Midwest meandering

Well, I'm home now, but here's some of the happenings from the road. We didn't have much internet access the last week of our trip, so I couldn't keep the blog updated. I found the Samuel and Sarah Cramblit's headstone in the Shaul Cemetery in Ottumwa, Iowa. It was a beautiful headstone, and a beautiful cemetery too. I was so moved by the experience of walking where the family walked, paying respects to the resting place of my ancestors, and standing where family that I've never met have also stood, paying their respects. We went right before Memorial Day, and there were flags, flowers and other momentos on many graves. We left flowers as well. Samuel and Sarah were the only Cramblit's in the whole cemetery, I don't know if anyone visits them or not, so I'm glad we could leave flowers there. We went to Des Moines that afternoon, and I obtained a copy of Richard H. Matthews death certificate, so I accomplished that goal too. I was so worn out by then, and it was raining, so we didn't look for the cemetery for him, but I felt I met my objective and was really ready to stop doing research.

We were all ready to move on, and took I-80 straight west to Omaha, Nebraska. That is an LDS church history site, where many pioneers stopped for the winter before making the last westward trek to Salt Lake. We camped right near the Missouri River in a city campground. The area was beautiful, and someone came around every night selling firewood. They sell walnut and oak, split and dried. We had a cozy, occasionally smokey, campfire that night. I decided not to sleep outside, and about 2:00 am I heard a terrific crack of thunder. It started on the right, and split the night all the way across the left side of us, for miles it seemed. Julie had been sleeping on a cot outside, and came busting through the door while that clap of thunder was still rolling across the countryside. There was a helacious storm that night, it really rocked the place. We were lucky, we just got rain, wind, lightening and thunder. A tornado touched down in Windsor, Colorado that wiped out miles of homes, killing one person, from the very same storm. Friday it was still raining, and we decided we'd had enough. We left Omaha, heading west, determined not to stop until we found the sun!

Speaking of storms, we were in the thick of some crazy weather the whole trip, but the Lord looked out for us throughout our journey. We were 60 miles north of tornadoes while in Ohio, just missed the flooding in Ohio, Iowa and Illinois. While we were traveling across Nebraska
there were tornadoes in Iowa, where we had recently left. We drove into Ft. Collins, which is just a few miles from Windsor, the day after that terrible tornado. It was a mile wide, and plowed through 35 miles of land and houses before it finally died. Throughout our trip we had a lot of rain and some wind, but amazingly nothing more serious than a little hail.

We spent Memorial Day in Albuquerque, NM. Julie's daughter lives there, so it was a good place to stop for a day. We were all ready for a break from the non-stop driving, and I didn't want to be on the road on the holiday. Monday Mom and I found a casino, and she played there for several hours. They had a great lunch buffet, and I took a luxurious nap. Julie, Laurie and I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie- pretty great day overall. We were up and gone at dawn, and arrived in Cottonwood safe and sound on Tuesday. It's been a wonderful experience! I love traveling with Mom, she is so much fun, and nothing really fazes her at all. Julie is always a blast to be around, our friendship has only strengthened over the many years. I have so much research to organize and document on my computer! Some will go onto my ancestry.com site, a lot of it will go into my notes until I can put the families together, a piece at a time.

Although my corral-on-motorhome idea didn't pan out, Arizona actually got rain in May too, not a common experience. I'm glad that the sun is shining, I've had quite enough rain for this spring! By July I'll be wishing there was just a little bit more, but right now the weather here is perfect- high 80's, 10% humidity and lots of sunshine. I'm a desert rat- Long live Arizona!!