Heyo, denizens of HomeTown, my 2-week vacation is at its end and some of you wanted to know what I did and saw. I made a log to document the highlights of my travels and took plenty of pictures to share. The traveling party consisted of myself and 3 others, which my travel-mates will remain nameless out of respect for their privacy.
Well here it goes.
Friday, July 22nd 2016 - Day 1: We left in the evening when everyone was off work and had time to pack, our first destination was Nauvoo, Illinois. The four of us drove in a 12-passenger van as far as we could and tried calling ahead to make a hotel reservation; no vacancies anywhere. We made it 40 miles outside of St. Louis, Missouri around midnight when we decided to stop at a truckstop and sleep in the van there. Luckily, 3 of us got a whole bench to sleep on and the 4th was okay sleeping in a front seat. I kept my Glock 26 loaded and accessible all night.
Day 2: Woke up to the A/C blasting frigid air in my face and the road's bumps rocking me back-and-forth. The person sleeping upfront decided to start driving around 6AM and it was around 8AM when I woke; he made good distance between us and the truckstop that morning. We ended up in Hannibal, Missouri when we decided to get breakfast; we asked a local where the best place to dine was. We dined at a place called "Logue's Restaurant" on that local's suggestion [Huckleberry Heights Drive, Hannibal, Missouri; would recommend], which had amazing food. The two pancakes that came with my meal were as large as my face and very fluffy. When we went to pay our check, we were surprised to find out that an elderly man sitting beside our table had paid for us on his way out. We guess he pitied us rough-looking, zombie-like travelers that morning. We arrived in Nauvoo around noon. The place was more-or-less a massive museum with many interesting places to visit. We went through the visitors' center, and then stopped by the former home/workshop of Jonathan Browning–father of John Moses Browning and founder of Browning firearms. The guide talked about his history and showed us many of the firearms that were on display, which included a case filled with old flintlock weapons worth millions. The case was protected with many sensors, for obvious reasons. Our next stop was the brickmason's workshop where we learned how bricks were made in the 1800s and we even got a brick for free. Then we learned how tin objects were made at the tinsmith's shop, which we decided to get lunch after and go to the hotel for a nap. When we woke up, we went back to the Nauvoo historic site for a festival for the remainder of the evening. The day was fun.
Day 3: Did not sleep well at all. My designated bed-mate for the trip is a blanket-stealer in his sleep. Kinda miss the van's bench in that regard. Our next destination was Omaha, Nebraska; which took us through Iowa. One word describes Iowa's highway scenery: dull. Nothing but corn fields, fallow fields, peanut fields, and the occasional wind turbine to spice things up. We arrived in Omaha safely, and our first stop was a pioneer museum, which we had to only go though very little–we decided to return the following day to see all of it. We dined at a restaurant I've never heard before: Runza. They sold runzas, which is a mixture of beef, cabbage, and spices on sandwiches of differing varieties; it was quite good. When we got to the hotel, myself and a travelmate went swimming and returned to the room with the others. We ended up watching the end of Rush Hour 3 and the start of Rush Hour 1 before turning in.
Day 4: My bedmate strikes again. He almost pushed me off the bed twice, and then elbowed me in the face and chest twice. Our next stop is Rawlins, Wyoming. One of the things I noticed well was the lack of humidity that I've known all my life in the Southern states; it was interesting breathing in cool, dry morning air for once. After some hours on the road, I decided to take a nap since I was lacking good sleep the past few days. This ended abruptly when the driver stopped suddenly and sent me crashing lengthwise–and face-first–into the bench in front of mine. Good sleep is doomed, I feel. We stopped at a gas station, when an elderly woman–that I suppose thought we were stealing her spot at a pump–gave us the middle-finger. We got ice cream at a DQ nearby after we filled up. When the plains became more visible and I could see miles upon miles of rolling hills, I observed how beautiful the country we were passing through was:
"The corn fields of Nebraska's plains are more immense than I realized. Fields upon fields of glistening emerald leaves waving in the wind, upon which sparse clouds cast isles of darkness on the Earth below."
Much more different than the city-scape I've only known well my whole life. Realized at the hotel in Rawlins that I forgot my phone's charger in Omaha; awesome.
Day 5: woke to my bedmate's pillow being jammed in my face; the fuck is sleep? Stopped by a Wal-mart for supplies, and I bought myself a replacement charger. Next stop: Provo, Utah. Before crossing over into Utah, we stopped by the Martin's Cove Visitors' Center, which was another pioneer historic site/museum. I took a nap and woke up an hour before sunset, which is when we crossed over into Utah. I got many pretty pictures of the scenery on our way into town. We stayed in a relatives home and I got to sleep by myself, which happened to be on a couch in a room filled with creepy, porcelain dolls. They may be creepy, but at least they don't steal blankets.
Day 6: woke up the most refreshed I've been on the trip so far. A travelmate and I walked a mile to gas-stop and back for a slushie; travelmate had a craving for one and did not want to go alone. The morning was not hectic, as they had been on the road. Next destination is Manti, Utah. We went to Palisades Park in Manti, Utah to go swimming and boating in the lake. We washed off at the hotel and went to dinner with extended family to a Mexican restaurant. We all returned to the hotel and player Uno and Skipbo for a couple of hours before I went to bed.
Day 7: Today's activities consisted of looking at the local sites around Manti. We went to another pioneer historic site, a woodworker's shop, an art gallery/natural history museum, and we went to a German restaurant for lunch. We went back to the hotel to nap. Two of the travelmates went off to their own thing for the evening, so myself and the other travelmate went to go see the new Star Trek movie; it was amazing!
Day 8: My group and extended family rented multi-passenger ATVs and went riding through mountain trails today, and I got many amazing pictures. We even reached the top of the mountains, which looked more like a plains, surprisingly. We had a picnic up in the mountains. However, when we decided to make the return trip, we found the way we went was blocked off by wood-cutters. We had to push forward to return back, which meant going down the trails meant for extreme ATVers. There were numerous times when I was driving I had to navigate over trails beset with bowlingball-sized rocks, slippery trails through rivers, and drive inches away from a sheer cliff at angles that leaned us near 45 degrees over to look down at a ~100ft+ drop–some parts of the roads had fallen away, too. We made it back safely, but I'm sure we lost some days of life from the scares. When we got back to the hotel around 5PM, we were caked in dust. All we wanted to do at that point was shower and then sleep.
Day 9: Headed back to Provo, Utah to the same house. We stopped by a co-op owned by Scandinavian artisans. There were lots of cool baubles, books, and other crafts of all kinds on sale there. I purchased a Danish cookbook for my collection of cookbooks at home. We watched Lord of The Rings and Ant-man that evening before bed.
Day 10: Two of the travelmates took us to go see Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah; which is a historic site owned by the Latter-Day Saints' church. After this, we went to stay with a relative and spent time with a cousin, we watched Red and Bounty Hunter that evening.
Day 11: We woke up and made churro french toast and watched another movie with the cousin. We played Uno, drew stuff with chalk, and went to go see Star Trek–again–with the cousin.
Day 12: We went to a lake to go waverunning, kayaking, and swimming all day. I got thrown off the waverunner twice. We pretty much crashed when we got back to the relatives' home.
Day 13: Went to a bird refuge, the golden spike historic site, and had pizza for dinner. We watched King Kong that evening.
Day 14 - 15: Headed homeward, spent hours in the car with nothing interesting.
Day 16: Made a quick detour to visit the Fantastic Caverns near Springfield, Missouri. Made it home around 10:30PM.
Photos <These are mainly the scenic/historic pictures I took>: https://postimg.org/gallery/lwf0mfma/4399bba0/
More photos <Day 7's trip to the natural history museum/art gallery>: https://postimg.org/gallery/2zsk4lqqa/3d9b5a7/
I may post more pictures later.
Well here it goes.
Friday, July 22nd 2016 - Day 1: We left in the evening when everyone was off work and had time to pack, our first destination was Nauvoo, Illinois. The four of us drove in a 12-passenger van as far as we could and tried calling ahead to make a hotel reservation; no vacancies anywhere. We made it 40 miles outside of St. Louis, Missouri around midnight when we decided to stop at a truckstop and sleep in the van there. Luckily, 3 of us got a whole bench to sleep on and the 4th was okay sleeping in a front seat. I kept my Glock 26 loaded and accessible all night.
Day 2: Woke up to the A/C blasting frigid air in my face and the road's bumps rocking me back-and-forth. The person sleeping upfront decided to start driving around 6AM and it was around 8AM when I woke; he made good distance between us and the truckstop that morning. We ended up in Hannibal, Missouri when we decided to get breakfast; we asked a local where the best place to dine was. We dined at a place called "Logue's Restaurant" on that local's suggestion [Huckleberry Heights Drive, Hannibal, Missouri; would recommend], which had amazing food. The two pancakes that came with my meal were as large as my face and very fluffy. When we went to pay our check, we were surprised to find out that an elderly man sitting beside our table had paid for us on his way out. We guess he pitied us rough-looking, zombie-like travelers that morning. We arrived in Nauvoo around noon. The place was more-or-less a massive museum with many interesting places to visit. We went through the visitors' center, and then stopped by the former home/workshop of Jonathan Browning–father of John Moses Browning and founder of Browning firearms. The guide talked about his history and showed us many of the firearms that were on display, which included a case filled with old flintlock weapons worth millions. The case was protected with many sensors, for obvious reasons. Our next stop was the brickmason's workshop where we learned how bricks were made in the 1800s and we even got a brick for free. Then we learned how tin objects were made at the tinsmith's shop, which we decided to get lunch after and go to the hotel for a nap. When we woke up, we went back to the Nauvoo historic site for a festival for the remainder of the evening. The day was fun.
Day 3: Did not sleep well at all. My designated bed-mate for the trip is a blanket-stealer in his sleep. Kinda miss the van's bench in that regard. Our next destination was Omaha, Nebraska; which took us through Iowa. One word describes Iowa's highway scenery: dull. Nothing but corn fields, fallow fields, peanut fields, and the occasional wind turbine to spice things up. We arrived in Omaha safely, and our first stop was a pioneer museum, which we had to only go though very little–we decided to return the following day to see all of it. We dined at a restaurant I've never heard before: Runza. They sold runzas, which is a mixture of beef, cabbage, and spices on sandwiches of differing varieties; it was quite good. When we got to the hotel, myself and a travelmate went swimming and returned to the room with the others. We ended up watching the end of Rush Hour 3 and the start of Rush Hour 1 before turning in.
Day 4: My bedmate strikes again. He almost pushed me off the bed twice, and then elbowed me in the face and chest twice. Our next stop is Rawlins, Wyoming. One of the things I noticed well was the lack of humidity that I've known all my life in the Southern states; it was interesting breathing in cool, dry morning air for once. After some hours on the road, I decided to take a nap since I was lacking good sleep the past few days. This ended abruptly when the driver stopped suddenly and sent me crashing lengthwise–and face-first–into the bench in front of mine. Good sleep is doomed, I feel. We stopped at a gas station, when an elderly woman–that I suppose thought we were stealing her spot at a pump–gave us the middle-finger. We got ice cream at a DQ nearby after we filled up. When the plains became more visible and I could see miles upon miles of rolling hills, I observed how beautiful the country we were passing through was:
"The corn fields of Nebraska's plains are more immense than I realized. Fields upon fields of glistening emerald leaves waving in the wind, upon which sparse clouds cast isles of darkness on the Earth below."
Much more different than the city-scape I've only known well my whole life. Realized at the hotel in Rawlins that I forgot my phone's charger in Omaha; awesome.
Day 5: woke to my bedmate's pillow being jammed in my face; the fuck is sleep? Stopped by a Wal-mart for supplies, and I bought myself a replacement charger. Next stop: Provo, Utah. Before crossing over into Utah, we stopped by the Martin's Cove Visitors' Center, which was another pioneer historic site/museum. I took a nap and woke up an hour before sunset, which is when we crossed over into Utah. I got many pretty pictures of the scenery on our way into town. We stayed in a relatives home and I got to sleep by myself, which happened to be on a couch in a room filled with creepy, porcelain dolls. They may be creepy, but at least they don't steal blankets.
Day 6: woke up the most refreshed I've been on the trip so far. A travelmate and I walked a mile to gas-stop and back for a slushie; travelmate had a craving for one and did not want to go alone. The morning was not hectic, as they had been on the road. Next destination is Manti, Utah. We went to Palisades Park in Manti, Utah to go swimming and boating in the lake. We washed off at the hotel and went to dinner with extended family to a Mexican restaurant. We all returned to the hotel and player Uno and Skipbo for a couple of hours before I went to bed.
Day 7: Today's activities consisted of looking at the local sites around Manti. We went to another pioneer historic site, a woodworker's shop, an art gallery/natural history museum, and we went to a German restaurant for lunch. We went back to the hotel to nap. Two of the travelmates went off to their own thing for the evening, so myself and the other travelmate went to go see the new Star Trek movie; it was amazing!
Day 8: My group and extended family rented multi-passenger ATVs and went riding through mountain trails today, and I got many amazing pictures. We even reached the top of the mountains, which looked more like a plains, surprisingly. We had a picnic up in the mountains. However, when we decided to make the return trip, we found the way we went was blocked off by wood-cutters. We had to push forward to return back, which meant going down the trails meant for extreme ATVers. There were numerous times when I was driving I had to navigate over trails beset with bowlingball-sized rocks, slippery trails through rivers, and drive inches away from a sheer cliff at angles that leaned us near 45 degrees over to look down at a ~100ft+ drop–some parts of the roads had fallen away, too. We made it back safely, but I'm sure we lost some days of life from the scares. When we got back to the hotel around 5PM, we were caked in dust. All we wanted to do at that point was shower and then sleep.
Day 9: Headed back to Provo, Utah to the same house. We stopped by a co-op owned by Scandinavian artisans. There were lots of cool baubles, books, and other crafts of all kinds on sale there. I purchased a Danish cookbook for my collection of cookbooks at home. We watched Lord of The Rings and Ant-man that evening before bed.
Day 10: Two of the travelmates took us to go see Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah; which is a historic site owned by the Latter-Day Saints' church. After this, we went to stay with a relative and spent time with a cousin, we watched Red and Bounty Hunter that evening.
Day 11: We woke up and made churro french toast and watched another movie with the cousin. We played Uno, drew stuff with chalk, and went to go see Star Trek–again–with the cousin.
Day 12: We went to a lake to go waverunning, kayaking, and swimming all day. I got thrown off the waverunner twice. We pretty much crashed when we got back to the relatives' home.
Day 13: Went to a bird refuge, the golden spike historic site, and had pizza for dinner. We watched King Kong that evening.
Day 14 - 15: Headed homeward, spent hours in the car with nothing interesting.
Day 16: Made a quick detour to visit the Fantastic Caverns near Springfield, Missouri. Made it home around 10:30PM.
Photos <These are mainly the scenic/historic pictures I took>: https://postimg.org/gallery/lwf0mfma/4399bba0/
More photos <Day 7's trip to the natural history museum/art gallery>: https://postimg.org/gallery/2zsk4lqqa/3d9b5a7/
I may post more pictures later.
![[Image: MlZF3GH.png]](https://i.imgur.com/MlZF3GH.png)