Frogley Summer Tour - Day 7
Day 7: Palmyra, NY to Ripley, NY
Today we got up after another short night and packed the
car. Our KOA cabin was comfortable enough and we left around 8:30am. First stop
was the Peter Whitmer Farm in Fayette, NY, about 40 minutes from our campsite. Some
great history there and I especially felt the Spirit (and started bawling)
during their 4 minute wrap-up video showing how the church has grown in the
nearly 200 years since it was reorganized in a small cabin on this property.
Another 40 minute drive took us to the Hill Cumorah. We hiked up to the Moroni Monument on top of the hill and discussed the history of the area a bit. Then we watched a great 11 minute video on families where I again cried, and wandered around the interactive kiosks in the visitors’ center.
We left the Hill Cumorah around 1pm and went straight in to Palmyra to see the Grandin Building. Still one of my favorite places. I love learning about how printing presses and especially binding worked in the olden days. It certainly makes me appreciate my books now.
After the Grandin Building, we back-tracked a bit to the Palmyra Temple for a quick picture, and then to the Smith Family Farm.
We had an excellent sister missionary tour guide who really talked to our kids and shared some great stories with them. She pointed out that when the Smith family moved to Palmyra they had 8 children also… just like we do now! And they had their 9th (surviving) baby shortly after moving there. She had all our kids line up by age and gave them “Smith Family” names and then allowed them to help act out some of the stories she told us. Missionaries are the best. J
At the end of our tour we took some time to walk into the Sacred Grove. I stayed fairly close to the entrance with Ben and Matthew and let them play in the dirt while I pondered where we were. Dave and the other kids went farther in, but I don’t know exactly what they did. I had a short discussion with Ben about what happened in that grove, and was able to bear a simple testimony to him. The tears flowed again.
By 4pm we were back in the car. The kids had only eaten munchy food we had in the car the whole day and were getting quite cranky. We stopped at McDonald’s before getting back on the toll road and heading west.
Thanks to rush hour traffic and an accident ON a bridge it took us nearly twice as long as it should have to get to Niagara Falls, but we still made it with plenty of daylight and got some fun pictures. The kids were quite impressed with all that water.
Another two hour drive got us to our vacation rental just
before 10pm. Tonight we’re staying in a quaint, comfortable farmhouse right on
the Pennsylvania/New York border. We’ve got laundry going and the kids are
sleeping. We’ve got another long day ahead of us, but we should be getting good
sleep tonight. J
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