I seemingly felt better when we left Springfield, Illinois than I had the afternoon before. Our destination was the town of Milan, Missouri, with a population of around 1,800 people, 233 miles (375 km) west.
One of the original reasons we had for the trip was to meet our long lost cousins who lived near Milan. What was once planned as a one week trip there and back to Seattle, Washington ballooned into an epic seven week tour of the United States and Canada, but now we were finally approaching Missouri.
Milan is the seat of Sullivan County, where multiple maternal family lines converged, including Crawford, Grindstaff, Hayes, McMillen, Mealman, Vaughn, West, and Woodruff. My maternal 2nd-great-grandfather Elihu Millikan Crawford M.D. established his medical practice near the small Sullivan County town of Boynton in the 1870s after graduation from Keokuk Medical College.
We traveled Interstate 72 and Missouri Route 5. Along the way, we crossed over the Mississippi River again, having previously crossed it eastbound nearly a month earlier.
West of the river once more, we drove through Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain spent his youth and the setting for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I recall seeing his boyhood home.
We arrived in Milan in the early afternoon. We stopped in town to call our cousin Lanny and his wife Karen, who gave us directions to their cattle ranch outside of town. I remember it was only a few miles, but on unfamiliar and bumpy dirt roads it felt longer.
We finally arrived at their house and met them in person. We'd spoken on the phone several times, but it's different to finally meet in the flesh. It was very obvious right away that Lanny was a relative. There was a certain resemblance to my maternal grandfather Neal Eldred Crawford.
If I recall correctly, they took us out to dinner that first night. We would spend a total of seven days and eight nights at their house, getting to know them and allowing time for researching my ancestors in local records.
Total Travel Distance: 233 miles (375 km)
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