A Day Out with Friends (And A New Camera)

I bought the new camera last Thursday night and took it with me the next day on an outing with our friends, Terry and Diane, totally without having time to get more than minimally familiar with the camera.

Our first stop was the Marion National Cemetery. Terry and Doug are both veterans, so both couples are eligible for burial in a National Cemetery. Doug and I had visited the Fort Custer National Cemetery on Memorial Day, just to see what it was like. Now we were visiting this one, a little closer to where we now live.

A Monument in the Marion National Cemetery

These are some of the markers in what appeared to be an older section of the cemetery.

After visiting the cemetery, we went to Kokomo, Indiana, where Terry needed to pick up an item he had ordered from the Menard's store there. None of us had more than a passing acquaintance with Kokomo, but we found it to be an interesting place.

Doug spotted this dog in the driver's seat at one of the intersections.

A plaque identified this gigantic Praying Mantis as "Kokomantis."

Not far from Kokomantis was this spider in a web. That must be Little Miss Muffett's bench.

The Sieberling Mansion in Kokomo is the home of the Howard County Historical Museum.

After touring Kokomo and having supper there at the Whiskey Creek Wood Fire Grill, we drove to Upland, Indiana for ice cream treats at Ivanhoe's.

Ice Cream at Ivanhoe's

This is the Chocoholics Anonymous sundae, my favorite. It has chocolate ice cream, chocolate cookie pieces, chocolate candy bar pieces; and then it's all covered with a layer of hot fudge. 

And I ate the whole thing!

Doug got this out for me when we returned home. (But I didn't need it.)

Fort Custer National Cemetery

Monday was Memorial Day in the United States, a day which we set aside to remember those who have given their lives in military service to our country.

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that Doug and I have been doing some funeral planning. But we still haven't nailed down where we want to be buried. As a veteran, Doug is eligible for burial in one of our National Cemeteries; and, as his wife, I'm eligible to be buried with him.

So, on this Memorial Day, Doug and I, along with Doug's brother, visited Fort Custer National Cemetery, in Augusta, Michigan. At this cemetery, depending on which section the cemetery decides to bury us in, our graves could be side by side...or we could be stacked in the same burial plot.

Doug, ever the competitor, says that, if we have to be stacked, he wants to be on top because he wants to be the first one out of the hole when the Lord returns for His own.

The Avenue of Flags along the entrance road

Fort Custer National Cemetery is a beautiful place, heavily wooded, with sections cleared here and there for burial plots. The markers are flat, ground-level, stones; but each burial site was decorated with American flags on Memorial Day. Otherwise, it would pretty much look like meadows amidst woodland unless you were standing right over a marker.

One section of the cemetery

During World War II, more than 5,000 German prisoners of war were held at Fort Custer. Finding able farm labor during the war became a problem as more Americans were drafted into the military or worked in the factories producing war materials. Putting Fort Custer’s POWs to work seemed an efficient solution to the labor shortage.

The last German prisoners repatriated to their homeland departed Fort Custer in 1946. They left behind 26 comrades buried in the old post cemetery. Sixteen of the German POWs were killed in an accident when their truck collided with a train as they were returning to the fort from a work detail on a sugar beet farm near Blissfield, Mich. The other 10 died from natural causes.

The German Memorial

The 26 German graves

This shows a section of American burial plots adjoining the graves of the Germans.

Memorial Day is a holiday; and, like most holidays, it often means family gatherings, picnics, trips to the lake, etc. But I hope that this Memorial Day also included remembering...remembering the sacrifices others have made, allowing us to continue enjoying all of those pleasures.

And may remembering stir our hearts to gratitude for all of the men and women who have served or are currently serving in our armed forces.



Smokies...Laurel Falls and Plemmons Cemetery

On November 8, during our late-fall visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the sun was shining; and it was a beautiful day. We decided to hike to Laurel Falls, probably one of the most popular day hikes in the park. The trail is paved and suitable for strollers and wheelchairs; although, like most trails in the park, it is almost all uphill going to the falls.

Along the trail to Laurel Falls

Laurel Falls

After our hike, we drove to the area of the park known as Greenbrier...sometimes called Big Greenbrier...located between Gatlinburg and Cosby. We had planned to enjoy an afternoon of reading in front of a fire in the fireplace at the picnic pavilion there. Since the pavilion was in use when we arrived, we went for a walk to the Plemmons Cemetery nearby.

I saw this leaf glowing in the sunlight on the walk to the cemetery.

The shadows seem long for mid-afternoon, don't they?

There are a number of interesting grave markers in the Plemmons cemetery. The old stones are crudely carved, and many are becoming unreadable. Many of those that can still be read contain quaint misspellings or letters printed backward. On some, interesting verses have been carefully etched. One of our favorites is on the stone marking the resting place of Charles Rafield. It says:

Remember man as you pass by

As you are now so once was I

As I am now so shall you be

Therefore prepare to follow me

There is a story about another grave with that verse on it and two more lines added by an unknown passerby:

To follow you I'm not content

Until I know which way you went

A soldier of America's Revolutionary War is buried here. This photo shows both old and new grave markers, although the old one is no longer legible.

This one marks the grave of a soldier of the Civil War.

A slender plant throws a shadow almost bigger than itself against the trunk of a tree.

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving. It's a good time to think about all our blessings, and to give thanks to God, from whom they come.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (James 1:17)

A Smoky Mountain Assortment

After our drive up to Newfound Gap and Clingmans Dome on November 5th, we were ready for a little walk. We chose one of the Quiet Walkways that can be found throughout the park, offering an opportunity for a pleasant walk.

The signs at these Quiet Walkways usually say something to the effect that no backpacks or hiking boots are required. I think Doug and I must have gotten off the path, though, because I was definitely wishing for my hiking boots. We found our way down to a beautiful river, enhanced by some remaining colorful fall leaves.

River on Quiet Walkway

After our hike, we drove to the Elkmont area of the national park, to visit the site of the Old Wonderland Hotel, where our love affair with the Smokies began in 1990. The old hotel is gone now. Only the steps leading up the hillside from the roadway, the remnant of the old fountain, and the crumbling ruins of the chimney still remain.

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This picture was taken from what would have been the dining room of the old hotel. The desk for check-in would have been to the right. A comfortable and inviting lobby was to the left, where guests gathered to visit, play table games, or just read in front of the fireplace. There was a long porch, lined with rockers, between the chimney and those two trees. Those trees framed a beautiful view of the lawn and fountain, with Blanket Mountain in the distance. Ah, the memories. We surely do miss that place.

Across the road from the site of the old hotel, we saw several wild turkeys foraging for food.

Wild Turkeys

Then we visited the Old Elkmont Cemetery.

The Old Elkmont Cemetery

There are a lot of these old cemeteries scattered throughout the national park since this area was once home to a number of families before it was purchased for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The cemeteries are interesting to visit and give mute testimony to the hardship of life for the inhabitants of this land.

Most of the original grave markers in these cemeteries were nothing more than stones with crude carvings of names and dates, many almost totally illegible after so many years. Some of these have been replaced in recent years by more modern tombstones, probably by surviving members of the extended family who still tend the graves.

The majority of the graves in The Old Elkmont Cemetery seem to be of children, many of them bearing dates of death on the same day, or within the same year, as the date of birth.

This one marks the grave of a man who lived to age 71. It has a verse that I particularly liked:

A precious one from us has gone.

A voice we loved is stilled.

A place is vacant in our home, which never can be filled.

God, in His wisdom, has recalled the boon His love had given;

and, though the body slumbers here,

the soul is safe in Heaven.

This one marks the grave of a seven-year-old boy. I couldn't quite make out the entire inscription.

As we returned to our lodging in Pigeon Forge that evening, I took this photo of Gatlinburg snuggled among the mountains.

Portland Arch

Doug and I took off on a little pre-anniversary getaway on Thursday. On the agenda was a visit to the Portland Arch Nature Preserve and National Natural Landmark, near Fountain, Indiana.

This is the natural sandstone arch, carved by a small tributary of Bear Creek, which is the focal point of the Nature Preserve.

This area has a special significance to me, not only for its beauty, but because it was once owned by my mother's family.

In its heyday, Portland Arch was a resort area, apparently drawing boatloads of people and the big bands of the day. I don't know a great deal about the history...just fragments that I've heard through the years. But, as I understand it, Mom's family borrowed $3,000 against the property to build a dam, apparently for the purpose of generating electricity for the resort. Shortly after that, the Great Depression hit our country, and the family lost the property.

After that, it was a Boy Scout camp, until accidents on the cliffs caused the Boy Scouts to close their camp. Since then, it has been a Nature Preserve.

The loop trail through the preserve is heavily wooded. This spider's web caught my eye, with the sun glistening on it.

A view of part of the trail.

Wildflowers along the trail.

Next to the Portland Arch Nature Preserve is an old cemetery, where several members of my mother's family are buried, including her parents and a brother. Several of her father's family members are also buried there. So the cemetery was also on our agenda to visit.

We were saddened to see that some of the huge oak trees had been cut down since our last visit.

Here, you can see the size of one of the stumps. We're estimating that they would measure about six feet across.

A pair of turkey vultures were sunning themselves in a tree at the cemetery, apparently an adult and a juvenile. The adult stretched its wings in preparation for flying as I snapped this shot.

This is the juvenile, just taking off. Unfortunately, I didn't get a clear shot. Operator error.

There was a second trail, through another part of the Nature Preserve, which we walked after our visit to the cemetery.

Along that trail, we found this colony of honeybees busily going about their work. I know it's hard to see them in the picture, but there were so many of them that the sound is what first caught our attention.

This butterfly posed just long enough for one shot. Fortunately, it was a pretty good one.

This cicada was too lethargic to have been healthy. He wasn't dead, but he wasn't exactly lively, either.

One last photo for today...

My grandmother may have taught school in this old schoolhouse in Fountain, Indiana. It has now been converted to a residence, and a very pretty one, at that.

Tombstone Humor

This tombstone is located in a cemetery not far from where we live. Someone apparently had a sense of humor during a not-very-funny time, marking the grave with parking meters that say "expired."

A Cemetery and Fall Colors

Today was a bit overcast and cooler than it has been here in the Smokies for the last couple of days. The forecast was for rain, which never came; but we didn't plan any hikes, just in case.

We visited Carter's Apple House, a restaurant and store in Cosby. Then went to the Cosby picnic area to eat the lunch that we had purchased at Subway this morning. From there, we went to the Greenbrier area of the national park.

A few years ago, a local guy had told us about a cemetery that was located just off a hiking trail in Greenbrier, so we decided to hike up that trail a little way and locate that cemetery.

Unnamed Cemetery Off the Grapeyard Ridge Trail in Greenbrier

Cemeteries in the Smokies can be very interesting. Often, the names and dates of birth and death are crudely scratched into a flat stone. Many times, graves are marked with nothing more than a plain stone, with no engraving at all. Surprisingly, many of the graves in these cemeteries are still tended by family members, even though some are nearly a hundred years old and in very remote locations. And it's not uncommon to find that the family has placed a new marker on the grave of a loved one, sometimes with the original marker still in place.

The "Borned" and "Dyed" misspellings are fairly common on these grave markers.

The backwards "N" is also a fairly common sight.

Notice that the date of death on this one consists of ditto marks under the date of birth.

After visiting the little cemetery, we went to the picnic pavilion at Greenbrier, built a fire in the fireplace there, and read books for a couple of hours.

Here are a couple of photos of trees that still have their fall foliage. Their colors are so brilliant, it's as if they're trying to make up for those that are already leafless.

This one was in the Cosby picnic area.

This was taken near the Greenbrier picnic pavilion.

By the time our firewood had burned down, it was time to go get some supper and head back to our hotel for the night.