Saturday, June 8, 2013

A Treasure Hunt and A Cookout

Rantoul, IL.

54 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast = Clear in the morning, then partly cloudy. High of 77F. Winds less than 5 mph.

I've decided try to cut back on that forecast section above. It was so long that even I didn't want to read it  when I went back to review the bogs. Besides, depending on what part of the country you're in, the forecast for the night may very likely change anyway. : O

Thursday, neither Linda nor Jim felt like doing too much, so it was decided that they would just take a ride somewhere. Since Linda had said something about it the other day, Jim suggested that they head west of Rantoul and see if they could find that little cemetery out in the country where a few of Linda's ancestors are buried. They had found it once, quite a few years ago, but had forgotten exactly where it's located.

So, ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  they took CLT and headed in the general direction.

CLT said that it was like being on a Treasure Hunt!!!! Both Jim and Linda had an idea of where the cemetery was located, so they started looking for familiar roads and landscapes that would help them. When they got about 4 or 5 miles West of Rantoul, Jim turned South on a blacktop road that he was pretty sure headed the right way. After 3 or so miles on that road, they turned West on a small blacktop road, but after following it for a short distance, decided that that was not the road they wanted.

About this time, they came upon a couple of farmers who had stopped along the road to talk to each other, so Jim stopped and asked them if they happened to know where the Jersey cemetery might be located. He described it to them and told them what he and Linda could remember about it, such as it being located at the crossroads of 2 small blacktop roads and being on the SE corner of the intersection.

After some thought, one said that there was one like they described, just about 2 miles from where they were and gave Jim and Linda directions to get to it. (Gotta love these friendly farm folks).  ; )

So, following the instructions given, Jim and Linda found the cemetery, and it was just like they had remembered.

As you can see, someone still takes care of the cemetery and cuts the grass regularly, even though there is no longer a church here. There's also evidence of some of the remaining markers being re-set.

This is the marker that Linda and Jim were looking for. You probably can't see it in the photo, but there are names and dates on both of the sides that you can see. One side gives the information about Linda's Great Grandmother, and the other side is for her Great Great Grandmother, both from Linda's father's side.

Evidently times were hard in those days, so they used the same marker for both women.

After Linda got the information that she needed for her Family Tree program, she and Jim enjoyed a leisurely drive through the country, back here to the Campground.

Oh, and they now have the GPS location and the road sign numbers from the intersection where the cemetery is located. ; )

Yesterday, not much happened. Jim went to the Rural King store and picked up a few things and then later, got some weed killer from Louise and sprayed the weeds that are growing up through the gravel in our site.

Today, Paul and Louise, (the campground hosts), are going to have a cookout!! Don't know what they're going to be cooking out on the grill, but knowing Louise, I'm sure it'll be really good. : )  Linda is going to make a desert to take over there and I'm sure that some of the others from the park that Louise invited will also bring food.

Sounds like a P A R T Y !!!!!!!!!

Did you know that on this date in 1786 - In New York City, commercial ice cream was manufactured for the first time?

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