Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do…

As our vacation began with a visit to a Kentucky dignitary’s final resting place, so would it end with one. The focus of our occasional cemetery visits is usually Presidential burial sites, but sometimes we’ll learn of the graves and crypts of other famous personae that Anne would like to see in her capacity as a lifelong history aficionado. Frankfort hosted one such figure, which worked out since we were in town anyway.

(Well, at least, they’re pretty sure they host him. Some Missourians have disagreed for nearly a couple centuries now.)

After visiting the State Capitol and enjoying an art walk, we drove to Frankfort Cemetery and found our way to the grave of Daniel Boone, that vaunted explorer whose forays into the wilds west of the original thirteen colonies would take him into the territory that would one day become Kentucky. He was also a Revolutionary War officer, later a politician and surveyor, then finished out his remaining years trying to untangle his land claims under even more contentious conditions than what Charles Ingalls would later face.

(Maybe it’s just me, but I struggle not to confuse Daniel Boone with Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. Their first names begin with the same two letters, their greatest works involved American frontiers, both were the subjects of TV shows starring Fess Parker, and nobody cares about their political careers. But Crockett is from Tennessee and died at 49 fighting at the Alamo, not in his 80s like Boone did. Also, the real Boone hated coonskin caps.)

The cemetery has the graves of other notables on local and state levels, including several Kentucky suffragettes proudly listed on their website. On a national level I can’t say I recognized them, though they do include Richard Mentor Johnson, who was Vice-President under Martin Van Buren. We’ve visited several VPs’ burial sites in the past, and I’d even written down his location in our planning notes, just in case we had that much energy left for questing.

We did not, as it happens — sorry, guy I’d never heard of! — but we found the place offers a beautiful view of Frankfort and the surrounding countryside.

…and with one last longing look, we got back into the rental car and drove the last three hours home, with one last stop for gas off I-65 in Memphis, Indiana.

TOTAL ROAD TRIP MILEAGE AS OF GAS STOP #5: 1,642.7.

(Yep, only five fill-ups over 1600 miles. Man, do I miss that Camry right now.)

To be concluded!

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[Link enclosed here to handy checklist for other chapters and for our complete road trip history to date. Follow us on Facebook or via email sign-up for new-entry alerts, or over on BlueSky if you want to track my faint signs of life between entries. Thanks for reading!]