Upstate New York

We're just outside Rochester, NY. Most of today was spent driving. About 350 miles. Mary's back and neck have been giving her problems, so it was kind of hard on her. We took breaks a little more frequently and a little longer. At one point I decided to pull off into a little town and get some lunch. We decided that we had lots of food in the car, and if we just had some lunch meat, we could make a sandwich and enjoy a picnic. But we drove all over these little towns (such as Peckville, PA) unable to find a grocery store! Then, duh! Ask the GPS! It told us some nearby grocery stores! One in the list looked promising, called Wegman's. I had never heard of it, but we had seen a sign a while back, although we didn't see the store because it was behind a hill. So we followed the directions there.

Goodness, gracious, me! What a place. Huge, clean, amazing variety! A little restaurant area, deli, sushi bar, coffee bar, etc. So we bought a couple things (me, pulled pork in BBQ sauce; Mary, neptune salad), and brought in some of our food from the car, and ate in their patio dining area. That's the kind of lunch we like!

Then back on the road with a detour to visit Harmony (now called Oakland) Pennsylvania. There we visited the memorial to the Aaronic Priesthood restoration, and site of Joseph and Emma's first home. It was a touching place to visit. We also went down to the Susquehanna river, to what may have been the spot where Joseph and Oliver baptized each other. Beautiful. We got directions there by the missionaries who were at the memorial site. They were grilling and giving out free hot dogs! They said that they had also given out more Books of Mormon today, along with the hot dogs, than they had all week. What a great idea!

We then got back on the road and drove another few hours to our hotel near Rochester. What beautiful country we passed through! We had no idea it would be this beautiful.

As we drove we listened to some podcasts I had downloaded from the Mormon Channel (http://radio.lds.org), which provided interviews and commentary with historians, talking about Harmony and Palmyra. These both helped set the mood, but provided helpful information and anecdotes.

Tomorrow we plan to spend the day in Palmyra. I hope the weather cooperates. It's stormy and chilly, with some rain, wind, and a bit of lightening. But first, sleep.