Rose Hill Cemetery in Bloomington, Indiana

Roadtirement

Bloomington is a vibrant college town in south central Indiana. Originally platted in 1818, the city father’s realized that a cemetery was a need, thus in 1819 a small piece of ground west of the village was laid out. To identify the grave yard the initials “G” and “Y” were carved into a large oak tree at the entrance.

Entrance marker to Rose Hill

A unique brick and stone monument. Note the entrance gate in the background

Note the Hand pointing up: symbol for deceased going to heaven

Monument to Civil War Vets

There were no burial records until 1897 after the eight woman Ladies Cemetery Association took over the running of the property in 1892. This civic minded group renamed the cemetery Rose Hill after the wild rose bushes scattered around the property.

Infantryman on CW monument. Note that vandals have knocked off the musket

Ornate multi-level family monument…

View original post 138 more words

Indiana’s “Grave in the middle of the road”

Roadtirement

A history and legend filled roadside oddity can be found on CR 400S outside of Amity, Indiana  which is south of Indianapolis in Johnson County. The story begins in 1808 when 14 year old Nancy Kerlin married William Barnett. The couple had 11 kids.

The only marker on the grave

Fast forward to 1831, the year of Nancy’s passing. She had a favorite spot on a rise overlooking nearby Sugar Creek. This became her final resting place. Stories say that others began to be buried there as well, creating a small country cemetery. A road was discussed through the cemetery, but Nancy’s son refused to move his mother, so the road went around her.

The road still splits around the graves

In the early 1900’s CR 400 was plotted out, again right through Nancy’s grave site. This is when her grandson Daniel Doty showed up with his shotgun refusing to…

View original post 152 more words

Pirates landed at a Railroad Festival

Looking back almost 10 years and I found this article about a fun festival we went to. I checked the website and was happy to see they are still around.!

Roadtirement

A "handsome" gathering of scalawags and hooligans. Can you tell who is the Captain? A “handsome” gathering of scalawags and hooligans. Can you tell who is the Captain?

The location was Granite Falls, Washington, hosting their annual Railroad Days, held the first Saturday in October. As we entered the town we noticed an odd vehicle on the side of the road. Somehow it looked like a ship of some kind. Then we saw (and heard) pirates leaving the “ship”, having a great time as they ambled down the sidewalk and entered a bar or grill.

Later the vehicle, an amphibious Duck, drove by us as we were parked on a side street. That was my chance to go see what this bunch of scalawags was all about. I walked with Pirate Steve, aka Fingers, as the raucous crew made their way to the local American Legion bar. Steve told me that this bunch of pirate dressed holligans were in fact the Seattle Seafair Pirates.

The Duck transformed into a rolling and floating street legal scourge of highways and seaways alike. The…

View original post 122 more words

Caught behind a slow moving vehicle

Sometimes you run into an interesting traffic situation. Such was our morning drive today when we came upon a moving sign truck courtesy INDOT. The declared line painting truck was at least 500 yards or so ahead of the parade we found ourselves in.

Within a few minutes we were leading a long line of cars, trucks and semi’s crawling along at a blistering 10 MPH behind the bright yellow digital sign board mounted on the truck. The signs let us know to NOT pass or drive over a freshly painted line. We peeled off right as soon as we hit a cross road to avoid continuing the snail’s pace of the sign truck. We still enjoyed our country drive.

Some scenes around New Orleans

Looking back to our trip to New Orleans. We had such a good time there.

Roadtirement

New Orleans is a remarkable city with seemingly unlimited visual scenes. Here are some photos that we took during our first day in The Big Easy.

New Orleans is celebrating it’s 300th birthday during 2018.

For some reason, only mules are used to pull the carriages that drive around the town.

The window display at Rev. Zombie’s Voodoo Shop.

Above ground tombs in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Only tour groups are allowed into the cemetery to help control vandalism

Bourbon Street in New Orleans, known for music, food and revelry. Note the famed balcony iron work in the background

View original post

An emotional Ohio memorial

Roadtirement

Driving through northern Ohio we stopped at a small store for a travel break, Maj spotted not only an antique road grader but a tall monument topped with a proud eagle.

This is the inscription on one of the four panels below the obelisk:

IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE
VOLUNTEERS FROM HUNTINGTON
WHO OFFERED UP THEIR LIVES TO
PRESERVE THE FEDERAL UNION
IN THE
GREAT AMERICAN REBELLION

The oldest soldier listed here as mortally wounded in battle was 24

The other three panels are adorned with the names of the local boys who volunteered, where they were killed in battle, and how old they were. Reading these names, the date when their final battle occurred and the location where they were is quite striking. Brings home the impact of the American Civil War.

View original post

Lanthier Winery and Distillery

Roadtirement

The Lanthier Winery and Distillery in historic Madison, Indiana fits the tag ‘historic’ in several ways. The site of the facility has quite an interesting history going back to the 1700’s.

The stately historic building

Beautiful garden paths to the entrance

We made this winery a stop on a recent trip to southeastern Indiana. The path to the entrance door leads through a beautiful garden. The flowers had begun to grow, and a few daisies had begun to bloom.

Wine vats and start of bottling machine, right

Distilling column, gathering 94% ABV spirits

Once in the building we headed to the tasting counter where free tastings are offered. We tried 5 different wines and landed on two of the sweet wine offerings. While we were sampling I asked if the winery and distillery were operated on this site. Immediately a nice fellow said “We are making wine and distilling vodka…

View original post 136 more words