Tidbits across the midwest

 Now that I've done all the documenting of the places, (except for Winter Quarters, which I'll post on Sunday. because it's nice and long. and i mean Loooooooong.) here are some of the people and tiny things that made this trip great:

 Two professors came on this trip. Brother Baggot and Brother Black. Brother Baggot brought his fifteen year old son, Jacob, and Jacob's best friend, Braxton. Brother black brought his 11 year old son, Joseph.

I creepily took pictures of them. This is Braxton:

This is Braxton and Jacob, we were pals: 

And this is Joseph. He hated me.

There were two married couples on our tour. The first couple was awesome. super funny, really kind. Then there was these two:

DEVILS.

they were rude, stand offish, and constantly having weird PDAs. For example, when our tour walked down the trail of hope to the mississippi, we had a nice devotional and afterward we sang a few hymns. the spirit was there was very tender and peaceful. Until i turned around at a weird sound and saw these two makin out hardcore behind me, and i was disgusted. I threw some shade their way and tried to forget about it. several other similar events happened over the course of the trip and it was really annoying.

So the this is brother Baggot, my favorite, for reasons explained in the Winter Quarters post:

He is very kind and soft-spoken. He loves to laugh and joke around. And every morning, he'd say "RISE AND SHINE COUGARS, IT'S GONNA BE A GREAT DAY!" as he was walking down the aisle of the bus or the hall of the hotel to wake us all up. annoying, but i couldn't hate him for it becuase he's just so nice. He's also emotional, like me. So I didn't feel silly when my eyes got watery during certain devotionals or spots on the tour, because his were watery, too.

This is brother Black (also an amazing person) and his son playing football, like they did at every stop:

Brother black was the no-nonsense guide. Still very spiritual and fun and extremely smart, but strict. He knew SO MUCH about church history, and he answered every question i had. 

The missionaries at every stop were all kind and gracious but my favorite were the senior missionaries in nauvoo because they were old. hehe. i love oldies.

Some other Nauvoo tidbits:

 MY PRAIRIE RING!

got it at the blacksmith shop, fell in love with it, wore it non-stop for three weeks. lost it the other day after my Children's literature class. I cried.

THERE WERE SO MANY BUGS.

seriously, gnats just looooove the midwest apparently. and the humidity was KILLER.

Here is my roommate Jaylene saying, "I HATE BUGS, MELISSA". hahaha

Also, while we were waiting for the bus to take us to dinner in Nauvoo, a bird pooped on my skirt. :(
not cool, robert frost. not cool.

 Also, there were two boys that sat behind me and Jaylene. Their names were Chris and DJ. they were HILARIOUS. honestly, i laughed at them so much. just eavsdroppin. and they definitely noticed because one time Chris said, "man, dude DJ these girls in front of us must think we're ugly. Cause they laugh at everything we say but they will not turn around and look at us."

Jaylene and i DIED laughing at that comment

"SEE!" he said.

i still didn't turn around. haha.

eventually we became friends. and i laughed out loud at their jokes instead of snickering quietly. 

I took this creepy picture of Chris in Nebraska. I never did get a picture of DJ. oh well.

In Nebraska, we stopped for dinner. I was hard core craving a famous bowl from KFC. SO good. so we go up to the doors and they're locked. so we checked the lobby hours and it said 8:00am-9:00 pm. it was only 7:45 in the evening so....i was upset. I JUST WANTED A FAMOUS BOWL, ALRIGHT?!

So i Avada Kedavra'd them from the corner. convenient that the street name was potter and the light was green when i took this...

At like 3:00 am monday morning we were stopped in Iowa? i think. or nebraska. I don't even know, doe. and I was delirious. Me, Jacob and Braxton had a dance party. no music, but that made it even better.

about three hours outside of Rexburg, we were all going crazy. we'd been on the bus for more than 24 hours and so Jacob and i played "Black Magic" It's one of those stupid games that you play in like third grade on rainy days. and it took him 73 MINUTES to get the game. haha in the time he got it, every around him for like 3 rows had figured it out and we were all like, "come ON, dude!" haha that was fun. 

Also, on the bus we "slept"  a lot. meaning, we'd close our eyes for twenty minutes or so. there was no comfortable way to sleep on that thing. ha.

and our feet were very swollen. this is me in Nauvoo, but they were TINY here compared to when we got home. but mine were not bad at all, really.

Jaylene, on the other hand, just had elephantitus

and i made this map to brag to Jenae about how many states I've been to. muhaha. So now I've been to 12. TWELVE, jenae! muhahaha. California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. Booyah.