Road trip day four- flooded waters, drowned plans

We saw a lot of flooding along the roads on the way up to Dubuque. Fortunately, we were never detoured on the way. Our luck didn't hold out when we attempted to leave Dubuque for other destinations.

My sister Tara decided she wanted to take her kids to Nauvoo, IL. It's a really neat place that holds a lot of history for the LDS church. They recreate life in the 1800's and you can visit a blacksmith, baker, brick maker, newspaper printing, etc.

I have enjoyed my trips to Nauvoo and would certainly love to go again. But not this trip. After all the time I spent in the car getting up there, I wasn't about to subject my kids (and me) to more driving, especially since they are too little to enjoy or remember it. Since it is on the river, we called to make sure it hadn't been flooded. They assured us they were dry and open. So Tara, my mom, and Tara's four kids headed to Nauvoo. My sister Megan, who is childless, couldn't be talked back into the car either so she stayed with my girls and me.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of flooding between Dubuque and Nauvoo. Tara spent four hours getting detoured, turned around, and just plain blocked before she had to give up and turn around and go back to Dubuque. They spent seven hours in the car and never got to see anything. By the time they got back to Dubuque the kids were off the wall.

Meanwhile, Bill's mom and sister live in Des Moines. They wanted to see the girls, but after checking things out we realized the only way to get between Dubuque and Des Moines was to go through Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. These are two cities that are flooded and closed. So we stayed put and missed seeing them.

My heart goes out to all that were affected by the floods. On this day we were temporarily inconvenienced, some have been permanently displaced.