Oxy-Mormon: Liberty Jail, Among other things.

Our next stop, a surprisingly short distance from Adom-ondi-ahmon was really a small series of stops, we went to Liberty Jail (an oxy-moron used to hold Mormons, hence the pun in the title), Carthage Jail, and A Visiting center set up in the area that more or less encompassed all three stops. We learned about what took place at both jails and about the history of the Latter Day Saints who had lived in that area. I took pictures of a few key things I thought work documenting.

This is where the cornerstones for a temple had been laid,

each corner represented a different area of the Priesthood

Liberty Jail,

what it would have looked like 

while Joseph Smith was there.

A picture taken through the hole made by the bullet that shot Hyrum,

to the Window that Joseph fell out of,

Carthage Jail.

The Community of Christ Temple

Temple Site, 

We don't own the land yet,

but eventually a grand temple will be built here.

Someone obviously didn't like this sign...

The Signs not 100% accurate, 

or even placed there by the church it was trying to describe,

but that doesn't merit trying to chop it down.

First Stop: Adam-ondi-ahman

First place we stopped at? Adam-ondi-ahman, The sacred meeting place of our ancestral Patriarch Adam. 105 degrees, humidity index? sweltering. The car became a safe haven of cool-ness, outside, an oven. After being outside the cramped comfort of the backseat for only five minutes I was praying for global air-conditioning. I didn't let my discomfort distract my from the beauty of the place though, I took pictures from many angles and on the short nature hike available to us. All in all, we spent just under two hours there, but that was enough for us to be eager to get back to the car. Even with all the heat sweltering in on us, I couldn't help notice the special spirit that permeates the area, Its not just the beauty of the foliage either, there is something there that demands your respect, even if all you want to do is find the nearest glacier and roll around on it. It brought the message home to remember that this was where Adam had lived, and where a lot of future and sacred events are even yet to take place. I took a picture of it with my phone right as we were about to leave, Its now the wallpaper for my phone's screen and I am reminded about my brief time there every time I pick it up to check the time or talk to a friend.

"Life is a Funny Thing" The Exodus.

Our trip was a 10 day road trip that looped counter-clockwise around the mid-western land locked states of our country. We made stops in Missouri, Illinois, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah, drove over 1,200 miles, and created memories that will be with us the rest of our lives.

With over 50 hours of driving we had to be creative finding fun things to do in the car. My brothers worked on creating a Ipod application that (I predict) will hit the shelves by the end of the year, if not the end of the summer. I read books, and Tyler played his video game. Including the audio books that we played through out the trip, I read 6 books in ten days, and only got car-sick once. We stopped and did temple work in two temples, the Navoo Temple, and the Vernal Temple, both are very beautiful.

I took pictures along the whole way, the best ones I'll put on this blog, the most of my photos will be contained in my next few posts, in chronological order (unlike this one), My mom made me promise not to inclose all 400 photos I took, so if you want to see all of them, stop by my house, they're on my computer.

These are my Favorites About The Car Trip,
I took all of these, either about the car, or from the car window.

 I saw this reflected in our car as we were packing to leave South Dakota,

I had to take a picture, It was awesome.

South Dakota Sunset, I'm liking it here already.

Notice, no Mountains, 

Still beautiful though.

Hey look! Mountains, 

but why are their peaks lower than my feet?

Sunset, Still beautiful.

First Glimpse of Independence Rock, 

Prairie as far as the eye can see,

oh wait, is that a rock?

no wonder they wrote their names on it.

These people were touring the country in that car, 

we met at Devils Gate, Martins Cove,

I Thought the contrast was rare and beautiful.

How many Grapes can YOU fit in your mouth.

The day before we left on vacation, my mom was packing some grapes for our trip. There were some extras that wouldn't fit in her container, so I did the natural thing and stuffed them all in my mouth at the same time. 36 grapes, 1 mouth, 3600% more fun. you do the math.

While this really isn't part of my vacation, I meant to share it before we left but never really got around to it,  I would like to issue a challenge, any one who can fit 37+ grapes in their mouth, and show me a picture, I will personally buy them some grape juice, free of charge. :)