53 YEARS (and still counting)!

Weather, weather, weather.  Where has it gone?  The last two weeks we have not had anything unusual.  Now the locals are saying we are in a drought.  Some of the green is turning slightly brown.  With all the corn and soybean fields, this area gets enough rain that irrigation is not needed.  Mother nature provides the needed moisture.

Maybe, the slightly brown lawns depict that sadness as the YPMs finished their last show on Sunday and are heading home Wednesday morning.  It has been so quiet the last few days.  After the pageants were finished, the crowds also disappeared.  Now with the YPMs leaving it will be a different experience.  Several times during the day we could hear from our apartment the Nauvoo Band playing or the YPMs singing on the corner across from the print shop.  On Saturday morning after we had visited the Pendleton school house where we learned that the class age was from 6-20, we watched the Youth in Zion and then listened to the band as they were playing in the horse-drawn wagon on Main Street.  

Pendleton Home and Long School

Singing on the corner

Elder Needham (goes to Utah State)

Elder Petersen right after playing the Dulcimer to accompany one of the songs

Another treat is that we finally got to meet the Spencers.  They are a couple serving as site missionaries from Utah who Lori, Camille, and Randy Isaccson had volunteered with the Freedom Riders.  It is a group who take their horses and work with handicap children.  Again, it is a small world in Nauvoo.

Sister Spencer and Sister Talbot.  Elder Spencer was busy playing the trombone on the Nauvoo Band Wagon with the YPMs.

Last week we went to Sunset By the Mississippi twice (I lost count of how many times we had watched the show) and the Sunday Concert.  Elder Talbot says I couldn’t get enough of their music.  I can’t!  Of course, with the YPMs leaving that means our time is also coming to the end but I don’t even want to talk about that now.

One of my band favorites - the trumpet special with them playing the others' horns.

One of my favorite songs - Spray with Me!

Sunday was another long drive to and from Canton Branch to church.  We are really going to miss the branch.  All the members are so humble and really care about each other.  Their branch is a great example of the new ministering program.

The Canton Branch President, Patrick Melton, with the missionary couples who attend with us.  Elder and Sister Welchv(Arizona) , Elder and Sister Hales (California) , President Melton, Elder and Sister DeSimon (Utah), and Elder and Sister Talbot.

Monday’s p-day meant another adventure for us.  We decided to do a session at the temple then head to Burlington, Iowa for the day.  I love the bridges throughout the area that connect Illinois and Iowa.  We had seen it earlier but didn’t get pictures and  I had to go again.  

One of the most unusual sites we found was the Snake Alley.  The Burlington business district was built in a natural amphitheater surrounded by hills. With all the stores in this valley, it was hard for the people living on the steep hills surrounding the downtown. Something different was needed for travel to and from these two areas.

In 1894, Snake Alley was constructed with an experimental street design. It was devised by three Germans (Charles Starker, William Steyh, and George Kriechbaum) who replicated the vineyard paths in France and Germany.  Snake Alley is composed of tooled, curved limestone curbing and locally-fired blueclay bricks. “The constantly changing slant from one curve to the next required a complicated construction technique to keep the high grade to the outside. Snake Alley consists of five half-curves and two quarter-curves over a distance of 275 feet, rising 58.3 feet from Washington Street to Columbia Street.”

There is a legend that the fire department used this alley to test horses. If a horse could take the curves at a gallop and still be breathing when it reached the top, it was deemed fit to haul the city's fire wagons. Unfortunately, many teams would run out of control or stumble over the limestone curbing, sometimes resulting in a broken leg.

When we first saw the alley, we were not sure we could drive down but after taking a few pictures, a van passed us and drove down so of course, we followed.  It was quite the drive.  One article I read said that the fastest you could drive was 3mph and we believe it!!!  This is the once and only time I can saw that I “liked snakes”!!!

Yes, I don't like snakes!

View from the top of Snake Alley

View from the bottom of Snake Alley.

However, the highlight of last week was on Thursday, August 9^th.  It was our 53^rd wedding anniversary.  We started the day serving in the Temple, where we were proxy for the sealing of my 11^th cousin 3^rd removed, John Penman, to his bride Christain Brown.  They were married 28 Octobert 1756 in Newbattle, Midlothian, Scotland.  As we listened to the sealing ordinance, we both reflected on the covenants we had made in the Logan Temple in 1965 as we were sealed for time and for all eternity.  There is peace in knowing that we will not only be together in this life but also after we leave this world - if we are faithful to the covenants we made 53 years ago.  There is peace knowing that both our parents are still together and their parents and their parents…..

Celebrating 53 years with Annie's famous bread pudding and vanilla custard!