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!
Friday, May 9, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Pennsylvania, Ohio OHMY
Yesterday we cruised down the highway along Lake Erie for many miles. We left Niagara Falls, of course we got turned around one more time before we could get away, but it was relatively painless. I tell ya, there's an energy vortex there, sucks you back in...
We dropped into western PA, after we stopped on the beach of Lake Erie. It was a nature preserve, and had a nice boardwalk out to the beach. It was a nice sandy beach, but it had a big pile of debris about 10 foot tall. It was hard to overlook, and as I walked by, I thought there was a lot of crud that had washed on shore. Then I looked closer, and realized there was snow under the dirt crust. 10 feet of snow on the beach! It had been scooped up into a big pile, dirt, leaves and all. That really brought home to me how cold it had been, and I had a flash of what the shore had looked like just a few weeks before. As I walked down to the water, I could see the far shoreline, and realized I was again looking at Canada across the water. It was pretty cool.
We spent the night somewhere in PA. I found a State Park on a lake, and we stopped there for a couple hours. The Canadian geese were flying north just overhead. A few landed on the lake, and we enjoyed watching them skimming the surface, honking at their friends. It was like they were calling for the rest to join them. I realized again how much I missed the geese and other birds flying over us in Colorado. It was a regular event, spring and fall, the geese would fly in formation as they moved back and forth across the continent. We lived a couple miles north of the Colorado river, and the geese would stop there as they traveled. When they started honking, often our geese would honk back, and look like they wanted to take off with the wild bunch.
Today we drove through Ohio Amish country. We drove into Walnut Creek, looking for a good restaurant and a place to park. We found a parking lot, adjacent to 3 horse-and-carriages, parked in their own spot. The grocery store had a place on the side of it that said "Carriage parking only", with horse poo splatted on the pavement as proof! An Amish couple climbed out of their carriage and walked down the street. I had my camera, but suddenly felt it would be invasive to take their picture without permission. I got a few shots of the horses, and once the couple were at the end of the driveway, facing away from me, I took a picture of the horses with them in the background. I bet it gets old to be the focus of all the tourists every day, but the people I met didn't seem to mind much.
We had lunch at an Amish restaurant, and pie; I had chocolate cream, Mom had strawberry, before we drove on down the road. We also found a cheese factory, where they use locally produced milk. It was all Amish-run, wonderfully organic cheese and other items. There were horse-drawn carriages running up and down the roads, squeezed against the side by all the cars and trucks whizzing by. I saw teens driving most of the time, seemingly unfazed by the masses of cars on the road. The farms are immaculate, with great big barns. We saw a man plowing a field with a draft horse, it was pretty cool.
Tonight we are in Zanesville, OH. Mom's getting an oil change at the local Ford dealer tomorrow, and I'm dragging her to the local library and maybe to the courthouse to check for records. My Grandma was a Cramblit, and her great-grandfather lived in this county for years, from 1830-1850's, so I want to see what kind of genealogy records I can find. I'm in full genealogy mode now, and hope to find some interesting things while we're here.
We dropped into western PA, after we stopped on the beach of Lake Erie. It was a nature preserve, and had a nice boardwalk out to the beach. It was a nice sandy beach, but it had a big pile of debris about 10 foot tall. It was hard to overlook, and as I walked by, I thought there was a lot of crud that had washed on shore. Then I looked closer, and realized there was snow under the dirt crust. 10 feet of snow on the beach! It had been scooped up into a big pile, dirt, leaves and all. That really brought home to me how cold it had been, and I had a flash of what the shore had looked like just a few weeks before. As I walked down to the water, I could see the far shoreline, and realized I was again looking at Canada across the water. It was pretty cool.
We spent the night somewhere in PA. I found a State Park on a lake, and we stopped there for a couple hours. The Canadian geese were flying north just overhead. A few landed on the lake, and we enjoyed watching them skimming the surface, honking at their friends. It was like they were calling for the rest to join them. I realized again how much I missed the geese and other birds flying over us in Colorado. It was a regular event, spring and fall, the geese would fly in formation as they moved back and forth across the continent. We lived a couple miles north of the Colorado river, and the geese would stop there as they traveled. When they started honking, often our geese would honk back, and look like they wanted to take off with the wild bunch.
Today we drove through Ohio Amish country. We drove into Walnut Creek, looking for a good restaurant and a place to park. We found a parking lot, adjacent to 3 horse-and-carriages, parked in their own spot. The grocery store had a place on the side of it that said "Carriage parking only", with horse poo splatted on the pavement as proof! An Amish couple climbed out of their carriage and walked down the street. I had my camera, but suddenly felt it would be invasive to take their picture without permission. I got a few shots of the horses, and once the couple were at the end of the driveway, facing away from me, I took a picture of the horses with them in the background. I bet it gets old to be the focus of all the tourists every day, but the people I met didn't seem to mind much.
We had lunch at an Amish restaurant, and pie; I had chocolate cream, Mom had strawberry, before we drove on down the road. We also found a cheese factory, where they use locally produced milk. It was all Amish-run, wonderfully organic cheese and other items. There were horse-drawn carriages running up and down the roads, squeezed against the side by all the cars and trucks whizzing by. I saw teens driving most of the time, seemingly unfazed by the masses of cars on the road. The farms are immaculate, with great big barns. We saw a man plowing a field with a draft horse, it was pretty cool.
Tonight we are in Zanesville, OH. Mom's getting an oil change at the local Ford dealer tomorrow, and I'm dragging her to the local library and maybe to the courthouse to check for records. My Grandma was a Cramblit, and her great-grandfather lived in this county for years, from 1830-1850's, so I want to see what kind of genealogy records I can find. I'm in full genealogy mode now, and hope to find some interesting things while we're here.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
FYI
Just a note to everyone- I've tried responding to emails, but sometimes my emails will not go out, so please don't think I'm being rude. I will keep trying to reply to emails, but if you don't hear from me, at least you know why. Elaine
Niagara Vortex
We are in Niagara Falls, New York. We drove into a KOA camp Friday afternoon, and I think we will stay here a few days. Saturday Mom called Enterprise to get a rental car and the conversation went something like this: “Hi, do you have any cars today? (No, we only rent balloons?) Good, we’d like to rent a small car. Where are we? Niagara Falls (Mom, we’re in Lewiston) Yes, we’re in Littleton. In New York. Oh- Lewiston I mean. Well, we don’t know where we are! Where are we from? Arizona-we drove cross- country to New Hampshire to move kids, and now we’re just wandering around before we go home. I’m retired and my daughter is on disability, so we don’t have to be anywhere, unless her husband calls and needs her to come home. Wow!!! $18.95 a day? That’s the cheapest I’ve seen this whole trip! That’s great, can you deliver that to us? No, I don’t know the address or the zip. I'm not even sure how we got here! (Here’s the brochure with the address, Mom) Oh yeah, here it is-You can bring that this morning? Great! Well, you have a good day hon, thanks for your help.
After sorting out where we are, and having Enterprise pick us up, we were off on our adventures. Actually, it started with the driver- he took us on a quick tour of Lewiston and a little history lesson. Turns out that Lewiston was a main portage point for freight coming west from the Atlantic Ocean. The ships came down the St. Lawrence River onto Lake Ontario, but the Niagara Falls prevented them from moving on to the Great Lakes. Everything had to be unloaded at the dock in Lewiston, hauled by wagon up the hill past the Falls, then onto ships on Lake Erie, where they could continue through the Great Lakes, thus fueling the western expansion of both Canada and the US. This happened from the 1500’s into the 1800’s, when the Erie Canal was finished, and Lewiston is a picturesque little town with lots of character. It is pretty yuppie and upscale compared to Niagara Falls. The city of Niagara Falls is an interesting contrast, even to itself. The downtown area is decrepit, most of the commercial buildings are closed down, with the windows broken out or boarded over, pretty ghetto looking. Just a couple blocks away is a brand-new Casino, at least 20 stories high, all glass and glitz. That part of the city is well-dressed and the roads are in decent shape. The State Park is a little worse for the wear, but still worth the visit. We took a trolley around the Park after we looked at the Falls. Mom wants to see the Great Lakes, so next we went looking for Lake Ontario.
I’ve decided that Niagara Falls is a vortex, because every time we left the downtown area looking for new horizons, we ended up back in downtown again. It happened yesterday when we left the casino, (yes, Mom insisted we had to stop there!) After we were taken to the Enterprise office and rented the car, we did laundry, found some great ice cream, and then Mom had to have her slot fix. Nothing serious, mind you, just a little cash at the casino for fun.
It’s easy to find downtown Niagara Falls, but once you’re there, something just changes, and the vortex sucks the car right back into it. We drove into downtown twice before we could get out yesterday, and then today again after we left the park. It couldn’t be the driver and navigator (I was driving, not navigating!) It had to be a vortex- all the water falling into a chasm creates an energy vacuum, which pulls everything toward the zone. I swear, it has to be that! We left on one road, looking for Lake Ontario, driving along the river, it was a beautiful drive, but then we realized we were driving south instead of north. We took another road north, about 5 miles inland from the Falls, but still ended up right back downtown Niagara Falls. Finally we found the road to Lake Ontario and Fort Niagara, and saw where the Niagara River flows into Lake Ontario. That itself is confusing, because Ontario is actually north of the river, so the river has to flow north. Weird. I tell you, there’s a vortex there…..
After sorting out where we are, and having Enterprise pick us up, we were off on our adventures. Actually, it started with the driver- he took us on a quick tour of Lewiston and a little history lesson. Turns out that Lewiston was a main portage point for freight coming west from the Atlantic Ocean. The ships came down the St. Lawrence River onto Lake Ontario, but the Niagara Falls prevented them from moving on to the Great Lakes. Everything had to be unloaded at the dock in Lewiston, hauled by wagon up the hill past the Falls, then onto ships on Lake Erie, where they could continue through the Great Lakes, thus fueling the western expansion of both Canada and the US. This happened from the 1500’s into the 1800’s, when the Erie Canal was finished, and Lewiston is a picturesque little town with lots of character. It is pretty yuppie and upscale compared to Niagara Falls. The city of Niagara Falls is an interesting contrast, even to itself. The downtown area is decrepit, most of the commercial buildings are closed down, with the windows broken out or boarded over, pretty ghetto looking. Just a couple blocks away is a brand-new Casino, at least 20 stories high, all glass and glitz. That part of the city is well-dressed and the roads are in decent shape. The State Park is a little worse for the wear, but still worth the visit. We took a trolley around the Park after we looked at the Falls. Mom wants to see the Great Lakes, so next we went looking for Lake Ontario.
I’ve decided that Niagara Falls is a vortex, because every time we left the downtown area looking for new horizons, we ended up back in downtown again. It happened yesterday when we left the casino, (yes, Mom insisted we had to stop there!) After we were taken to the Enterprise office and rented the car, we did laundry, found some great ice cream, and then Mom had to have her slot fix. Nothing serious, mind you, just a little cash at the casino for fun.
It’s easy to find downtown Niagara Falls, but once you’re there, something just changes, and the vortex sucks the car right back into it. We drove into downtown twice before we could get out yesterday, and then today again after we left the park. It couldn’t be the driver and navigator (I was driving, not navigating!) It had to be a vortex- all the water falling into a chasm creates an energy vacuum, which pulls everything toward the zone. I swear, it has to be that! We left on one road, looking for Lake Ontario, driving along the river, it was a beautiful drive, but then we realized we were driving south instead of north. We took another road north, about 5 miles inland from the Falls, but still ended up right back downtown Niagara Falls. Finally we found the road to Lake Ontario and Fort Niagara, and saw where the Niagara River flows into Lake Ontario. That itself is confusing, because Ontario is actually north of the river, so the river has to flow north. Weird. I tell you, there’s a vortex there…..
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