Missouri Day 3

The Bob pedestrian bridge was a fun stop. 

Wow. This day ended up being more like a sucker punch! We woke up early so that we could get to the Lewis and Clark Trail Center. The electronic maps literally sent us to the wrong side of the railroad tracks, so we could see the building, but we couldn't get to it. After a short detour, we finally got to the building, only to find that weekend hours had it closed. Luckily, we managed to enjoy the Bob Bridge that crosses over the river into Iowa. The kids really liked the fun signs on this bridge, and the troll that lives beneath. It was fun to stand in two states on the bridge, too.

The troll under the bridge was awesome.

One foot in Nebraska and one in Iowa!

Kissing across the states.

Mom and Dax had a blast at the bridge.

By this time, we had plenty of time to drive south and cross the border into Elwood, Kansas. We were in Kansas for only about 10 minutes, but that seemed like plenty of time. We continued down the road to the Kansas City Temple, and it was nice since the gardens were in bloom. We walked all the way around the temple and enjoyed the peace.

We made it to Kansas.

The Kansas City temple was pretty. 

Our next stop was Liberty Jail. This was easily the highlight of the day. It was quite a bit different than Mom or Dad remembered it. You could walk around to the door of the jail, and the path led right to the foot of the dungeon. It was a really nice, spiritual experience, and we all thought it was great.

We loved the Spirit at Liberty Jail.

The missionaries took a family pic for us.

Picnic time by the van.

We had a little extra time planned in the afternoon to visit the Truman House, which is where Harry S. Truman lived both before and after serving as President. His house is exactly as it was in 1982 when Bess Truman passed away. The only thing they changed was putting down rugs to protect the original carpet as you walk through. We were really impressed by the house, and especially by the fact that Truman came home and lived a simple life after serving as President of the United States. 

This was Bess Truman's cousin's home. We walked through this home until our tour started.

The Truman home was picturesque.

We were hoping for another spiritual experience at Independence, and it was nice, but the tour was less spiritual. Still, we heard some fun stories from the saving of the Book of Commandments, to the persecution of Edward Partridge. There were some nice displays of what it may have been like to live in Independence, too.

The history at Independence was interesting to learn.

We love when we get a family photo.

It was a long way into St. Louis, and we planned only to stop for dinner and then head right to the hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel called to tell us that they had sold our room. We were still charged $191, plus a $50 fee for some reason, but there would be no room for us. Mom immediately called Hotels.com, where we'd originally booked all the way back in January. They agreed to find us a room. After about an hour of waiting on hold and exchanging phone calls, they finally said they had something. They agreed to bill our credit card for the $191 and pay the difference for the room. After billing us, they got back on and told us the room had booked. Don't worry, they assured us, we'll find something else. But they couldn't. In all of St. Louis, they couldn't. 

We did have dinner at a lovely Mexican restaurant along the road. The food was good and Mark ate tacos for the first time. We even ate outside, which was very nice. But you could also see the kids were worried we might be sleeping in the van. Everyone was a little short with each other.

Mark has become a great eater.

During all this time of driving and stopping for dinner, it was getting later and later. At around 8 pm, we decided to stop at the temple and take a few pictures. We were still working with the company, and we finally told them to refund our money. Then Mom went on to find us a hotel. She did find us one, which was $270, but by then, we'd have slept in a dumpster. So, we are hoping to recoup our losses. It was over $700 for hotels today (don't worry, most of it will be refunded), and the stress took years off of our lives. So yeah, it was just like a sucker punch. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Do we look stressed?