Day 26 -- All day in Nauvoo, Illinois -- 5 Miles on a tour bus

Today we spent the entire day quenching our thirst for history as we strolled and toured by bus the 1840s city of Nauvoo, illinois. My 3-times great grandfather and his family, after they and other Mormon families had been evicted from the state of Missouri by the Governor, lived either here or near here from 1839 until 1846. Records show that he didn't live in Nauvoo city at first, but lived about 95 miles south in a place call Big Neck Prairie. Later (I think) he moved up to Nauvoo, perhaps just before the Mormons were forced to flee to Iowa and Nebraska in 1846.

So far we haven't really located any information on my ancestors, the Daleys, but tomorrow we're going to the records building which, we're told, has all the information available on each family who lived in Nauvoo, and traveled west from Nauvoo. We did get to see a book today, part of a huge, two-volume set, that lists all the prominent Mormons known, and we did not find my 3-times great grandfather. However, we did find mentioned of one of his sons, at the time living with my 3-times great grandfather in San Bernardino, California. Kind of funny they wrote up the son and not the father.

Concetta and I spent the morning just visiting the shops on main street, me seeking out books that might contribute to my research, she looking for presents for grandkids. We miraculously managed to find both. The light on the town and the Mormon temple was just wonderful today so we were able to take a bunch of photos before we started to make our way back to the RV for lunch. About then was when we decided to check with the tour company we'd seen on Mullholland Street to see what they had to offer, since a tour might be nice for something to do after lunch.

Well, that idea turned out to be the best decision we've made this whole trip. Somehow, through the dumbest of luck, we ran into just the perfect guy to tell us about the city. A resident of Salt Lake City, Utah, Bob was a visitor to Nauvoo himself just a few years ago. After his visit he and his wife compared notes and decided that Nauvoo was just the most charming and friendly city they'd ever visited. So the two packed up when they had returned home and moved here. Now they spend their time coordinating rentals for incoming tourists, running their own publishing business that specializes in historical subjects, and, in their spare time, running a small tour bus that hits all the local points of interest in a 90-minute period. Shoot, the guy also does walking tours of the town, which lets him see the history up close and personal.

Hearing that he was both an author and a publisher, I warmed to Bob right away. We asked him about the tour bus, and he told us that the bus was in not in regular tour status until the end of May. But, he said, if we wanted to go he'd fire it up and take us on the regular tour. We asked him the price, and decided it wasn't too steep. We told Bob that we'd think about it over lunch and come back if we decided to take him up on his offer. Well, we hadn't gotten twenty steps outside the door on our way to the rig when we decided that a personal tour was just too good to pass up. Since he'd followed us out the door on his way to do an errand, I turned and told him we'd decided to accept and we'd see him at 1:00 p.m. if that worked for him. With that the deal was struck.

Then, starting at 1:00 p.m., we just had the most heavenly personal tour we've EVER been on. Since we were his only customers for the day, Bob would stop the bus and let us get off to take photos whenever we asked. We didn't shoot everything, but we got a nice representative group I think. It would have been nice to be on foot for the photography part, since the sky was so blue and the red brick buildings were so, well, red. But had we been on foot we wouldn't have seen 10% of what we saw on the tour, and we wouldn't have gotten the wonderful explanations.

I was especially thrilled to get to photograph the "jumping off" spot in old Nauvoo where the wagon trains left the city and crossed the Mississippi. When the very first wagons left in February, 1846, it was so very cold that the Mississippi had actually frozen hard enough for wagons to drive across the ice. Later trains would have to be ferried across on a raft.

I always had trouble visualizing the mighty Mississippi freezing thick enough to support a wagon and three yoke of oxen, but today we learned that before the dam was built just downstream from Nauvoo the portion of the river opposite the city was known as the "Jumping Rapids" for it's extremely rough -- and shallow -- water. After the dam was built the level of the river adjacent to Nauvoo rose eight feet and eliminated the rapids.

Bob took us all over town, stopping at each historic building to acquaint us with who lived there, how long they lived there, and what eventually happened to them. Since Bob writes historic books, and is constantly researching, the facts come to him easily. We got to see Joseph Smith's house in town as well as his farm on the outskirts of town. We also got to see Brigham Young's house. And there were a couple of dozen others that had not been significantly altered since the Mormon's left. Of course, the Mormon Church now owns huge swaths of land, both under and around Nauvoo. They've done a marvelous job on restoration of many buildings. They've also done facsimiles of some buildings that had been torn down for materials by later, non-Mormon residents.

By three o'clock our 90-minute tour that had lasted over two hours had come to a close. Concetta and I had an absolutely marvelous time, but it was time to retrace our steps to our RV, that we had left in a "bus only" parking lot nearby, and be off. Our plan was to drive south on the east back of the Mississippi, cross the river at Keokuk, Iowa, and seek out that wondrous shopping emporium known as Walmart. Anyone who has done RVing knows that an RV fridge will fit only a few days worth of eatables. Since Nauvoo has no Walmart, the GPS voice told us to seek out the one in Keokuk.

A couple of hours later, and back at the camp we'd found last night, we came to the end of perhaps the best day we've had on this vacation. Granted, two weeks of rain earlier in the trip didn't do much for either our enthusiasm or our ability to do outdoor exploring, but today definitely put those feelings behind us. And really, Nauvoo is just a darn cool place to visit. Whether you have Mormon ancestors or not, it's still such a perfectly restored piece of our history that you simply must see it.

And I got one more gift today. As we were touring the western end of old Nauvoo, down where the immigrants of 1846 were making ready their wagons to cross the Mississippi, Bob stopped the bus, as I've said, to let me take a few photos. "And while you're out there," Bob said, "go up the hill to our right and check out the monument to all the people who crossed to Nebraska from here. If your 2-times great grandfather's brother died on that trip, his name will be on the monument."

Now THAT got my attention. After taking my photos I turned and sprinted up the path to the monument and eagerly began to look for the name "Daley" on the stone. To my disappointment I saw no one. But then I began to scan for other family names, just to see if any Curtis or Dibble family members died on the trip across Iowa. And there, to my great astonishment, I saw the name of my 3-times great grandmother, Ruth Franklin Curtis!

Her maiden name of Franklin comes from old Ben Franklin's line, so she's an important lady. I had no idea she'd even been on the great trek west from Nauvoo, let alone died on the trip. Naturally, the first thing I did when I got into camp was look her up on my family tree. Sure enough, she died in Council Bluffs, Iowa, just across the River from Winter Quarters. Concetta and I had driven right through Council Bluffs and had I known she was there, I might have been able to locate where she was buried. Oh, well, I'll have to look for her next trip.

Anyway, that's all for now. Tomorrow we're off to Springfield, Illinois. Concetta and I wish you Happy Travels.