Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Ancestors

Family Memorial Day

Pike’s Peak

Our travel today took us from Limon, CO to Pueblo South KOA near Colorado City. As we passed Colorado Springs, Damsel took this photo of the famous Pike’s Peak (named for Brigadeer General Zebulon Pike). General Pike was ordered to explore and discover the headwaters of the Arkansas River, which brought him and his regiment to Colorado. The rest of it is a long story – click the link to learn more about Pike.

Our main stop along the route was Mountain View Cemetery in Pueblo, where several of my relatives are buried. These include (on my Dad’s side), my Grandmother and Grandfather, an Uncle and Aunt, another Uncle who died in infancy, my Great Grandparents and several other same surname as me relatives who I did not know, but we honor them anyhow. Damsel and I placed eleven wreaths and a couple of American Flags in their honor today.

Family Plot in Pueblo

After the cemetery, we drove some 20 miles down I-25 to the campground where we are currently parked and will be until Saturday. As of this stop, we have met our visitation objectives by virtue of today’s decorations and those of last Saturday in Montrose. The rest of the trip is relaxing and sightseeing all the way back to Arizona.

22 Aug 2019 by Ancestors Nostalgia Retirement Wanderlust

Visiting The Ancestors

Great Grandma Spencer

Today is the day we visited Cedar Cemetery in Montrose. Cedar is the resting place of my Great Grandmother and her mother (my G2). G1’s youngest brother, one of my Great Uncles is also buried here. Damsel and I placed wreaths on their graves today and took some photos.

Of special interest to us was the headstone pictured above. We were here two years ago and found that there was no monument for my Great Grandmother who passed in 1960. For over five and a half decades, she was in an unmarked grave.

Last year, Damsel and I contracted with a monument company in Delta, CO, about 20 miles north of Montrose, to place the marker shown above. We had seen photos of it before, but now that we’re here we know the monument company did a great job. We left the cemetery with a feeling of great satisfaction.

17 Aug 2019 by Ancestors Notions Wanderlust

Montrose, CO

Colorado River

I’m sure that one of the little known scenic treasures in Utah is the route from Moab alongside the Colorado River going on Utah 128 to the northeast. In places, it rivals the scenic views of the towering canyon walls of Grand Canyon, the rock formations of Monument Valley and some of the most scenic rivers of America. We once again have limited upload bandwidth, so this is just a single image of the river at one of he bends in the canyon (courtesy Damsel). More images may be posted later.

Tonight, we’re here in Montrose, CO almost two years to the date since we were camped here before. We visited a nearby cemetery where my Great Grandmother is buried then and discovered that after nearly 50 years, she still had no headstone. We corrected that last year by working with a local Colorado monument company to place a marker. We will be heading over there tomorrow to observe the new stone and to decorate the grave and another one where my Great-Great Grandmother lies.

Here is a photo of our campsite I took this afternoon . . .

Montrose Campsite

16 Aug 2019 by Ancestors Photography Retirement Wanderlust

Retirement Milestone Nine

nine.pngIt’s hard to believe that another year of retirement has passed, for which we’re very grateful. We had a good year with some travel to visit family and see the sights of the great American Southwest. We have had a good health year, only suffering some of the usual senior aches and pains, but nothing too serious.

We still love living here in the Sonoran High Desert of Arizona. We currently are experiencing some light rainfall with a promise of heavier showers overnight. That should break the drought in this area good and proper.

During the coming year, we are planning a vacation in the springtime to visit the grave of my great grandmother Emma in Montrose, Colorado. She was buried there in 1960 and until just a few weeks ago had no marker on her grave. Damsel and I changed that and ordered a slant from a monument company in nearby Delta. We would like to visit the cemetery again to view the marker in person and decorate it with a wreath. My great great grandmother Adeline is also in that cemetery so we will place wreaths on her marker which she shares with her son, my great uncle Ulysis.

We don’t have a lot of other plans for the coming year and are playing it by ear, so to speak. We have plans to do some home improvement; painting the house exterior and walls plus new furniture for the inside. It should be a good year until the tenth retirement anniversary next fall.

01 Oct 2018 by Ancestors Arizona Notions Retirement Wanderlust

Feelin’ the Irish

st-paddys-2018.png

We’ve found some Irish in our ancestry research – more so the Damsel than I, but we’re inclined to celebrate our ethnicity today. It will be the traditional Irish dinner with a special toast with an Irish cocktail recipe that Damsel found.

May you and yours, Irish or not, find the blessings of a good day today.

17 Mar 2018 by Ancestors Holidays

Camping in Raton, NM

Raton

We left La Junta, Colorado this morning and headed west along US 50 until arriving at Pueblo. We chose an indirect route to our evening destination in Raton, NM, for the reason outlined in the following paragraph.

Since we were going on this long excursion after the eclipse, we planned to visit the cemetery where two great grandparents, two grandparents, two uncles and an aunt are buried. After we resolved a GPS glitch, we finally found the graveyard. To make a longer story shorter, we had an almost illegible map of the cemetery, but between some basic intuition and by the Grace of God, we found the family plot. Damsel and I were able to lay some colorful wreaths on the graves. It was a moving experience for both of us.

After the stop in Pueblo, we headed south on I-25, eventually getting back into the mountainous north central area of New Mexico, where we are currently posting this. Tomorrow, more mountains and valleys on our way south to pick up Interstate 40 westbound. We have reservations at a campground near the west side of Albuquerque, NM.

02 Sep 2017 by Ancestors Retirement Wanderlust

Genealogy Research Nets a Treasured Photo

Prairie Schooner

Having made the decision to locate and visit the graves of some of our ancestors before and after the eclipse, we have been doing some research using several genealogy websites. We have plans to visit two different cemeteries in Colorado during our excursion; one in Montrose, Colorado and another in Pueblo, Colorado. Thus far, we have located a dozen family graves to visit. Five of those family are direct ancestors.

Someone unknown to me uploaded a similar image to the one above to one of the research sites I visited. The uploaded image was crooked and cropped such that I couldn’t read the entire message below it, so I did some additional digging and found a photocopy of the original magazine in which the image appeared and was able to render the improved image seen above.

The image itself appeared in a company magazine of the Pacific Electric Railway in 1945. My grandfather, the kid on the right, was an engineer on the line back then. The couple with the wagon, mules and kids were my great grandparents, Eugene and Emma. The other kids in the photo are my great uncle Clark and great aunts Melissa, Bernice and Myrtle. I remember visiting a farm in Western Colorado as a kid and meeting Great Aunt Myrtle. I knew my great grandmother Emma and in fact attended her funeral in Montrose in 1960.

I have to say that it was a very pleasant surprise to discover this ancient photo in my research. Click on the image to enlarge (use the scroll bars to view the complete photo).

13 Jul 2017 by Ancestors People Retirement

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