Rain and Brain Drain

Yesterday was Jared’s 25th birthday! I can’t believe he’s 25 already, I can still remember the day he was born, which was Mother’s day that year. He was also born on his due date, how often does that happen??

Yesterday we spent the day in the John McIntire Library in Zanesville, OH. We found a lot of books with records of Cramblits and Dunkles, I don’t know how many are direct relatives, but I took pictures of all the records I could, and typed in the rest in my genealogy research packets. Zanesville is a really pretty town, with several large stone or brick churches, built in the late 1800’s. It is at the confluence of the Licking and Muskingam Rivers, and has a really cool Y-shaped bridge across both rivers that is quite unique. We stayed at Wolfie’s Campground, it’s a great RV park just out of town.

As we were driving in to the library, we saw a livestock auction, and I had a really hard time pulling Mom away from there. I said “No, we can’t buy chickens or a calf here, and drag them all the way across the country!” She said she just wanted to look, she wouldn’t buy anything. She smiled, “I just like the smells!” However, I’ve been the recipient of several dogs, chickens and sundry critters that came home with her from the livestock auction in Colorado, so I wasn’t taking any chances! I’m not sharing space with one of her finds!
I tease Mom a lot, but I’ll tell you, she is amazing. She’s 75 and can park this rig anywhere. She handles all the plumbing, water, gas, everything necessary to keep it running. This morning I was unhooking the sewer pipe when the end split-it’s a flexible tubing. Mom pulled out her tool kit and went to work. I jumped in and we took the working ends off the tubing and attached it to new tubing, now we have a good-as-new set up.

Today we drove from Zanesville down through Ohio hill country. It is all backroads, little two lane affairs with only local traffic. We’ve seen lots of farmland, with big beautiful barns. Many of them have cattle, with newborn calves scampering near their mommas. I was driving today, and as we lumbered down the road, with our bed on board, I imagined us as a Conestoga wagon, pioneers in a new land. Every field in this area had to be cleared of trees and brush, and most of them were done by hand in the 1800’s. The Amish still use horses and plows, but the original farmers used them too, with wagons to bring in the wood, and the harvest. Anyhow, we drive slow, lumber along, and feel like pioneers exploring new ground. We are lucky enough to have paved roads, and don’t have to ferry across the myriad of rivers, creeks, streams and marshes that we’ve seen everywhere we go.

Tonight we are spending the night in Hocking Hills country, a state park. We are looking for Locust Grove Cemetery, where several Cramblit and Dunkle family members are buried. Luckily one of the men working here at the campground knows where it is, because it’s an old, out of the way church and cemetery. It’s been raining for the past two days, but hopefully it will be more clear tomorrow, and we can look around the cemetery. I’d like to visit some of the caves here in the park, too.

Speaking of rain, I’m working on a unique corral that we can attach to the roof of the motorhome. I figure that when we leave this area, if I use that energy vortex from Niagara Falls that seems to be following me, (I keep getting turned around!) I can draw some of the clouds into the corral and since we drive so slow, we can trick them into following us home. So, expect some rain in AZ along the end of May. If you see a motorhome with a big black cloud above it, heading west, you’ll know it’s us!

We found the cemetery, and even though it wasn't raining while we were there, the grass was soaked, and within a few minutes so were we. We found the headstones for the Cramblits!! That was pretty neat to see, 2 couples, each with a large headstone or pillar to mark their last resting place. I went to the courthouse, and found more records there too. I'm pretty happy with the results of our research already, and we have another week in Ohio. Mom is being very patient with my obsession- at least we are looking for her family too, that helps peak her interest. I'm exhausted at the end of each day, but happy about the results. Oh, it's raining yet again, for the past couple hours. No wonder it's so green here, it rarely has pure, unadulterated sunshine. We're getting homesick for the great southwest!