 |
| COMMENTS FROM THE CORNER........... |
| Friday morning, and we're up and running. We're on our way to a place I've never been....Mt.Moriah, Missouri. We've got to stop in Greenfield so Joanie can drop off some paperwork for her new job, and it's STILL snowing. The drive to Greenfield is a slow one, about 45-50 tops, and we get there about 8:30. I'm thinking "We don't HAVE to do this! This is CRAZY, driving in all this SLOP just to satisfy my curiosity." That curiosity being the search for my "roots" (and MAYBE a clue as to why I do some of the things I do!) But we're on our way. |
|
| After stopping for gas and eats, we arrive in Mt Moriah around 11:00 or so. We've got an agenda to follow.... that is, we HAVE to be back in Guthrie Center no later than 5:30, and had planned on stopping off in Des Moines on our way back. We also had three cemeteries to check out, two in Mt. Moriah, and another about ten or twelve miles away in Ridgeway. No big deal, if we head back by 2 we'll be ok. We have very detailed directions to our first stop, that being Mt Moriah Cemetery. We even see signs along the four or five block route from the edge of town to where we need to turn. We get to that point, a road right next to a county road maintenance shop, and immediately wish we had a four-wheel drive!! |
| This road hadn't been plowed (this being rather funny, due to it's close proximity to those who plow), but, being partly stubborn and partly stupid, I give it a try anyway. Well, we got about a quarter of a mile up that road (it's STILL snowing of course), and the poor little Saturn is reminding me that FWD stands for FRONT WHEEL, not FOUR WHEEL. We're dragging bottom on about seven or eight inches of snow. I manage to BACK OUT, which took a while (it's hard to back out the same way you went in, when you can hardly see through the melted snow on the back window), and parked on the side of the road. What the hay, we figured, we're here, we'll just WALK the mile or a little more up the road. We'd just driven three hours in some of the heaviest slush of the winter, and Joanie was not about to let me weenie out of this one! Up the hill, and down the hill, then up one more to the top, where the quiet little graveyard stood. Many of the markers were under the snow, but we did manage to find several that we were looking for. We spent just about 10 minutes there, taking quick photos (Joanie's ears were getting cold), then headed back to the still-warm car. Our next stop would be at Lloyd's Cemetery north of town. Again, good directions helped us find the road. Again, heavy snow was covering it. It had been plowed, sort of (a tractor had been up the road just prior to us apparently). Again, we got about half way there and had to stop, Saturns are NOT designed to handle seven or eight inch snow packing under the belly! We had to hoof it again, although it was only about a half mile each way this time. Again, I took many pics, this time spending about 15 minutes seeing what could be seen over the snow. Next stop, Ridgeway |
 |
| Following our detailed directions, we headed north a few miles to route A. We followed a plow for EIGHT MILES to the BIG town of Ridgeway, pop 379. By this time, it was closing in on 1:30, we'd pushed our luck (as far as the off-roading), and decided that we would NOT go through another near-miss with calling a tow truck. Yea, I know, we're just being weenies, but when you're that far from home, and positively, absolutely, HAVE to be there (home, that is), better safe than sorry. We found what COULD have been the road up to the cemetery, but didn't want to take any more chances. |
| To sum it all up, we found the headstones for BOTH sets of my mother's grandparents, and countless other links to them. The pics were hard to read, but working them over on Adobe brought out the detail good enough I guess. We're going back as soon as this winter is gone, and plan to do the same in the northwestern counties of Missouri as well. copyright 2001 James W. Grace 16 March 2001 |