Sacred Vacation of 2010 - Final Day

I headed west...cross-country rather than down I-55 from Lincoln, IL. I wanted to check out some cemeteries that looked promising from the aerials I had google-earthed before leaving home. With my trusty 1998 Road Atlas opened to the Illinois map, my black, 3-ring binder of aerial fotos of cemeteries, and a heavy reluctance to leave Old Union Cemetery behind, I made a bee-line for Mason City, IL. From there I would zig-zag over to Virginia to see what that offered.

After passing thru Mason City, I realized I needed to take on more fuel if I was planning to wander the backroads of central Illinois. I turned around and headed back into town. After filling the tank in the MINI, I asked an older gentleman the best way to get to Virginia. He eyed me for a second, then explained, "Unless that funny-looking car can float, you best go down to Springfield, take I-74 across, then head up to Virginia. What kind of car is that anyway?"

"It's a Mini Cooper and I wanted to head over west before going down to Jacksonville."

"Can't do it. Those back roads are probably under water. I have lived here all my life...I wouldn't take the chance."

OK. Plan B. I scrubbed Virginia, IL. Maybe some other time. I headed down to Springfield, over to Jacksonville and drove into town. I stopped in an older neighborhood, along side another older gentleman mowing his yard, and asked for directions to the old cemetery. He directed me down and around, then past the high school out on the edge of town. Diamond Grove Cemetery lay out on a large tilted plane facing easterly. I could tell from a distance that it wasn't one of HWS's, but I had to go see it.

The older section of the cemetery contained family plots enclosed in concrete curbing, a distinct characteristic of the older, east coast rural cemeteries. Toward the back, up over the highest ridge, the 'newer' parts of the cemetery revealed themselves. First, here were the sections without curbing, but still containing separate family plots. These plots were laid out with the named-family's monument surrounded with the shorter markers of various family members. Further west, in the wayback near the fence row of the cornfield, was the newest section of the cemetery...the memorial park. It was hard to distinguish family plots; there were no monuments, no sense of family. The markers in this section were flush with the lawn; individual grave markers were the norm. Near the gate and up the hill, there were trees and shrubs providing softness and cover, but here, over the ridge and to the back, there wasn't any canopy...no play of light and shadow. Just grass. And rows of faded, artificial flowers that had long since lost their bloom in the hot, summer sunlight. for some reason this cemetery irritated me. It was time to move on.

Quincy, IL would be my next stop. I got back onto I-74 West and did a quick calculation as to when I would get into town...sometime mid-morning on this day, Sunday, June 6th. I wanted to drive thru the old cemetery there...Woodland...but I especially wanted to visit 3 parks - 2 designed by Cleveland, and 1 designed by OC Simonds, who also expanded the design of one of Cleveland's 20 years later. HWS laid out Riverview Park along the Mississippi River and Madison Park as a neighborhood park NE of the old downtown area. Riverview Park offered a breathtakingly beautiful viewshed from the bluffs high above Miss River. I never made it to Madison Park. Completely forgot about it until I was back on the road heading north out of town. Indian Mounds, the park designed by OC Simond's, was fun to drive in the Mini. Fluid and leafy. A beautiful green belt that went on and on. Woodland Cemetery was old...again, curbing around the family plots...very beautiful, laid out on the rugged bluffs overlooking the river. Not a Cleveland, but definitely a rural cemetery.

I headed up toward Keokuk but stayed on the Illinois side to drive the Great River Road. It was a spectacular day for a leisurely drive on a 2-lane road. The verdant corridor of roadway hugged the water and the bluffs the further north I traveled. I found 2 small cemeteries in Navoo, IL., a small township and a churchyard cemetery. I was headed to Burlington, IA to check out Aspen Grove Cemetery. The aerial foto intrigued me the minute it came up on my laptop screen. Ralph Dwinel, Horace Cleveland's second son started out surveying for the CB&Q RR in Chariton, IA as a 20-something. By the time he was 30, he was still working for the railroad, but living in Burlington. When I was doing research at the Masonic Library in Cedar Rapids, IA I found the Business Directory of 1881-82 for Burlington, IA and looked up Cleveland. Sure enough, there was Ralph D., travel auditor for the CB&Q. I wondered if there might be a Cleveland connection to this cemetery.
















Aspen Grove is old. Lots of curbs around the family plots. The grounds went on and on dropping into a shallow draw. The old and listing grave markers and monuments followed the swale down into the 'long view'. I walked, then circled in the Mini. Then I said, "Enough". I was ready to head home.

I think I counted a total of 20 cemetery visits on this most Sacred Vacation of 2010. Every rural cemetery dotting the Midwestern landscape is beautiful in its own way, but only a handful that I visited captured my heart and my admiration. They now occupy a place in my mind's eye. They are Graceland, Spring Grove, Old Union. These cemeteries are my inspiration. These are the burial grounds that make me believe in eternal life...that offer a final resting place for old bones to return to the soil. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Sacred Vacation of 2010 - Day 4...Afternoon

I would be hard pressed to top this most recently-visited Midwestern rural cemetery (MRC). The Cemetery of Spring Grove, established in 1845, is truly the grand-daddy of the MRC's. Mount Auburn, Laurel Hill, and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, all 'rural cemeteries' on the east coast, would be incredible to experience, so I am told. But the early landscape architects and designers were drawn to this particular Cemetery of Spring Grove after Adolph Strauch became its superintendent in the 1850's. Frederick Law Olmsted, OC Simonds, and, yes, Horace Cleveland visited this cemetery for inspiration, for consultation and advice, for that same experience I was seeking when I decided to get in the MINI and road trip this past month.

As I traveled back toward Iowa across Ohio, then Indiana, I headed into north central Illinois to scout out a few cemeteries that I had google-earthed. I wondered what my reaction would be to these sites after spending the morning at Spring Grove. Anything I visited would pale in comparison, or so I thought. Spring Grove Cemetery had it all. The winding avenues hugged the ridges, then dipped into ravines, circled 'round ponds and thru old growth stands of native trees. This designed, historic landscape offered variety with its water features, the specimen trees of its arboretum, the sculptural monuments, the stately designed mausoleums, the "long view". Even the graves were blanketed with a vinca groundcover that added a unique, textural quality to the layout of each section of the cemetery. It was picture perfect.....the "lawn" or park-like aesthetic of the rural cemetery.

My destination for this day was Lincoln, Illinois, a small Midwestern town that promised the Union Cemetery, designed in 1881 by HWS Cleveland. This might be a unique experience in that Lincoln was not the size of Chicago, or even Cedar Rapids. I wondered how it came to be that Cleveland received word from this small town that they wanted him to design their cemetery. And who was it in this town's history that knew of his skills in cemetery design? Had they visited Oak Hill in Cedar Rapids, IA, or Graceland in Chicago? Cleveland's skilled hand would have been evident in both of those cemeteries by then. Did he stop along the way as he traveled the railroad to another destination, leaving his card? Perhaps a cold call? Was there a mass mailing to all towns along the railroad line? Did a relative, or friend, live in Lincoln and know of his work? Was his name given to the townspeople by the Olmsted office as they did for Junction City, KS?

All these questions swirled in my head as I got closer to my destination. I was excited to see what Union Cemetery had to offer. The google image looked promising. This aerial foto revealed Cleveland's signature tear drop cemetery sections (they jump off the map/page/plan/aerial foto after months of study!). I refer to this design as the flower. It resembled the petals of a flower pressed into the landscape.

When I drove into the entrance, I did not pick up on the vibe I was hoping for. This did not feel like a Cleveland cemetery. I wanted to re-check my sources! I felt I had misread, or misunderstood; this was not what I expected. As I made a pass thru looking for evidence, I could maybe see the characteristic winding drives, but something was off. Trees had been removed, gridded sections had been laid around the edges and cut into his design, and there were few monuments of any kind marking the family plots. It was too busy and brightly colored with artificial flowers; there was not enough vegetation to be one of Horace's, altho the central ground and those sections further back carried some magnificent oaks. I was so disappointed. Everything that I thought I had learned through experience over the last few days...that sense of place... flew out the window of the MINI. Dam. Even the name was wrong. His landscaped cemeteries were Oak Hill, Oakland, Lakewood, Sleepy Hollow, Hillside...named after the site. Where was the HWS Cleveland-designed Midwestern rural cemetery?

As I pulled out of the west gate onto the highway, I noticed some grave markers across the way. What the heck. I had to check it out. The sign indicated that this was a Catholic Cemetery, but off to the right of that entrance there was another road... another cemetery and it was nestled back in a heavily-canopied forest of Oak and Shagbark Hickory. I had found it. This was Old Union Cemetery; the other across the highway was New Union. Same designer, but brought into use at a different time in history; therefore, it gave off a different vibe. This Old Union Cemetery was Lincoln, Illinois' answer to the Cemetery of Spring Grove back in Ohio. I was mesmerized. I was speechless.

Cleveland's designs were site specific. When he was confronted with the flat plains around Lake Michigan, his design for Graceland offered grading that was subtle, mounding. The man loved trees and he embraced their presence on site; he left them where they grew. When a gash of ravine cut thru the property, he showcased it. The contrast offered balance and variety. His views opened up to a river down below or off in the distance. He recognized the natural drainage of the site and captured that water with built lakes and ponds in low-lying ground that could not be sold for burials plots. A 1907 Linn County plat map shows a small pond at the bottom of a long swale draining Oak Hill Cemetery in Cedar Rapids, IA. There is a storm drain there now, but Cleveland utilized what some thought to be constraints of a site as opportunities to build unique features into the design of his cemeteries.

Old Union Cemetery reminded me of Cleveland's approach in his design work, in his laying out of the grounds of Midwestern rural cemeteries. Here was a perfectly level piece of ground. The roads followed the topography which was flat, flat, and flat. No subtle grading, no water features, no up and down, curve around in this design. But it was truly breathtaking. He was commissioned to design a cemetery on this piece of ground back in the late 1800's and it still carried his magic 130 years later. He had lots of trees to work with, so he let them grow. He had lots of flat ground on which those trees thrived...and he left that ground ungraded. His design showcased these magnificent trees of central Illinois. His roads wove around and thru the stands of oaks and hickories, enormous guardians for the dead. He knew their dense canopy would offer a cool respite from the warm June afternoon sun. He also allowed for openings in their cover so a shaft of sunlight could penetrate into a dark corner. As I worked my way back into the nether regions of Old Union, I found little clearings off the drive...private rooms where families gathered one last time. It was here in these secret places that I found my ravines, and the view of the river, and the sharp topography that balanced the expanse of green lawn up over the rise. He nailed this one. Plain and simple, hands down, Old Union is my favorite Midwestern rural cemetery.

Sacred Vacation of 2010 - Day 4...Morning

They say a picture is worth 10,000 words and there are no words to describe this Midwestern rural cemetery....Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, OH


one of several ponds....
fencing detail at entrance...
family plots....
a variety of monuments....


the 'long view', symbolic of eternal life


family plot with 'pillow' markers
vinca ground cover on the gravesites

and mausoleums

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Today the thermometer in my garden registers 90 degrees. I need some dirt therapy; I have brick edging to lay out, my new flagstone steps off the terrace need a little something extra, and the 'Creepy Charlie' really should find another yard to invade. Do I jump into my projects, or just laze about another day? I decide to make it a productive day in the garden, so I don my sunhat, a long-sleeved shirt, and my toe-protective Keenes.

I had to mow yesterday; the grass was looking pretty shaggy since I had abandoned ship and headed down to Florida with my family for a few days of fun on the beach. Upon my return from Key Biscayne, I find the garden in new bloom...a variety of colors and textures from the scarlet bee balm, the old climbing roses, the soft pink heads of Queen of the Prairie, the lilac trumpets of hosta, and the fringed white of ragged robin. The garden is beautiful, altho begging for some projects to be done!

I got busy and pulled all the bricks from the original edging, then laid them into their new channel. I had used the garden hose a couple weeks back to lay down a new edge 4-6 feet out from the perimeter edging laid out years ago. Bigger beds mean less mowing and that is always a good thing, right? After getting that most gentle curve just right, I cut the new edge into the turf, popped out the sod clods, and hauled them off to the compost pile.

Anything seems like more fun than 'writing my thesis', so working in the garden is a joy. School has a funny way of interfering with my 'other' life, but this summer I am once again becoming closely acquainted with manual labor in the garden. Rather than turn over umpteen million square feet of sod, I had decided to lay down sheets of newspaper, then cover them with soil. I still have six large garbage cans of rich, black loam that I excavated shovelful by shovelful when I dug my pond. So today I have also been scooping that same soil from 1, 2...and now 4 barrels and hauling it back across the yard to cover my newspaper. It seemed easier than turning sod at the time I was planning all this. I now know that earth-moving should be the exclusive work of worms and ants, studly men, and Big! yellow Caterpillars.

My other project is tied to this bed expansion...building steps down the slope off my patio and then tying in the new edging with the stair steps. I have a concrete slab patio, but these new flagstone steps have transformed it into more of a snooty 'terrace'. I have been re-working this garden for 19 years and I just never got around to this project. Was never quite sure how to approach it, but it is amazing how clear things become when I have options...building a thesis or building a few steps. Steps seemed like the way to go...so now they are done...sort of. The last tread needs to extend further out into the yard; the rhythm is off. I went back to the stone store and purchased two 20x22 flagstones to replace the short-treaded ones. They are bastardly heavy, so I must possess all my early morning strength, before the heat of day can zap my energy, to tackle this last phase of step building. Maybe next week this project will finally be finished.

Sacred Vacation of 2010 - Day 3

This is the day the Lord hath made...and it was a most productive one for me. Lots to do and see. I awoke early, early because I wanted to visit Oldfields, the estate of the Lilly pharmaceutical family. The house museum and grounds adjoin the Indianapolis Museum of Art. As I drove along the White River to the site, the morning mist hung low over the landscape. I watched the sun rise through this veil of moist air and it was a dawn to remember.

My major professor had worked on a project restoring the gardens of Oldfields. She encouraged me to visit the grounds if I had the time. The gardens were open from dawn to dusk, so I had decided Thursday night to take in the Indianapolis River Promenade and the ball game, then visit the Lilly Gardens early Friday morning before my monument preservation workshop at 9 am. As it turned out, Oldfields was across the way from Crown Hill Cemetery, so the logistics worked out perfectly.

The gardens were beautiful. Heavy with morning dew, every leaf, every blade, shimmered in quiet beauty. I arrived long before any employees, so I had the place to myself. The textural effect of the plantings magnified the morning light and shadows across the open landscape. Prof, thanks for the heads up about this place. It was magnificent.

I confess that I had not done my homework to uncover who designed these gardens, but the signage helped me out. Percival Gallagher, a landscape architect working with the Olmsted Brothers, designed the border gardens in the early 1920's during the golden era of the country estate. Thanks again to Prof for a solid foundation of landscape architectural history that placed this estate in its proper context. The strong central axis runs from the house to a circular skim of water in a low concrete basin. The statuary beyond is nestled in a lush green surround of conifers at the base of towering evergreens. Again, I have discovered beauty in simple design.

After a glorious walk throughout the grounds, I headed to the workshop at Crown Hill Cemetery. I was early enough so I got to circle the perimeter of the cemetery to get a feel for the neighborhood, then drive through the cemetery to snap some fotos before the morning lecture began. Robert Milne, Superintendent of Crown Hill Cemetery, is a trained horticulturist formerly with Scotts Lawn Care Co. I think he has found his niche. The cemetery is beautiful. He has strong backup from the Crown Hill Heritage Foundation which raises money and awareness of this beautiful historic cultural landscape.

Crown Hill Cemetery, the third largest cemetery in the U.S., was established on the Martin Williams farm and tree nursery in 1863. This landscape makes up a significant portion of Indianapolis' urban forest. The ''107 Trees of Crown Hill" map provides a self-guided tour identifying beautiful, old Indiana native trees. The cemetery was originally designed by Fredrick Chislett, a landscape architect who became the first superintendent. In 1866, land adjacent to the original cemetery was purchased by the U.S. Government for a National Cemetery which is now surrounded by Crown Hill. In 1973, Crown Hill Cemetery was placed on the National Register.

Jason Church, Materials Conservator of NCPTT conducted the workshop which was well worth the drive to Indianapolis. The morning's lecture was informative, as well as entertaining. Over the lunch hour, we boarded the Crown Hill Express and dined from box lunches as we toured the 555 acres of Midwestern rural cemetery. The afternoon found some of us scrubbing...ever so gently....the buildup of lichen from several headstones....of the Lilly family!

With the conclusion of the workshop, I headed out the pearly gates and found my way onto the interstate. This next cemetery was a special treat requiring an extra day of travel to experience the grand-daddy of Midwestern rural cemeteries just down the road in Cincinnati, OH.

Sacred Vacation of 2010 - Day 2

This road trip was laid out so I could visit Midwestern rural cemeteries that were designed in the late 19th century. This leg of the trip took me to Graceland Cemetery, situated on the northern edge of downtown Chicago. At the time of its establishment in 1860, it was two miles from Chicago's city limits, thus a "rural" cemetery.

Looking back over my earlier post, Day 2 was a long, but productive day. I drove into Chicago to visit Graceland Cemetery, then headed out to Indianapolis via South Lakeshore Drive. The drive followed the shoreline of Lake Michigan, Chicago's greatest landscape. The traffic was fast on a road with lots of twisties for the MINI. The shimmering water offered a spectacular backdrop on this beautiful summer afternoon.

Two landscape architects were responsible for the design and the natural beauty of this cemetery. HWS Cleveland (1814-1900) was the first prominent LA hired to design the original 80 acres of Graceland Cemetery in 1870. His plan laid out the paths and plots in his signature design style. OC Simonds (1855-1931) followed Cleveland when he was hired to help with drainage at Graceland. In 1881, he became superintendent of the cemetery and held that position for the next 18 years.

Rural cemeteries seem to be all the rage these days, or perhaps I am just becoming more focused on my thesis topic, which happens to be a smaller rural cemetery in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Oak Hill Cemetery was designed by both of these prominent landscape architects as it grew in size over the decades - Cleveland in 1869, and again in 1880, then Simonds in 1910. Because of the connection to Graceland through these two men, and the fact that so much has been written about Graceland Cemetery, I had to visit this designed landscape and experience it for myself.

Simonds devoted an entire chapter to cemetery design in his 1920 book Landscape Gardening. Wilhelm Miller (1869-1938) praised OC Simonds and "his landscaped cemetery as an American phenomenon" in his 1915 book The Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening. Miller used fotos of Graceland Cemetery to make his case for the "prairie style", the unique, regional landscape design style of the Midwest with its use of hardy, native vegetation and the "long view". Christopher Vernon's forthcoming book Graceland Cemetery explores the layers of designed landscapes within this rural cemetery. The 2010 annual issue of View, a journal of the Library of American Landscape History, carries three articles pertaining to, or referencing, Graceland Cemetery. And finally, this month's Landscape Architecture magazine features an article on cemeteries.
Graceland is a beautifully designed historic landscape, known as the "Cemetery of Architects". The monuments are truly works of art. I was most captivated by the effects of the morning sun shining through stained-glass windows set into the back wall of many of the mausoleums. Walking by each of these structures in the cool morning air, I experienced these fiery explosions of color lighting the interior of these funerary structures.

The landscaping crew was out enforce and they were meticulous in their tasks. Every blade of grass was cropped to exacting length. Groundcovers never strayed. Shrubbery held its perfect form. OC Simonds' most famous landscape in this cemetery is Lake Willowmere. The plantings around the lake and on the Island in Lake Willowmere are stunning. The Willows at water's edge are dramatic in their effect to suggest bereavement. As I walked, then drove, the major pathways, I could sense the design of HWS Cleveland in his layout of the curving drives. The elegant, paramecium-shaped plots reminded me of the layout of Oak Hill Cemetery back home in Iowa.

It was a beautiful morning in a majestic landscape, but it was time to head out to Indianapolis. I got on the road about 12:30 and drove for three hours to the city that had the most stops on my Sacred Vacation of 2010 checklist...Crown Hill Cemetery, of course; Indianapolis River Promenade, designed by Angela Danadjieva; and Brookside Addition, designed by HWS Cleveland with business partner "Dear French". I checked into the hotel situated along the river, unloaded my fold-able Dahon bike from the MINI, and headed east to find the Promenade. I learned of this designed landscape in the November 2008 issue of Landscape Architecture magazine...ICONS Revisited.

A quote from the article, "Danadjieva has given us an enduring lesson in the simple, repetitive use of materials, durable and organic." For me, this place has given new meaning to the term Indiana Limestone, a native stone I often find mentioned in a variety of design work. The Promenade is elegant beyond all words; a simple landscape that evokes "quiet wonder".

Crossing the pedestrian bridge spanning the river, I happened upon a celebrity baseball game at Victory Field. Life doesn't get much better than a night at the ballpark with a cold beer and a bag of salted peanuts. I stayed through the 4th inning, then headed back to my hotel, riding along the White River, into the glow of the setting sun.

Sacred Vacation of 2010 - Day 1

As you recall, this road trip had purpose. It is thesis related. I wanted to travel through the heart of the Midwest visiting rural cemeteries designed in the late 19th century. I wanted to experience this particular cemetery typology to get a feel for those characteristics that define a park-like, rural cemetery. I believe that when we walk the landscape, our experiences as we pass thru that landscape can be spiritual, mystical, educational, sensual, and oftentimes, transforming. There were landscapers, landscape gardeners, landscape designers, and landscape architects during those years when rural cemeteries were popular who believed that these designed landscapes could and should provide such experiences. They devoted their entire career, their whole life, trying to capture in their designs that genius loci, or "spirit of place".

These rural cemeteries that I visited over a five day stretch, and I think I counted 15 in all, definitely have that "spirit of place", but some more than others. One of the smallest rural cemeteries I visited in a little town in the middle of Illinois, a documented design of Landscaper Architect HWS Cleveland, nailed it. It did it for me. The experience was life-altering, I swear.

My post from yesterday shows I left home around three in the afternoon and headed east to Clinton, IA for my first overnight. I had been to Clinton two weeks ago for an two-day State Historic Preservation training session which covered tax incentive info and historic research. Excellent workshop. I was surprised how much I had learned from my Architectural Preservation class this past spring semester.

Clinton was a jump off point for me so my drive into Chicago to visit Graceland Cemetery would be two rather than six hours. Also, I wanted to visit Prophetstown, IL where HWS Cleveland lived and taught school as a young man who ventured west from the East Coast around the late 1830's. I had read his letters to his business partner in later years, his "Dear French" letters where he wrote of hunting with the Boys. It was before the railroad came thru; his travels were on horseback. He described the "sloughs black with muskrats, and cranes, too, and swans and eagles and coons...and other shellfish" (letter dated 9/26/1871).

I wanted to see that landscape that he walked. Really I wanted to see if that landscape still existed. Once I got off the main highway and cut cross-country, I smiled. There were wetlands as far as the eye could see. Nothing was black with wildlife, but there were soggy sloughs everywhere. I crossed the Rock River before heading into town. The aerial foto flashed in my head; I remembered tracing with my finger on the laptop screen those looping meanders of the river just before it emptied into Miss River.

This was a nice personal connection. Not really cemetery-related, but this man wrote with passion. His writings are lengthy and so very Victorian, but his descriptions of the landscape strike a chord that resonates deep within, touching that same chord that made me want to become a landscape architect.

The Mother of All Road Trips

I have been home now for over a week from my Sacred Vacation of 2010 and, in a word, it was, well, sacred. Actually life-changing. Yesterday, after I recounted where I had been, what I had been up to since the end of spring semester, my professor friend asked me if my trip was motivating. Good question.

Originally, the purpose of this road trip was related to my thesis. I would travel to Indianapolis to attend a monument preservation workshop at Crown Hill Cemetery. A branch of the National Park Service promotes and offers practical hands-on learning in a...cemetery. I met Robert Milne, Superintendent of Crown Hill Cemetery, last October when I flew to Nashville for four days mid-semester to attend a NCPTT (google it, please) cemetery preservation conference. We were treated to power point lectures, poster presentations, and then field trips to local cemeteries.

I am 'working on my thesis' this summer, so I decided to kick off this academic adventure/triathlon in cultural landscape reports and treatments plans with a road trip to the NPS-NCPTT Crown Hill workshop. My husband asked if I wanted to fly, rather than drive, and I said 'no way!" This was my Sacred Vacation of 2010, my road trip of all road trips!

Last November after reading my horoscope (see 'Cosmic Luck' post, Nov 19, 2009), I made a list of all those places/landscapes I wanted to visit in 2010. It was all pretend back then, but the wheels started turning when I happened upon the flier announcing the workshop. I dug out my list, penned in olive-green permanent ink with a ultra fine-point Sharpie. My Sacred Vacation! It was meant to be, and it was less than 2 weeks away. Should I do it? Could I pull this off? Would I be able to drive that far by myself?

You bet! I wouldn't think, I would do. And I did. And it was everything and more than I dreamed my Sacred Vacation of 2010 to be.

So back to my professor friend's question...was this road trip through the heart of the Midwest visiting rural cemeteries designed in the late 19th century a source of motivation for me to get cracking on the writing of my thesis?

You bet! And it starts here and now with this post. I need to put down on this virtual paper my scribbled notes that document the road trip.

June 2, 2010, Wednesday, 3:14 pm 63,820 beginning mileage $180 atm
Pine Hill Cemetery, Wheatland, IA north of Hwy 30; gas
Ringling Bro. circus train, salted peanuts in diet coke
Clinton, IA over-nite - pizza, Blue Moon w/orange slice
GAR-Lyndon Twp. Cemetery, Lyndon, IL
Riverside Cemetery, Prophetstown, IL
drive west of Morrison, IL - allee of trees arching over old Lincoln Hwy

June 3, 2010, Thursday, 7 am drive east over Miss River
allee of trees in morning lite - tunnel of shade
Dixon, IL Oakwood Cemetery. gatehouse, mausoleums, bench, morning lite.
HORRIBLE bandstand strx!!!!
north central IL - Wal Mart distribution center
Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, IL
gas, salted peanuts in diet coke, Lakeshore Drive S. along Lake Mich.
Indianapolis,IN hard rain - Indianapolis River Promenade, Victory Field,
baseball, ride along river on foldable

June 4th, 2010, Friday, 7 am Lilly House and Gardens. filtered morning lite. mist
Crown Hill Cemetery; workshop x 9 am - 4:30
TGFGoogle but still missed the exit and ended up on i-70E/ gas - buster bar 4 frustration!!!
Cincinnati, OH - found Spring Grove, gates locked. St. Bernard, cemx2

June 5th, 2010, Saturday, 7:30 am. Spring Grove Cemetery. breath-taking. LOL! Holy Grand-Daddy of Rural Cemeteries!!!!
long drive ahead Greenburg,IN w-mart/memory card, battery for Canon, gas
Clinton, Il Woodlawn Cemetery
Lincoln, IL, Old Union Cemetery HWS, gas, salted peanuts and diet coke

June 6th, 2010, Sunday, Jacksonville, IL, Diamond Grove Cemetery
Quincy, IL Riverview and Madison Park HWS/ gas, salted peanuts and diet coke
Nauvoo, IL x 2
Aspen Grove Cemetery, Burlington, IA
6:49 pm ending mileage 65,367

Posts over the next few days will provide a more descriptive travel log with fotos from the road that I traveled for my Sacred Vacation of 2010. The writer's block is clearing and I am ready to let the motivation do its magic.

A Clean Act to Follow

After we finished delivering papers yesterday morning, Tess and I talked about an ongoing battle we had had the last few days. It ended with me banishing her from the use of my car until her bedroom was CLEAN! Obviously, she has been upset, no, pissy with me. She struck a deal with her father that she could order some summer clothes (shorts, bathing suit, and t's), but had to clean her room b4 they arrived. Well, that did not happen, so she put the new clothing items back in the box and in her father's office on his desk.

She wasn't in much of a rush to finish the chore promised....cleaning her room because she did not need the clothes. But then she made plans to go to the new pool with friends, and of course, wanted to don the new bikini. She got busy with the cleaning, but it rained that afternoon, so she made the choice to not finish sorting, folding, hanging, dusting, and vacuuming.

That was three, no, four days ago. The car sat in the garage and the piles just simmered. Tess' best friend just left for China, so she wasn't so hot to go out anyway. But then someone called and she made plans. It was eight o'clock at night and the vacuum suddenly pops on. She is running up and down the stairs to the laundry room, the Salvation Army box, and the pile of tights, sweaters, skirts, and bags/purses for the little girls in the neighborhood. I walked into her room to see what was up and by golly, she was done. I could actually see the carpet and the stacks of books and school papers around the perimeter of the room almost looked neat. The closet floor was now occupied with everything that had been spewed on the floor of her bedroom, but this was a smaller, neater pile and the doors would close. So I did just that - close the doors- and then went to find her. I wanted to be positive and to congratulate her for a chore well done...finally.

On my way to the basement looking for her, I passed by the back door and noticed the car was GONE! It is truly amazing how one suggestion of the loss of that freedom she has discovered since turning 16 has given me a new tool, a very successful lever, that seems to move her 16 year-old world. ; }

Art in the Park?

Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN