June 17

So, Friday morning, we headed to Palmyra. We stopped for lunch at a busy service area, and the kids let out some of their energy by dancing on top of the rocks, much to the amusement of the people driving by.

Once we got to Palmyra, we visited the site where we would watch the pageant later in the evening, and staked out our seats, using towels and some of Becky's knitting yarn.

We visited the printing press, and then walked around the temple grounds.

Then we checked in at our motel and ate dinner there. The motel was rather interesting. I had booked it online, using tripadvisor.com. Here is a link to their site.

http://www.motelmiami.com/

This is what it looked like in person:

The rooms were clean, though, and it was a good laugh.

We bought ponchos for the downpour we were supposed to receive, and headed to the pageant. You have to cross the street from the parking to the pageant site. Here is my comment on this:

Mean People Suck.

These people show up with megaphones and line the public space in the medians, hold up signs, and shout taunts at us and our kids as we run the gauntlet between them to get across the street. The picture is not very good...we were trying to get through them as fast as possible. I had forgotten that there are haters like this out there. The kids did an admirable job of ignoring them. I can't think of less Christian behavior than these idiots show. Once you cross the street, and over the berm that blocks the haters from view, it was wonderful. The kids loved meeting the different cast members and getting their pictures taken with them.

Here are all the kids with Mormon.

We were watching the radar on Joe's blackberry, and the thunderstorms literally split in two and went around us on both sides. We did not have a drop of rain until we were in the car going home afterwards. The pageant was great.