Eight States

Rachel sent me these pictures we took right before we left.  This was yesterday, Marie's 7th birthday. Poor Marie was so sick.

Grace, Stephanie, Mina, Jorja, Marie, Dad

 Silly faces with Brett

We were in eight different states today.  We started in New Jersey and travelled through New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, back to New Hampshire and we ended in Vermont.  I tried to take pictures of the state signs as we passed.  I didn't do a great job.  I caught some.

 I missed most.  This was supposed to be Maine.

Our plan was to get up and go at 6:00.  We did great with that part of the plan.  We didn't realize that we would spend the next hour trying to get to the freeway.  It was slightly terrifying.  The roads were really narrow and most of the bridges wouldn't let RVs go on them.  We finally found one.  There was a toll, of course..... The toll was $38 cash! Yikes!  They had signs saying cars $14 and up.  I expected it to be $20, which I thought was steep.  It was nice to finally make it to Connecticut.  We had hoped to stop at Plymouth Rock, but something had to be cut.  We also really wanted to see Spencer who is going to school at Harvard.  We texted him back and forth a couple of times, but couldn't pull it off.  Mike had no desire to drive through Boston after going through Independence Square and getting out of New Jersey! What we did do was take a tour of Rebecca Nurse's house.  My great-great-great-great-great-grandfather (I have no idea how many greats he was) was a brother to three people accused as being witches during the Salem Witch trials.  Two of them were executed.  One of them was Rebecca Nurse.  Her house is still standing and we were able to tour it today.  It was pretty cool.

PBS did a movie about 30 years ago called Three Sovereigns for Sarah. They made a replica of the church where the which hysteria started. Several people were accused here.

 The back of Rebecca Nurse's house

 This was her fireplace.  How cool is that?

 Stockton, Jorja, Mike, Stephanie, Maysen, Preston

 Stockton, Mike, Jorja, Dad, Stephanie, Preston, Maysen

 There is a weird sun dial on the house.  That was added later.

 Stockton running in front of Rebecca Nurse's house

 Rebecca Nurse's house

 Stockton Mike, Maysen, Jorja walking to the family graveyard

 Preston

 Mike, Maysen, Jorja, Dad

 Preston

 Dad, Jorja, Maysen, Mike, Stockton

When we finally made it there we noticed a nice path that we could have walked on.  Whoops.

Witches weren't allowed to have a proper funeral or burial.  They weren't supposed to have a marked grave.  Rebecca Nurse's family took her body anyway.  There is a monument in the center of the graveyard, but no one knows which grave is hers.  Most likely it is under one of these stones.  There are several of them throughout the graveyard.

 Rebecca Nurse's monument

 Dad

There is another smaller monument nearby.  It is quite hard to read. When Rebecca Nurse was accused of witchcraft, 40 neighbors signed a petition saying that could not be true.  It was a huge risk at that time to support someone accused of witchcraft.  The people who did usually ended up being accused as witches themselves.  This monument has the names of all the people who signed the petition.

The Nurse house is about to have a new roof put on it.  We bought a shingle and signed it.  It will be placed on the roof of the house, with the writing not visible.  Reminded us of drawing on the boys room before we put up the wood.

Preston

We drove up to Maine so we could say we have been there; turned around and headed to New Hampshire.  Our destination was this KFC. This is where Joseph Smith's house was when he got his leg operated on.  I was excited to eat at the KFC there.  I don't know why, I just thought it would be cool.  Too bad it wasn't opened!  That might have been a good thing.  The workers were all out back, smoking and scrubbing all the equipment.  I wonder if the health department recently paid them a visit.

Preston, Stockton, Jorja, Maysen, Dad

 Preston, Stockton, Jorja, Maysen with Dad trying to get in

 Sign on the door

Our last stop of the day was the birthplace of Joseph Smith.  We really wanted to get to it today because it doesn't open until 9:00 tomorrow. We arrived at 6:30, it closed at 7:00.  Well, they didn't kick us out, we were able to stay as long as we wanted.  In fact, they offered to let us sleep there!  We were planning to get an hour down the road and stop at a random campground, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to sleep here!  My dad said he was going to take a sleeping bag and sleep on the lawn.  I believed him, but he didn't do it.

Joseph Smith Memorial in Sharon, Vermont

The memorial is 38 1/2 feet tall.  A foot for every year of Joseph Smith's life.  Two things remain that were part of that house.  One is the hearth stone.  That has been moved to the visitor center on the property.  The other is outside.

Maysen's toes

 Howland Family Chart

 Chair made by Joseph Smith

The Woodstock Historical Society believes it was made by Joseph Smith, but the church doesn't think it was.  He would have been 9 years old when he made this.  The church has seen too many cub scout crafts.

 Sad that Joseph and Emma had so much suffering

 Statue using Joseph's death mask as reference

 Stephanie, Preston, Maysen, Mike, Stockton, Jorja

 Preston wanted pictures of him jumping

 Joseph Smith Monument

Stockton thought it was pretty funny that it says, 'If any of you lack wisdom let him'.

 Stockton & Preston

 Preston jumping again

The second thing that still remains from the house is the front step.  I asked my kids to let me take a picture of each of them.  They were thrilled.  They love it when I take their pictures.

Preston

 Stockton

 Shoulder Angel

 Stockton

 Maysen

Hmmm..... Apparently Jorja's picture didn't make it on here.  I wonder where I messed up.  It is super hard to keep up with the blog on the road.  First, I have a ton of pictures, second I have hardly any time and third I have unreliable internet access.  We decided to take the missionary up on his offer to let us stay here tonight.  How fun is that? Sleeping at Joseph Smith's birthplace.  My dad did not sleep outside.  I was surprised.  We went and got gas in the motorhome and picked up some Vermont Maple syrup.  Preston loves the pure maple syrup.  We had pancakes and they were delicious.  Pancakes with Vermont syrup in Vermont at Joseph Smith's birthplace.  Maysen also made macaroni and cheese.

Preston with his pancakes

Our fridge and freezer has not been reliable.  That has caused us some annoyance, but we haven't let us down.  We had a box of Creamies melt.  The kids drank the Creamies and had Creamie soup.

Preston & Jorja with their Creamie nonsense

 Mike likes taking sleeping pictures of my dad

Mike and I went on a walk around the property.  The night was so nice. It was awesome also because it was free and there was no one around. I sleep okay at truck stops and parking lots, but Mike has a hard time with the other loud vehicles.  There was no one here, so he slept great. When we came back to the motorhome we could hear my dad telling the kids the Mugglewuggy story.  I fell asleep listening to Stockton tell the kids a ghost story.  What a great day.