Pioneer Trail – Winter Quarters

Will’s Account: Des Moines, IA – As soon as we arrived and set up the trailer at the KOA, we all went mini golfing. After 9 holes, we were losing Zina, so we called it good and went back to get some rest to go to Winter Quarters the next day. We drove about an hour and a half to get to Winter Quarters, but before we got started, we went to a restaurant called Home Grown Omaha. I had a turkey-avocado sandwich, and it was quite good. Following lunch, we went on a guided tour of the Mormon Trail Center, which was very informative and showcased both the triumphs and the struggles of being a pioneer. I think that if the church as a whole at that time had respected Brigham Young more, their journey could’ve been a lot smoother. After the Mormon Trail Center, we went to the Kanesville Memorial, where we learned more about the saints’ journey to Utah. We stayed half an hour past closing to learn more about the Mormon Battalion. On Friday, we just did school and hung out at the campground. This campground also has a jumping pillow like the one in Buffalo. For dinner, we ate ground beef and vegetables cooked in foil over a fire. After dinner, we watched some baseball, then went to bed. Over this time, we researched our ancestors who were pioneers. We also read some amazing stories about them. I would highly recommend doing this to anyone who would like to know more about their lineage. Thanks! Next: Independence, MO. Overall Rating: 8.6/107

We ended up at a nice KOA in Adel, IA, just west of Des Moines.  They had ots of nice amenities, including mini golf so we went out to play as soon as we got camp set up.  Zina got bored with it pretty quickly but the rest of us stuck it out for 9 holes.  We had an easy dinner of chicken soft tacos and then just watched a family show.

Thursday we made the 1.5 hour drive to Omaha, NE.  In preparation for the visit I began to wonder which of my ancestors passed through (or died) at Winter Quarters.  Looking through David’s and my ancestry, there is not a single ancestor at the certain point of history who did not emigrate to Utah as a Mormon Pioneer.  Reading through snippets of their histories I am once again struck with the heritage of faith I have received from them.  I have a great desire to live up to that heritage.  Before we visited the sites we had lunch and a recommended restaurant called Homegrown Omaha.  It really lived up to its high ratings, our meal was excellent.  I remembered that when my parents visited Omah there was a great pioneer statue there.  We were able to find it, a good representation of the importance of Omaha in the pioneer movement.  We really enjoyed our visits to the Mormon Trail Center and Kaneville monument.  We did not visit the cemetery.  I had ancestors who died in Winter Quarters but their graves sites are unknown.  The Kanesville Monument had three major commemorations, 1) The Mormon Battalion, 2) The reorganization of the First Presidency, and 3) The return of Oliver Cowdery to the church.  At every site great senior missionaries were ready to give us tours, show videos, or tell stories.  I am really enjoying these visits to church history sites.  We didn’t make it back to the trailer until after 8:30pm.

Friday we just hung out at the trailer and got some bedding washed and some other tasks that had been needed for a while completed.  We made a fire and had foil dinners for dinner.

This morning I thought it would be fun to do another hotcake breakfast on the griddle so we did!