30 April 2012

I Brake For Cemeteries

Have you seen the bumper stickers that say, "CAUTION: I brake for cemeteries"?  I've always chuckled a little when I see them online, and have never once seen one on an actual car.

Image courtesy of FunStuffForGenealogists.com


But this last weekend, that was me.

Our family went camping in south central Colorado. We had a great time exploring a new area, my husband got a little fly-fishing time in, and we took our daughter for a couple hikes. A great weekend, doing something we love to do together.

On the way to the river spot my husband wanted to fish at, he says, "look, there's a cemetery over there." Now, as supportive as he is, he has never once pointed out a cemetery to me. I had seen it, of course, but didn't mention it. Cemeteries were my thing, not our thing as a family, and I wasn't going to ask both of them to give up their time to wander through a country cemetery. But, he pointed it out, then asked if I wanted to try to find a way to find it. It was across the river, and looked like it might be somewhat difficult to get to, so of course I said yes! This was a golden moment.

We did find it, and it turned out to be Howard Cemetery in Fremont County, Colorado. We walked around for a few moments, enjoying the view of the mountains and taking the occasional picture of an interesting headstone. My husband even asked a few questions about some of the sights. Upon returning home, I submitted my handful of pictures to the Colorado Gravestones website; and he looked up the history of this cemetery and one near St. Elmo, another stop on our trip. Suggesting we make sure to visit their cemetery when we go back to the ghost town later this summer.

I guess we're going to need one of those stickers. If you see me driving around Colorado, at least you'll know who I am!

The Chappel family plot, with a magnificent view.

Young Annie Cooper, died 1901.

4 comments:

  1. wow, what a wonderful place to lay. Just beautiful. And it sounds like you have a wonderful husband too. I am lucky that mine is like that too. All I can say is god bless them for understanding our obsession. :)

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    1. Well that is certainly true! He's very patient, bless his heart.

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  2. Awesome! I blackmail my kids. I make sure there's something they wanna do nearby, and then I don't tell them until we're at the cemetery. They always say they're not gonna get outta the car, but then I remind them we'll be done quicker if they help. And then they can do what they wanna do. If that makes me a bad mom, so be it. LOL. ;)

    ~C

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    1. Last year, when my daughter was 2, I would bribe her by saying that we would go to her fav playground if we could just go to Mommy's playground for a few minutes. She liked to find the headstones with lambs on them. This year, that isn't working so well... so I think I'm going to have to move on to ice cream if Dad isn't with us.

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