Time Passages

We made it to the No-Tell Motel in Ark-can-sas. We drove through Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin. It was a long ass day. Mr. Lane likes all this driving stuff, and me, not so much. My ass is completely numb and I didn't get one cool photo all day. I think I complained and whined more than the kids.

We did see some oversized things on the side of the road, including a 20-foot cowboy boot, a life-size dinosaur and a 30-foot bowling pin. But, I suppose, it wasn't meant to be, because there was no turnoff near any of the cool stuff.

We stopped for a snack somewhere in Missouri and saw a small cemetery, that time forgot, right next to a gas station. From the looks of it, no one has visited anyone there in years. At least two graves were unmarked and several more were covered in weeds and bushes. When I say bushes, I mean big bushes. Just the very tops of the tombstones were visible but only from close up. It looked like a mini forest will eventually grow up around them.

I don't know why I wanted to go check it out but I did. The rest of the Lanes didn't seem too interested. Lane 1 tried talking me out of going and I told him he didn't have to come with. Lane 2 said, "I see dead people." and followed closely behind.

The tombstones were obviously old, even from a distance. Upon closer inspection we saw most died in 1920something. One grave marked a married couple but most were children's graves. The weirdest part, most were 5-years-old, dying sometime around 1929.

The ground at one site was being unearthed and part of the tiny coffin was poking through the dirt. I don't know if the tree or the child was there first but it looked like the tree would stand the test of time. The tombstone was faded and worn. We couldn't read the name or dates but we knew that was someone's baby.

We talked about how the kids might have died, because we are just morbid like that. What I wouldn't have given to run into a local historian. We walked back to the truck arm-and-arm and arm-and-arm and were thankful for our little family and our good health.

Today was a good day.