The Move: Part 1 (again--with Slide Show)

This first segment of our trip consisted of the following legs:

1. Sanford, North Carolina to Knoxville, Tennessee

2. Knoxville, Tennessee to St. Louis, Missouri

3. St. Louis, Missouri to Nauvoo, Illinois

We had good roads with plenty of construction all along the way. Our big destination was Mindy's sister, Julie's new home in St. Louis, MO. Julie & her family had just moved from NC and we were all excited to see them again and spend some time together in Nauvoo with our families.

On the way to Nauvoo, Mindy & Julie saw lots of Corn Coons, fake-bi0-genetically engineered corn fields and learned that not only does MapQuest lie to you, but so does AAA's TripTik.

At the turn off in Illinois to go up to Nauvoo, the very smart sisters pulled over to the side of the road to double-check our directions to make sure we were going the right way. 20 minutes later we still had not found the turn off we were looking for that was supposed to be 3 miles down on the Right. So, we did what anybody would do, we ignored Jason's calls on the cell phone, pulled over where he couldn't go with the U-Haul truck & trailer to consult our directions again.

Well, Jas pulled over behind us, succeeding in creating a traffic jam consisting of a whopping 3 cars behind him on that little country road. Jason got to meet a very friendly Illinois State Trooper who informed him that we needed to turn around and go back 20 miles then turn Right to get to Nauvoo. We did so.

We got to Nauvoo in plenty of time to cook foil dinners, have Julies' 2 girls get bonks on the head and had plenty of time to find seats for the Nauvoo Pageant. Now, you might ask, where was Dr. Beege for all of this? Well, the Good Doctor was at work! BJ left for Nauvoo right after he got off work and drove up to Nauvoo to join us, taking a scenic route through Iowa on the way.

It was an awesome trip!

P.S.

Contrary to all the advice both couples received, Nauvoo is MORE than "Just an hour to the North of St. Louis" and is FARTHER than "About 2 1/2 hours from St. Louis"

it took us MUCH LONGER THAN THAT!