Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Bob's Blah Blog:

Whew-eee, its warm and humid and wet and cloudy and rainy tonight. We are in a little county park outside Marion, IA, around Cedar Rapids for you all playing at home. Just got here a bit ago and had time to blog, so put your seatbelts on and cover your eyes for this ride.

We stayed in Cheyenne, WY until Saturday morning then headed east for Seward NE. It was a long drive but the company (and I mean me) was good. Driving through someplace we needed to get fuel and just before we got there, a WY State Trooper came flying by us. We figured he had a wreck to get to and the roadsigns said we could tune to a radio station for road info. But, we were listening to the Blue Collar Comedy radio station and it was too funny to turn off, so we didn't. Anyway, as we near the exit we need to get off the road to a Flying J (thank you Lynda Schallmann) we saw the trooper's car parked sideways across the off-ramp. As we then passed the blocked ramp we saw the problem, the first and only accident we have seen on our trip. An 18 wheeler tried to take the curve too fast and rolled over. The whole thing was off the road and there was no reason to block the ramp. State cops...sheesh! Anyway, to compound the situation, we were in a construction zone with jersey barriers on both sides of our lane. Someone (and I mean Corinne) told me to get out of the construction area to pull over to see how to get back to the Flying J, so I took the first exit I saw, which turned out to be a ramp with no asphalt. Well someone (and I mean Corinne) wasn't happy with my little teeny, itsy-bitsy error so I stopped dead in the ramp. When I started up again, we got to the bottom of the ramp and some female flagperson was directing traffic so ineptly that she was holding her slow/stop sign backwards and waving traffic thru while showing the stop sign. She then came over to the first vehicle in line and talked to them about who knows what. They however made a left turn thru the construction zone and disappeared. I don't recall what the guy in front of me did, but I decided to go straight thru the intersection and take the on-ramp back to the highway and get the heck out of there. But first, I had to stop and ask some construction worker if anyone there on the site knew what they were doing. "No speak English" are the words I got back. Well, since he didn't speak english, he probably didn't understand what I called him as I drove off.

Anyway, we never did get back to the Flying J at that place and we had like over 100 miles to go and about 160 miles til empty showing on my gas gauge. Needless to say, we came about and 1/8 of an inch until someone (and I mean Corinne) would have had to start pushing the rig to the next station. But she lucked out and got to ride the whole way.

We rolled into Seward late Saturday afternoon, about 5 pm or so. We couldn't find a RV campground or nothing, so I stopped at the local constabulary and inquired if they had a recreational vehicle depot in their fine burg. Well, of course they did and gave us good directions to the campground, just outside of town along the Blue River on one side and the Northern-Burlington railway (or some other train company) on the otherside of us. We was squished in. But the price was right, $10 a night and all the electricity and water we could use. Well, we sure used our share and several other shares of electricity as it was hot and muggy and muggy and hot, and....well you know, warm and humid. We dropped the trailer and took a drive around this fine burg, found the cemetery we wanted, the Wal-Mart (I said it was a fine burg), and the Jones and Cattle Banks we came to see. It got dark, so we went back to the campground, which had one other traveling couple in it and some tent campers -yuk, across the way from us. It was way too hot and muggy to be camping outdoors. Of course, our satellite receiver didn't work, all tho it would get #110 satellite but not 119 which, as everyone knows and goes without saying, has all the best channels on it, like NASCAR and SPEED Network. I had another extended conversation with Dish Network that evening, in fact, I had a couple extended convos with the the morons without resolving anything except "the problem is obviously on my end of the system, it certainly cannot be on their end." We ran the TV antenna up and got a couple of local channels.

On Sunday, we drove around some more, got things ready for going to the library and court house on Monday and tried to find another cemetery called Greenwood. The only Greenwood we could find was in York, about 25 miles west of us. We took a nice drive there, saw lots of interesting stuff, but not the interesting stuff we were looking for, like graves of ancestors who have died and been buried. On our way back to Seward, we took a different route and came across the Seward County Historical Society building, so we stopped. Just as our luck was looking pretty darn good, the place was open on Sunday, but not after 5 pm. It was almost 630 pm. Oh well. The next day it would re-open was Thursday, like that's really gonna help us, we'll be long gone by then (but not long gone as in dead).

I colored someone's (and I mean Corinne) hair for her. It turned out pretty good, but turned green by Monday morning. But that's ok, because it all fell out by noon, so now I just call her "Cue Ball." I can't repeat what she calls me...lets just say it rhymes with "Sumb Dhit" It's so nice to have pet names for loved ones.

Monday, we roused ourselves late and got to the library probably around 10 or 11. Being retired lets us sleep in and be lazy lumps if we want. But, we did lose some valuable time at the library and Corinne was finding some pretty good stuff there, particularly in the Heritage Room (historical section) in which she had to be admitted by someone with a key, not just any key, but the Heritage Room key, and had to sign in and everything. Why sign in if you don't require to see some ID? We could of signed in under anyone's name, but we didn't. And besides, its just on a yellow pad that lays on the counter and anyone could take it. We were going to order a head stone for Corinne and Maurine's grandma, Courtney's mom, but decided to go to the monument place a cousin recommended. So we ended up driving 25 miles to Lincoln, NE to watch a movie. If you haven't seen the Simpson's movie, I highly recommend it. I found it to be very funny. Corinne on the otherhand said "she lives that life being married to me." I'll take that as a compliment!!!

Tuesday, we found out where the real Greenwood cemetery in Seward was located. It was right downtown in a small neighborhood, tucked away behind the weeping willows and oak trees. We found the markers we were looking for and a few we weren't. I think I found my new hobby...going to graveyards and looking for the odd and unusual grave markers. One I found said their family name was "Toogood." Toogood for what? Another read "Death robbed the marriage altar." Hmmmm, that one could be sad. Still, a couple of large monuments had the word "BYE" on them. I guess they were leaving and just wanted to let everyone know they died.

Tuesday morning Corinne hit the jackpot at the court house finding all kinds of probate records dating back to the 1850s. The court charged her 25 cents per page tocopy, that's the law. Too bad they wouldn't let her take the records to the library across the street 'cause they only charge 10 cents per page there. We're retired on a fixed income now. I never did understand that, everybody's on a fixed income. Although, a savings of 15 cents times 130 copies would have paid for the senior's breakfast for someone (and I mean Corinne) at Dennys.

We continued on toward the east and arrived in Des Moines late Tuesday evening. We tried to find a campground called Tom Mitchell Campground, but couldn't find it...at least not by the directions they gave in our RV Camping Directory. We ended up at Adventureland, parked between a casino and a roller coaster. And the rain came and came and came, not to mention the lightning and thunder that accompanied it. I don't know how long it rained for, but it wasn't raining in the morning. In fact, it was coool and just a bit humid when we packed up and pulled out of Adventureland, on the road again.

Wednesday, we went to Ames, IA and Iowa State University, formerly known as Iowa State College back in the olden days. My dad went there before going off t0 WWII and my grandpa, Edward Earl Mitchell, worked there as a custodian when Pop was a student. We went back to the campus bell tower where we deposited some of my dad's ashes a few years ago. It was a huge mistake to place his ashes there because that dang bell tower clock chimes every hour on the hour, 24 times a day. My dad didn't like noise and with my luck, I bet the ashes I put there contained his good hearing ear and that bell chime 24 times a day just....well, you can imagine what it probably did. Anyway, I attribute the bad karma I have to this one simple, single, innocent act a few years ago. Anyway, I scooped up a handfull of dirt and mulch and hopefully, no, I know I got some ashes, his good ear ashes, and put them in a plastic bag to take with me. We also checked out the bench across Lake Laverne where I also placed some of his ashes just to see if the bench was still there. Its a peaceful place and we are sure he is happy there looking at the lake and trees, even tho he'd rather be in a coffee shop talking to perfect strangers.

We went to the chuch where my grandpa, Edward Earl Mitchell married my grandma, Marcella Marie Byrnes in 1917 to see if we could find the marriage record and also Daddy-o's baptismal record. We hit pay dirt and found both those records and the baptismal records of Uncles Melvin and LeRoy and Aunt Marion. Really Cool! The church, St. Cecilia, has been long gone, with a new church built on the spot. We did get some pictures of the original church. After leaving the church, we went to the Ames library to look for old phonebooks to find addresses for Mitchell and Byrnes families. We got lucky and found addresses dating back to 1917 up to 1940 something. We drove around to find the houses and took photos of them. Only two houses were not there anymore. One was replaced by a bigger house and the other, where Pop lived while in college was "paved paradise and put up a parking lot" to quote the words of a famous song. I tell you, if we didn't have our Garmin GPS, the voice we call the "Queen" because of her English accent, we would still be looking for some of those addresses, even tho most were within just a couple of blocks from each other. The only bad thing about the "Queen" is, she doesn't always give the most direct route to the address. But, can we really criticize her, she is English you know. Now, if she was Scottish, that might be a different story (Hi! Mary Reilly).

We are now camped at the location noted in the first paragraph, I think. It is beautiful here. It is wide and open and green and tree-ey, and clean and just a very nice place. I think we will look for more like this place to stay. Just heard some thunder, so must be getting ready to rain again.

All for now. I know I have much more to tell, but that's what I get for not keeping up with my blog. Hope you enjoy.

Tell the yung-ins to mind their mammy and pappy.

Bobo