June 18, 2012

It is very windy today. We went to the Nauvoo Mormon land office and found Jim’s great uncle’s house (his great grandfather’s brother).  He lived in the Wilford Woodruff house after the exodus of the Mormons to Utah.  Wilford Woodruff was the fourth president of the Mormons.  We then drove to Carthage and saw the site where Joseph Smith was killed when he was in jail here.  At the Hancock County Historical Society Jim got some more information on his great grandfather and grandmother and found out where they were buried.  We drove to the cemetery and saw their headstone.

After coming back from the cemetery we went back to the Wilfred Woodruff house in Nauvoo and toured it.  We hooked up and drove across the state line to Iowa.  Iowa is one of three states I have not visited -- now I have only two states left.  We drove to Coralville just north of Iowa City and got a site at Sugar Bottom campground on Lake Coralville, an Army Corps of Engineers lake.  After unhooking we drove into Iowa City to Old Capital Brew Works and talked to the locals.  They gave us some really good information on sites to visit in the area.  Jim found Grant Wood's house and we drove by it. Grant Wood was a painter and one of his famous paintings was the iconic “American Gothic”.