Got home at 1 p.m. this afternoon Eastern Time. I had such a good time on the trip that as it was winding down I wondered if I would be disappointed to be home. But home looked real good to me and I slipped into my home routine seamlessly, grocery shopping, audio books back to the library, picked up the mail, emptied the car, made lunch and even got in my walk before supper.
My last research task was in Iowa City, to find the obituary and the gravesite of Douglas Cramer. I spent so much time thinking and imagining what life was like for Douglas Cramer when I was writing my book, that when I actually found his obituary (which referred to him as an "old soldier" at 63) and then went to the cemetery and found his gravestone with just no trouble at all, it seemed a fitting end to my long odyssey and brought tears to my eyes. The stone was set on a concrete block and was red in color which probably denotes it is more recent than 1899 when he died. The G.A.R. may have had something to do with its setting as it had his Civil War unit inscribed on it although I do not know what happened to his son.
It was a great trip. My car gave me not one bit of trouble, the whole 9000 miles - can you believe it? I had only a couple days of feeling under the weather, nothing serious. I had wonderful visits with friends and relatives, saw beautiful scenery and the sunset last night was gorgeous, all pink and mauve and purple, the most beautiful one I had seen in all the towns and cities and parks where I had stopped along the way, as if it was especially for me. During the night the moon was nearly full as it had been when I started out two months ago. The End.
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