The Ghosts

Originally I mentioned Villisca and Myrtles. I still want to go to these places.  In my uber UBER ambitious original map/plan, we went down the same way we are now (via St. Louis, and returned, via gulf coast Florida, and New Orleans/Myrtles/Hot Springs Arkansas, and up through Iowa/Villisca. I think the calculations on that were a little ridiculous. So that got modified...and who knows if we don't kill each other, or have a hideous experience maybe there can be a ghost and BBQ part 2 that would take us to those places.

Yesterday I mentioned we're making 5 stops for ghosts. Most of the selections had to do with location. First and foremost this is actually a trip to visit my sister in Florida for Thanksgiving. So we had to make selections that were within the realm of possibility for us to visit that didn't take us too far off course. Some of these I had heard of before and was excited to see - some were just literally a google search of "Haunted Hotel". There are a lot of haunted hotels y'all. Can't say I blame them, it's booming business for a B&B to be haunted, just sayin'.

Here they are in order by our trip:

• St. Louis - The Lemp Mansion.

Purely by coincidence of it being the last room available we are staying in the Elsa Lemp room, supposedly the most "active" of all rooms. Apparently Ghost Hunters and Ghost Lab have done shows here, sadly I don't really remember either. I assume I saw them, but they weren't very distinctive that I recall. I am a little bummed. Once a month on a Thursday they do ghost investigations. Guess what we are missing by one day. D'oh.

• Americus, GA - The Windsor Hotel

To be honest, this was a google find. Never heard of it - kind of thinking not that impressive, but I will research some more. The building itself looks awesome, and I like the idea of staying in a smaller off the beaten path place in Georgia. This was actually a Gabe find, I was proposing we do the ridiculous and push from St. Louis straight into Fort Lauderdale, 18 hour drive be damned! Even if it's not haunted, I think I will be thankful for a nice bed.

Those are the stops on the way down. On the way home are some of my most anticipated stops.

• St. Augustine, FL - St. Augustine Lighthouse

Boioioioiiiing.

I am excited to get here. I am intrigued by the city itself because it has such a cool history, but also this place captured some of my most favorite paranormal evidence. I don't know what the heck it was, but something shadowy zoomed up the stairs here, and it looks like something shadowy peered over the stairs. I am a little nervous about this one. 219 stairs, and I don't like heights. If the stairs don't have backs to them, I don't even know if I will make it to the top. I know - I am weird, it's my thing. If the stairs are enclosed it's fine. I have a feeling not closed and I may poop myself and it won't be because of zooming shadows. They have a night tour, I really wanted to do that, but was overruled. So I will have to deal with a daytime "investigation" before we press on to Savannah.

• Savannah, GA - The Marshall House

I am not too broken up about not staying up until midnight in an old lighthouse in St. Augustine because it gets us closer to getting home, and it also means I get to go back to one of my all time favorite cities - Savannah. I love this town! The history, the charm, the food, the people -- all awesome. I'm excited to get back here and be able to show it to Gabe for the first time. We are staying at the Marshall House. Not only is it haunted it's an awesome location. If we are up for it, I am hopeful we can do a ghostly walking tour when we get into town, or at the very least a carriage ride.

• Bardstown, KY - The Jailer's Inn

My aunt used to live in this town, and a few years ago on a trip home from North Carolina, we stopped in to have dinner at the Old Talbott Tavern. This town is adorable. History, and charm galore. They have actually turned the old jail from 1797 into a B&B complete with one room still set up like a cell. This one was kind of a fluke. I just figured, hey as long as we are in Kentucky, we should stop in Bardstown. Lo and Behold, apparently full of haunted hotels as well. This one is still up in the air, we haven't got confirmed lodging here yet, at the time this went to press, but I am hopeful. This is the only "haunted" hotel that even has people raving about the "activity" on Tripadvisor. (All of the other hotels listed here, and researched for our trip listed lame reviews like how the breakfast was, or how clean the rooms were...pff who cares, am I going to crap my pants in fear or not?!) Also Tripadvisor talks endlessly about how the owners are great sources of info on the history of the area and the building itself, so I look forward to talking to them if we do get to stay here.

So that's it, those are the locales we are hitting up. So excited...

UPDATE: We are staying at the Jailers Inn - the only room left  -- is the Jail Cell room...we're going to do that...kinky.