*Insert Evil Laugh here*

Ripley's Believe it Or Not
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Death is an interesting thing. How people treat their dead even more so. It is that way of thinking that turned my steps towards the Santa Rosa Rural Graveyard.

The Santa Rosa Rural Graveyard is this cities oldest residential housing estate for dead people. Perched on top of and around a small hill at the north end of town, the graveyard is home to the pioneers who helped build this city into the metropolis of today. The graveyard itself is rather tired looking. The host hill is mostly bare rock, an ugly washed out shade of grey, dirty with old footprints and leaf liter. Most gravestones are poorly kept, their broken and sullied epitaphs peak out under layers of grave mold, dirt and debris. The ruins of the smaller markers are dwarfed by the larger and by far - more expensive - headstones in the area. Irreguardless the graveyard had a wonderfully serene feel about it. The skeletal appearance of the trees and the crack of dry twigs snapping under mysterious footfalls really set off the harsh cries of the blood eyed ravens that circled the area.

under a Tombstone which read "Preservation"

Santa Rosa Rural Cemetry
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During my journey through the marble effigies to the long forgotten I did stumble across a number of mentionables;

* In the two graveyards that I walked through I only found the gravesites of two Wilson families.

* I located the Ripley Family Plot (Believe it or Not :))

* I found man born in the late 1800s who had the misfortune of being buried under a Tombstone which read "Preservation". Yes that was indeed his real name.

Squirrels... rabid rodent or wuvable wildlife
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And the number one thought provoker coming from the Santa Rosa Rural Graveyard??

* Squirrels... rabies infected rodents or cute wuvable wildlife?

On a totally unrelated note: Light switches in the US of A turn on by flicking upwards and turn by flicking downwards... its like a confused electrician wired the whole country :)