Labor Day in Nauvoo

Nauvoo is a small, quiet town. No traffic lights. No McDonalds or other fast-food places. No Starbucks (although they do have a shaved ice trailer in the summer). Just a nice, slow lifestyle here. Things picked up quite a bit during pageant and the summer season, but the only traffic we saw was before and after the programs, never too bad. Imagine our surprise when Nauvoo woke up for Labor Day weekend.

The Tuesday before Labor Day we noticed they'd set up a flatbed truck as a makeshift stage, and Port-a-potties had been liberally sprinkled all throughout the grassy area. We thought that area was owned by the church, but apparently most of it is part of the park across the highway. Then banners and signs started appearing, advertising various functions for the weekend.

They had a fun run, parade, carnival, pancake breakfasts TWO mornings, and a car show. What a car show it was, with old-time cars galore. The grassy fields around us are usually covered with Canadian Geese, but last weekend they were covered with cars, both old and new. 

People celebrated like crazy. Bands played each night until long after we expected peace and quiet, but we figured if the Nauvoo neighbors didn't complain, we shouldn't either.





Following the parade

We missed some of the Sunday festivities, but one of our temple missionaries, Brent Asay, is an excellent photographer and snapped these pictures.





They had several food trucks. We enjoyed a walking taco, burger, natural lemon lemonade, and funnel cake. Yummy carnival food.

The following pictures were right out our back door. It looked like Cars was being filmed here.

















There were lots more cars than this, both old and more modern ones. People didn't care about where they parked or even drove. The grass was matted for about a day after. By Tuesday, you couldn't tell anything had ever happened here. The quiet little town of Nauvoo has returned.

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