Brody here. I arrived in Long Island last Saturday night after a 5 day cross country trip with my Dad. It was a lot of fun driving with him and spending time with him. It made the trip seem like a few minutes rather than 44 hours of driving. We were able to see quite a few family and friends along the way including Aunt Heidi and Davis and Brock in Denver, Josh Jones (friend from my mission) in Lawrence Kansas, and Uncle Dave, Aunt Heather, Braden and Brooke in Indianapolis.
We had a few adventures along the way, including only staying 5 minutes at our Motel 6 in St. Louis before realizing we'd either get shot, get sick or both. To check in you walked up to a night window and had to talk through the glass like it was a prison and there was a cop in the parking lot. It reminded me of the movie Big when he stays in that really sketchy hotel.
After leaving Indianapolis the GPS on my phone took us on a really weird route through these rural towns. Since it was guiding us up north through Cleveland we decided to stop at Kirtland and then stay the night in Palmyra. We found this really nice place to stay about 200 yards from the Sacred Grove. If you ever go to Palmyra look up The White House. Its a small family operated place. They have this big house that looks like they rent it out to big families for a week or something. But, they had just finished building these smaller units in the back. We were the first people to stay in this one. It had a really nice kitchen and a queen bed plus a queen sized futon. Highly recommended.
One of my favorite parts of the trip was the Sacred Grove and the Smith Farm. We got there right at 9 and were the only ones there. We had an awesome tour with a Senior Missionary. He was an excellent guide. For those who haven't been to Palmyra, they take you on a tour of the Smith family farm which has been completely restored. He told us all the stories and history from the Palmyra era of the church. Our tour wasn't long, only about 30 minutes. Then he pointed us down the trail towards the sacred grove. It is a larger area than I expected. It is just this grove of trees that has a couple of paths going through it. It was very quiet and we were the only ones in there. It had an amazing spirit.
After the sacred grove we stopped at Hill Cumorah and then went to the Whitmer Farm in Fayette. Then we drove the last 5 hours to New York city and I dropped my Dad off at the airport in Queens. I drove the last hour to my apartment in Bellport, Long Island and started my summer adventure.
Our apartment here is pretty nice! Here is a video of it. It is in the place called Atlantic Point which is a really large community of town homes.
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