best pizza we've ever had.
Eating on the shore of the Mississippi River next to Joseph and Hyrum Smith's statue.
The Mississippi River was absolutely gorgeous!
We took a little time to walk and read journal entries on the Trail of Hope.
We stayed at historic Hotel Nauvoo, which was a fun old, tiny hotel. I found this while we were exploring all the antiques in the hotel.
I'm kind of a sap for things like this. Not the prettiest display, but the quote just struck me with how true it was at this time in our lives as we are journeying from Baltimore to Norway.
We headed to Carthage Jail first thing the next morning. We watched a movie about the martyrdom and toured the jail. It is amazing how close to the original building it still is. We both felt the spirit so strong there, especially as you listen to "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" sung. I wish I could go over all the tender mercies and kind people who tried to help Joseph during this time, but I guess you just have to go there to hear for yourself :)
An original bullet hole that killed Hyrum.
The window Joseph fell out of after he was shot.
This was probably our favorite part of this stop.
We drove back to Nauvoo and spent the rest of the morning touring more of the houses.
The graves of Hyrum, Joseph, and Emma at the Mansion House.
After lunch we spent of the rest of the day driving to our next hotel stop in Kearney, Nebraska.
We intended to stop in Fort Laramie on our last day of driving to break up the day, but learned when we got to Laramie, Wyoming that the fort is 2 hours away, ha ha. Oops. So it was just lunch and back on the road.
This is walking around at our last rest stop in Wyoming.
Barrett and I like listening to podcasts while we drive long distances, but we heard about this book called "The Survivors Club". Most of our drive was spent listening to this great audio book. If you ever have a road trip, I highly recommend this book.
We were so excited to see our Utah mountains!
We're probably a little biased, but this was definitely the prettiest part of the whole drive. The mountains in Utah are really spectacular, especially when you've been away from them for awhile.
And four days from when we began we arrived at my parents house.
