Day 23 -- New Bern to Lumberton, North Carolina -- 160 Miles

Today the sun FINALLY made an appearance after nearly three full days of nothing but fog, rain, and gray skies. Unfortunately, the sunny blue skies and fluffy white clouds that just seem to make traveling so much more fun, did not seek us out. No, we had to go in search of those things, and we did that by simply heading west instead east or south.

My plan was to move away from the coast in hopes of finding less people and, therefore, more room in the camps. This seems to have worked out great. Once we had transitioned from Interstate 17 to Route 74/76 at Wilmington, the traffic thinned out to an extent that we almost had the freeway to ourselves at times. And when we saw a KOA sign just before three o'clock, we jumped on the chance to get into camp early and get some laundry done.

The plan worked perfectly! Not only was the camp virtually empty, but the laundry room was empty as well. We had finished the washing, and were well into the drying cycle before rigs started arriving in quick succession and parking all around us. Very soon folks started trekking to the laundry room, and by then we were almost finished.

This morning as we drove west, and the skies were still basically gray, we didn't see anything worth shooting for the blog. By the time blue skies appeared overhead, we were ready for some action, but still nothing much appeared. We did stop and take a walk around a small-town square at one point, but we didn't find anything interesting to photograph there, either. I thought the blog tonight might have to be a selection of Concetta's favorite recipes.

It wasn't until we arrived at the KOA, and were trudging back and forth with the laundry totes, that I spied a small cemetery tucked away near the eastern boundary of the camp. Making a mental note, I went on doing laundry detail until Concetta and I had finished, then I grabbed the camera and went to investigate to headstones.

Once in the tiny Cemetery, I could see right away that the occupants were probably all of the surname "Howell." Some of the stones were fairly readable, and some were not, but I decided to pull up Ancestry.com and see what I could find out about the family. After quite a bit of research time, I both discoverd information on the family tree and also a suggestion for who might be buried on the edge of the KOA campground.

The cemetery is located in the county of Robeson, the town of Lumberton, and the Howell family, both living and dead, have been here for a very long time. I identified the headstone for Henry Boswell Howell (photo upper right), as well as the headstone for his wife, Lucy. Henry was born May 30, 1815. His wife, Lucy Ann Matilda Coleman, was born May 3, 1814.

Henry and Lucy had the usual passel of children, but only two appear to be buried with the parents. Son William Franklin Howell was next to his father (photo left), as was Amanda Howell (photo lower right). William was born April 29, 1855 and he died November 28, 1935. Henry was married twice but I'm not sure if either wife is buried in the family plot. His sister Amanda was born January 30, 1844, and died July 10, 1895.

According to records collected by Ancestry.com, Henry Boswell Howell's father, Shadrach Howell, is also buried near his son and grandson. I didn't see a stone, but Shadrach was born in 1788 and died in 1869. That meant that he was too young for the revolution and too old for the Civil War.

Shadrach's father, Rayford (Ralph) Howell fought in the Revolutionary War. The following is from an Ancestry.com member: "When Captain Ralph Raeford Howell and his twin sister Letitia "Letty" were born in 1757 in Virginia, their father, William, was 37, and their mother, Martha, was 30. He married Dicey Barfield in 1782 in Edgecombe, North Carolina. They had nine children in 22 years. He died as a young father in 1790 in Howellsville, North Carolina, at the age of 33."

It's thought that the family originated with William Howell in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. But the 1790 census for Robeson County shows William living there in North Carolina. The family consisted of three white males and three white females. William Howell was born in 1720 and he married Martha Raiford in 1754.

Now that our laundry is up to snuff for the next week or more, it's time to find some fun things to do. Tomorrow we'll be jumping onto Interstate 95 and will probably remain there all the way through South Carolina to Savannah, Georgia. We've been to Savannah once before, but the city is completely captivating and perhaps we'll visit again.

While it was fun today tracking down dead folks, hopefully we will encounter more interesting above-ground folks in our travels and will actually be able to talk to them person to person. So until then, we wish you exciting travels of your own. Ciao!