On the Road to Nauvoo

After Yellowstone, we had two days of driving until we stopped in Nauvoo. We spent the night at an AirBnB in Cheyenne. It had some unexpected surprises that we had to work with, like the world tiniest kitchen, but the girls thought the fact that it had chickens made it totally worth it: 

Next stop: a KOA campground in Lincoln, Nebraska. Yet another instance of me failing to realize that Google reviews for campsites were almost all written by people in RVs, not tents. This was our tent site:

What a lovely, wooded spot.

Totally not right off the main drag where people were driving all night.

But if you asked the kids, this would hands down be their favorite spot. It had a playground, a giant jumping pillow, and a POOL. They were all perfectly happy to ignore the noisy campsite in favor of the great amenities. 

The next morning, Elijah was super, super whiny. I chalked it up to general exhaustion and being sick of travelling until I felt his forehead. He was blazing hot. We let him hang out naked in the tent while we packed up:

Of course we didn't have any children's medication in our first aid kit. I dissolved some adult ibuprofen in pink lemonade and had him drink that, which worked. But then I tried to dissolve Tylenol and he would NOT touch it. Not even after Catherine dissolved an entire Jolly Rancher in the lemonade as well. It was just too nasty. Poor guy! I grabbed some children's meds at our next stop. 

We made it to Nauvoo in late afternoon. Our first stop was the Visitor's Center (hello, clean restrooms). But while we were in there we took the time to walk around and look at the displays. I was shocked to see a tithing receipt from a Mikesell (multi-great uncle) on display in there!

We made it in time to walk down Parley Street and listen to performances by the Young Performing Missionaries as they acted out accounts from those who left Nauvoo to cross the plains. It was very well done and a perfect way to start our time in Nauvoo.

And, of course, at the end of Parley Street you have to hang out by the Mississippi for a bit! Seth and Elise didn't even fall in!

Aaron & Catherine opted for the safer "stay on the shore" option:

Elijah walked right in.

He's not dissuaded by the nasty water. 

Then we headed back to our campsite. And by that I mean "random patch of grass with a grill." We were not impressed. But it did have showers with warm water. And a playground. So we called it a win:

Until that night.

Somewhere around 9 pm a youth group arrived back at the campsite (which we expected: it's primarily a youth campsite). And we were fine with some noise. But then it was 10 pm and it was still really, really loud. Like kids playing basketball and literally screaming. Then it was 11 pm. Still no change in volume. We could hear conversations happening on the playground near our tent. Finally sometime around midnight it eventually tapered off, but we were ticked. It seemed very unfair for the campsite to accept tent campers and then have no enforcement of any quiet hours. Plus it was Sunday! If anything I feel like it should have been a quiet night at a youth conference. Worst night of the entire trip, no competition.