May Indiana Trip

We left on May 23 and our first stop on the trip was Rend Lake in Illinois.  We chose that location because it was just about a halfway point to the Franklin Indiana area. It is just much easier to break trips of this distance in about a 300-mile-a-day average.  We spent one night at the Gun Greek campground at Rend Lake and moved camp to Nashville Indiana the next morning.

We stayed at the Friends of Mine campground for our Indiana campsite.  They do a very good job of taking care of this campground, and it was a fairly convenient drive to everything we had to do in Indiana.  You see the purpose of this trip was to see my great niece graduate from high school and attend her open house to celebrate!

 

This is a picture of her when they announced her name as graduating Magna Cum Laude.  She is planning to pursue the required work to become a Physician Assistant at the University of Indiana.  

The next day we all celebrated her at an open house. Don't worry, all the pictures are published here with permission.  

I always enjoy collecting stories of interesting history when I travel; this trip has a good story.  There is an interesting gravesite near the small town of Amity, Indiana.  The story is that Nancy Kerlin Barnett had requested that when her time came to be buried overlooking Sugar Creek because it was one of her favorite places.  When the time came her family followed her wishes and all was well until the county decided it was time to build a gravel road.  The gravel road was originally planned to go through the grave site.  Her grandson held the road crew at bay with a loaded weapon and a compromise was reached that the road would divide around the grave site.  For a long time, the gravesite was just a mound of dirt and rock and there are reports of several vehicle accidents at that spot.

In 2016 after the gravesite was impacted by farm machinery a crew of archeologists investigated the gravesite.  They found the remains of seven individuals, two women, a man, and four children.  All of the remains were re-interred below road level in new caskets and the grave was marked with signs.  There is no information about the remains of the other people in the gravesite, that will always remain a mystery.

Indy Star Article

  

It was pretty funny that when I took these photos a lady stopped to make sure that I was OK.  I think she thought that my people had kicked me out of the car 😊

After hanging out with family the next day, we returned to the Gun Creek Campground and stayed overnight.  

We are looking forward to other trips, stay tuned for more true and weird stories!!