WARNING: LONG POST...
We decided to make quite a few stops on our way to North Carolina. Our first stop was in Denver with the Larsen's, some old family friends from the days when I was born. They were so nice in letting us stay the night. We had a lot of fun catching up and watching the NBA playoffs.
After Denver we headed to Manhattan Kansas to visit Andrew's brother Adam and his cute family. Adam was graduating with his Masters in Landscape Architecture from K-State so we had the chance to attend his graduation. While we were there we had fun exploring the "Little Apple."
Adam & Lindsey along with Claire & Michael had a trip planned to Nauvoo for after Adam's graduation. Since we were already in Kansas we tagged along with them. I had not been to Nauvoo in ten years and Andrew hadn't been since his Heritage Tours. We were excited to experience church history again. On the drive up we rode along with a motorcycle group that was going from Arizona to DC in memory of those who have served our county. There were about 250 of them all in this group. It was a neat experience and we felt very patriotic. We also stopped at Adam-Ondi-Ahman for a picnic lunch that turned into lunch by the bathroom building because the wind was so crazy. Once we got to Navuoo our weekend was packed. We tried to hit up as many tours through the buildings, activities, plays, and a session in the Nauvoo Temple. One highlight was getting to pick the flowers out of the women's garden. They were planting new flowers that day and were pulling out the old ones and said we could take some with us. They kept reminding us that this is the only place we could take the flowers from and just for that day. It was a fun little treat. Exploring Nauvoo was a great reminder of how the Church is true and how blessed we are because of the sacrifices that those early Saints made.
After Nauvoo our plan was to head to Knoxville Tennessee to stay with our friend's parents who are mission presidents there. As we started driving we realized we were tired and sick of driving so we stopped in Louisville Kentucky for the night. We were so sick of being in the car that we ordered room service. The next morning we woke up and toured the Louisville Slugger Museum...where they make baseball bats. We also drove by Churchill Downs...where the Kentucky Derby takes place. Once we got to Knoxville we took a break from driving and walked around Tennessee's football stadium.
Then from Knoxville we headed to Charlotte North Carolina to met up with Andrew's brother Seth. He is living in Charlotte for the summer selling pest control. We got a hotel and went out to dinner at Cracker Barrel. Andrew and I were craving it since we had seen a million advertisements for it all across the country. We just had a relaxing night catching up with Seth and went to church with him the next day. We were so glad to finally be in the state of North Carolina after driving through 9 different states.
