Drive across America...

Karl and I left the MTC on Monday morning, Oct. 3, 2011 and drove east towards Moab, Utah. We left the open skies of the west and traveled our first day to Colorado Springs, CO and spent the night with our daughter, Teri. The vibrant yellow aspens mixed with tall green pines and rugged rock was a stunning view as we passed through the mountains of Aspen, CO.

Day Two: Our drive across Kansas--

Wheat farms, wind harvesting, and oil fields. Surprisingly, we did not see sunflowers and windmills as I expected. Lots of flat land...strong, gusty winds...and images of Dorthy and OZ everywhere. Second night in Kansas City, KS.

Day three: Nauvoo, IL
All of Illinois seemed to be one huge corn field. We arrived in Nauvoo just in time for the last session of the day and were invited to be the witness couple. Following, we were given a tour of the entire temple, looking down (and up) the five story spiral staircase was awesome. The assembly room, baptismal font, and sealing rooms were all wonderful. The most unexpected treasure was one hallway of framed artifacts with one of Joseph Smith's swords! He had three... a battle sword (Lt. Gen of Nauvoo Legion), parade sword, and a practice sword. We saw the practice sword and other artifacts from this period of history.

Day four we drove all the way to Charleston, West Virginia wanting to be rested for our offical first meeting at the Mission Home. The biggest surprise of our cross-country trip for me was the amount of trucks we passed on all highways. I started counting them in five minute increments...and on average I can honestly say we passed between 300 and 600 trucks per hour...day or night! Another new encounter was the toll roads...$2, four different times.

Our new home:

We are in a lovely two-bedroom apartment above our landlord's garage. It was totally clean, with plenty of room for the two of us.

Our mailing address is: PO Box 1216, Raven, VA 24639-1216.

The colors and smell of autumn are all around us. Elderberries and blueberries grow here. Moss grows on top of blacktop and tree trunks. Everywhere I look I think I am walking into the page of a calendar with all the grandeur of America the Beautiful at harvest.