Who are the Mormons?

My previous post about our road trip inspired me to write about another road trip we took a few years ago. This isn't the first time we have followed the Utes to a bowl game. (And I've been told it won't be the last either!) Back in December 2005 we followed the Utes to San Francisco (Franciscoooo- that's fun to say!) to play in the Emerald bowl. But this time we went in a PT Cruiser- (We had a rental car because Eric had been in an accident the week before Christmas and we decided to put the miles on our rental car instead of our own. And if you know our history with car troubles, this was no surprise. I really should do a post about all the car trouble we have had over the years.) Anyway we loaded our 3 kids into the PT Cruiser and road tripped it over the Sierra Nevadas to the Bay Area. Only having to travel for 12 hours seems like child's play now! And besides me getting the worst stomach flu ever and unintentionally detoxing myself in the hotel bathroom and Eric losing Annie in a museum for 30 minutes, it was a fun and incident-free trip. Until. . . we were traveling home. Apparently the Donner Party was not exaggerating about the dangerous combination of snow and the Sierra Nevadas. During our return trip we found that the highway crossing over the mountains had been closed due to a landslide. So we had to turn around and find another way home. We decided to take some of the scenic, more winding roads to make our way over to Carson City. One of these roads took us past Sutter's Mill where gold was discovered and thus caused the Gold Rush of 1840- that sounded a bit Cliff Clavinish, but I had to do it- it is essential to the story! We decided to stop and look around because when we would ever get back to Sutter's Mill?!?

While we were exploring, Eric found a small cabin and plaque that was dedicated to the Mormon presence when gold was found at Sutter's Mill. So he called everyone over and proceeded to tell the kids all about the Mormons being there when gold was discovered. He read the plaque to the kids, had me take a picture in front of the cabin and went on and on about how cool it was that the Mormons were there. As we were walking away Finn turned to me and said, "Who are the Mormons?" So apparently the Church's campaign to be known as "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" rather than the "Mormons" had worked on Finn. I did inform him that he in fact was a Mormon. He seemed to take the news fairly well.

When I was looking for pictures to put in this post, I found this one. Eric had even taken a picture of the plaque too.