Trip to Winona

The summer before we moved to Springville, Utah, we made a trip to Winona, Minnesota. Gramps had passed away a couple of years prior, so we were going to see Grandma Stanislawski. She said she had some bunk beds she wanted to give to us.
We borrowed Bruce's dad's van, packed in our 3 boys and one daughter - ages 9 months to 5 years old - and headed west. It was always a long trip, but the back roads through Wisconsin could leave you breathless.
We stayed a few days, loaded the van with needed furniture and headed to Nauvoo, Illinois. We have always loved visiting Nauvoo. It's so inspirational. The missionaries there are wonderfully informative and nice. We also wanted to make sure the kids had an extra influence for good in their lives.
We were absolutely exhausted by the time we drove from Winona to Nauvoo, then walked around a little bit. We needed to find somewhere to sleep, but we had very little money. There is a camp sight in Nauvoo, though, so we took our little family there.
The kids curled up in the back of the van and Bruce and I slept in the chairs in the front. Not fun. When morning came, I took Chris and our daughter to the outside toilet. It was horrible! It was an old fashioned outhouse. I took the kids one at a time and stood in there with them because they were afraid of the open drop under the seat.
We brushed our teeth with water from a pump and had crackers and cheese for breakfast. I was busy with the baby and my 2 year old when our daughter said she had to pee. I asked her if she could wait, but she said, no, she had to go NOW. I could not stop doing what I was doing and I don't remember what Bruce was doing, so I told her to go on by herself. I could see the outhouse from where we were. Off she went. She had gone into the outhouse and within a minute she started screaming. Blood curdling screams. I turned on my heel and took off for the outhouse. Bruce heard the screams and he ran to the outhouse. I got there first and yanked the door open terrified as to what I would find in there. Had she fallen down into the waste? Nope. There was my 3 year old sitting with her pants around her ankles screaming because there was a bee in the outhouse with her.
We got home at about midnight on Saturday. We wanted to be able to rest on the Sabbath, so we pushed to get home on Saturday. Bruce pulled the van around to the back of our house so it would be easier to unload. We only had a key to the front door, so he went around to let us in the back. While he was gone, a police cruiser pulled into our driveway. The officer got out of his car and asked to see my identification. Bruce walked out of the back door and he was also asked for his I.D. He asked us questions about who we were and what we were doing. When he was satisfied that we were who we said we were he told us our neighbors behind us saw a strange vehicle pulling into our yard at midnight. They knew we were gone and were afraid someone was robbing us.
Some people may have gotten mad about being suspected of being a thief, but Bruce and I were very grateful for alert neighbors. All ended well - if not exhausting.