We got up this morning and anticipated a great day, and we were not disappointed! Since we were scheduled to participate in the Nauvoo on the Road today, we were up early and getting ready for the 7:15am start time. We walked over to the Nauvoo Visitors Center to meet the others going with us and I took this picture:
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| The Johnson's, Angels, Sister Garrison, Eternal Companion, and Sister Stirling |
The Nauvoo on the Road is our traveling road show that is scheduled for community events, fairs, and a variety of activities where we can tell people about Nauvoo and invite them to "come and see". Today we traveled over 100 miles to a city called Blakesburg, in Iowa, for their annual Blakeburg Corn Festival. Everyone in that community seemed to participate, and they love what we brought to the event. We showed them how to make rope, and every participant gets their 6' rope, and we showed them the Pioneer Games, and how to make candles and bricks, and how the pioneers made cookies. All the activities were very popular and it gave some great exposure to the Church and to Nauvoo. Incidentally, there are two LDS families who live in and around Blakesburg, which has a population of over 2,000. Many of these folks have never heard of the Mormons, except perhaps, when the temple had such widespread publicity in 2002. Here are some shots of this fun community and family centered event:
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| A big Victorian home across from the park |
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| The Blakesburg 'all volunteer' fire department |
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| The police cruiser |
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| Lovely Nauvoo Missionaries |
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| Classic John Deere Tractors from as far back as 1942 |
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| Classic Case Tractors dating back to the 1950's |
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| The bathtub races! |
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A fun part about the bathtub race is that you had to have a team of four participants and one rode in the tub full of water. Then they raced through the obstacle course to see who would advance in the brackets. They wanted the missionaries to form a team! ..... tempting but not advisable with a 3 hour ride back to Nauvoo!
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| Here is mom showing the kids how a favorite pioneer game is played! |
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| The Amish mode of transportation |
We stopped at this Amish village store and bought some peach salsa and some corn salsa. It was a fun place to explore. We were on our way home, by this time, and we had already been out on this event for just over ten hours! However, this was a great way to meet some of these precious people. They even had a road sign for travelers to get a free soft serve ice cream cone, and/or coffee, and/or bag of popcorn. They were doing a brisk business!
Well, we did have a wonderful day. And we got to work with some great missionaries in inviting these Blakesville folks to come and visit Nauvoo. And it looks like some will take us up on the offer to "come and see"!
That sounds like fun! Glad mom was able to get back home at bedtime ;)!
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