Our Trip

Dad and I got back last night from Kari's house. We were making great time---until we hit Chicago. It seems that a part of I-80/94 was flooded and we had to find a way around it. I got off in the wrong place and it took us through the local roads with the stop lights during rush hour. What a mess! It took us 3 hours to get into Indiana and back on I-94. You can't imagine how much flooding that we saw on this trip. When we left on Friday, it rained all day and all day on Saturday. Even before we got to Nauvoo, we drove past lots of standing water and we saw the remnants of the flooding that took place there this Spring, there were abandoned houses with water marks on them about 3 to 4 feet up. On the way to Kari's from Nauvoo, like she said, we saw a lot more standing water. At one place the people from the town were swimming in it by the side of the road. We drove through one place where it was flowing over the road, luckily a man came out and motioned for us to slow down before we got to it. Yesterday, as we drove through the subburbs below Gary, Indiana, we saw seagulls swimming in a stip mall parking lot.

Kari has a cute little house that is very nice. The town is a lot bigger than we thought is was after hearing Kari say how small it is. It has over 17,000 people in it. It reminded me a lot of living in Twin Falls. There's a fairly large size town (compared to the towns around it), with lots of stores and fast food places. They have made some good friends and that will help them get through their time there. The school is very nice, and we visited the grave of the man who founded it (I love cememteries, you know). Monday and Tueday were beautiful days with blue skiies and lots of sunshine. We enjoyed the sculpture park and the church sites. Everything was so green there, because of the rain, I'm sure. It took Noah a day or so, to decide that we were alright, but after that, we had a great time with him. I'll have Dad post some pictures that he took.