On the 26th of July we packed up the car and headed out for Eaton Rapids, Michigan, where Nancy's sister Elaine and her husband Karl and their pet Annie currently reside. The trip up was "eventful" to say the least. Driving north on I-65 means passing through Nashville, Louisville, and Indianapolis. Nashville wasn't too awfully bad since we arrived there mid morning, and "alt-65" around Louisville pretty much kept us out of any tie-ups. But we "parked" on the interstate just south of Indianapolis for more than an hour while the police cleaned up a wreck about 8 miles up the road. By the time we got through Indianapolis we were worn out, so we stayed overnight right there.

We did have a very nice visit with Karl and Elaine. Karl is a breakfast chef, so we dined well each morning. On Thursday their daughter Kristy brought lasagna, at my request, to the house for dinner. Kristy's husband Rick and children Vann and Trey joined us for that meal. On Friday we were joined by a neighbor, Linda, for dinner at a local restaurant. Linda specializes in baking cookies, cakes, and pies, and making peanut butter fudge. I brought some of that back to Huntsville. On the way home from that meal, Linda asked if we would be interested in seeing the local cemetery where there were some unusual stones she thought we might like to see.

There must have been 10,000 people buried there, and Linda directed us through a series of trails leading to a headstone that was in the shape of a dump truck. Apparently, that was the guy's business; dump trucks. When Linda said that the cemetery was really old, I started looking for old tombstones. As we were winding our way out of the cemetery, I spotted one that was apparently old with a lot of writing. I asked Karl to stop so I could read what was written there. And to my utter amazement... Well you read it and tell me what you think.

Harry, Karl's next door neighbor and a die-hard Michigan State fan, put an MSU sticker on our car. I took it off and reminded him about last year's 38-0 loss to Alabama. He changed the subject after that.

We left to come home last Tuesday morning. I decided to avoid Indianapolis altogether by taking Indiana Rt-3 south from Fort Wayne. That worked out really well. We practically had the road to ourselves and joined I-65 well south of the trouble areas around Indianapolis. We didn't do as well in Louisville where we missed the "alt-65" turnoff and ended up driving right through the middle of the city. And as expected, a car broke down reducing the traffic to one lane and bringing everything to a standstill. It took a good 30 extra minutes to get through the city. We stayed over night in Bowling Green and arrived home on Wednesday.

All in all, however, we had a nice visit with Karl and Elaine. But, of course, it's always good to get home.