Visiting a cemetery can be a very Halloweeny thing to do. Some people find cemeteries spooky, scary, and even claim they are haunted.
I find them restful and a place of peace, but then, I go to visit the graves of friends and family. During daylight hours.
Two cemeteries in Illinois with family members resting in them are on my way to the Great Lakes Show and I stop by and pay my respects whenever I attend the show.
My great aunt Clara Honeywell Canady and her husband Lloyd are buried in the Watseka cemetery,
and ten miles down the road in the Onarga cemetery is my great Uncle Howard Honeywell along with my great grandmother Marilla Wing Honeywell, Marilla's parents and siblings, and her grandfather, Zaccheus Wing.
The sexton was out working in the Onarga cemetery and came over to chat. He showed me his book and checked to see if I had other family buried there (I don't) but then he shared that just a few headstones down the row from my family was a well known Civil War spy, turning to point and indicate that grave.
Webster's original headstone is side by side with the newer one.
Well, that cemetery seemed a little less peaceful to me as I learned Webster's story and that he was captured by the Confederates and hung as a spy. Twice. (The first hanging failed so they had to re-do it. Read about that in the article connected to the link above.) How awful to die like that!
Feeling a little unsettled, I got back on the road and headed to Huntley.
Things went well until I checked into my motel, WoodSpring Suites in Elgin. Something about it felt off. It wasn't that I felt unsafe, but things in my room were very bare bones (no kleenex??) and while it appeared clean, for some reason, I felt uncomfortable. But I was only going to be there a few hours so I got my jammies on and into bed.
I did take the precaution of setting EVERYTHING on top of my walker rather than on the desk, dresser, or floor. I would be glad later that I made that decision.
No pics (although I have them for documentation) but the place had roaches. I'm an early riser and I found four of them after I got up, including one traipsing over my bedside table. Another was UNDER MY PILLOW.
Ick, ick, ick, ick, ICK!!
I spilled my coke as I took those photos, so I put a towel under the spill to keep it from soaking down into the mattress, threw on my clothes, grabbed my walker, and left.
The motel office would not open until until 9:00 AM, so I left my key card in my room, hopped in my car, and headed to the show hall, shivering from the Ick factor and grateful that I had gone with my gut sense and not set anything of mine onto the floor or tables. (I shook everything out and laundered it when I got home, just in case. I also called the hotel and reported the incident.)
I sent the pictures to Tim who confirmed that they were indeed roaches. (Tim is an entomologist.) He asked what I'd been doing up in Chicago and so I sent him the picture of Sweet Amy winning her championship ribbon. Tim's response was typical Tim.
Thanks, Tim, and fortunately, I did not see any evidence of bed bugs! The Ick factor was bad enough as it was!
