The Ghost Tour. . .

I was looking for inexpensive things to do around town and found a ghost tour.  We have done a couple over the years, Big T is big fan of true and historic ghost tells.  Our first ghost tour experience was at the beach and it was a ghost/pirate tour, it was fabulous.  I love the ones that incorporate some history in them and the one we did on Monday night did just that.  It also helps to have a good guide that knows his or her stuff.  As I was finding the information to get this tour scheduled I was very sad to find out they would no longer be doing them.
Sprat asked one of his good friends to go along and the hubbs even went a little reluctantly.  It is always interesting to meet the other people in your group too.  We were of course very early and were just hanging out on the street corner talking and Sprat and his friend were playing Pokeman Go.  We met the people that run another ghost tour in an adjacent city and they invited us to come and do their tour some time.  Their tour involves a lot of Revolutionary war and Civil war history.  Our guide for this tour was very interesting and the reason he is leaving is that he is moving back to his home town.  He was a great orator and he really got into character with his actions and clothing, he knew his history of our area too.  We also had a lady and her two daughters from out of town in our group too.  I did not know it at the time but apparently the young girls were attracted to the boys, there was one Sprat's age and the other was around Big T's age.  According to Big T and my hubby the older girl could not keep her eyes off of Sprat and his friend.  Ahhhh young love, found on the ghost tour.
This was a walking tour and we went around this one particular neighborhood.  There were several tells of accidental death and hauntings by ghosts that did not realize they were dead.  One in particular was the haunting of a bed and breakfast that my hubby and I stayed in when we were newly wed.  I was so glad we did not know that story when we stayed there, I think it would have changed things just a bit.
One story involved a young man disobeying his father by taking his father's car to go on a date.  The age old tale of young love and wild abandon that ends in tragedy.  This one ended with a bit of a mystery and that bothered Sprat, he wanted to know the end of the story.  Our guide told him it was a mystery and we moved on to the next corner and the next tale.
We ended our tour back where we had begun and our guide asked if there was anything more that we wanted to know.  Sprat piped up and asked about the story that had caught his fancy before, and the guide obliged the best he could.  Come to find out that story was actually a compilation of a couple of different stories but the end was fact and was more recent than the other stories.  Our guide also shared that the trio that was with us for our tour from the neighboring town will be taking over this tour when he leaves.  I was very glad to hear that, I just hope that they take as much care in telling the true historic stories that our guide did.

This is our tour guide

This is the bed and breakfast

Another shot of the B & B

Ghost Tour of Wilkesboro. . .

We went on our first ghost tour.  Wilkesboro offers a ghost tour once a month starting in April.  It is a walking tour that lasts about an hour and a half.  Ours lasted almost two and a half hours, we had really good guides.  We learned a lot of local history from the Civil War era.  We got to see some historic spots in Wilkesboro and hear the local lore of who haunts what.  Our guides were very knowledgeable in the local history and Civil War history also.  We heard two stories of one hanging and how the great, great, great grandson of the hangee went into law because he said if his great, great, great grandfather had a good lawyer he might not have been hung.   He is a prominent attorney in the area today.  We saw the old jail that held Tom Dooley, yes the one the song is written about.  We were able to go in the slave quarters of an old home, the slaves had put a curse on the family that lived in the main house.  The curse was written on the wall of the slave quarters.  There were skeleton heads of a horse, a dog and some other small animals hanging from the ceiling.  Sprat swears the horse head was moving, we all said it was a draft, but the other heads were not moving.   Big T felt the cold spot where a little girl was run over by a carriage in the drive way of the main house that had the curse.   We got to see where the Tory Oak once stood.  The Tory Oak was where they hung British sympathizers.  The oak stood for more than 300 years but in 1989 Hugo took its toll.  There is another oak in its place, still young and not yet as grand.

Vacation? ? ? ? ?

My kids keep asking, are we going some where this summer?  I always reply, I am going crazy want to come along.  Our family is a little nutty.  We have not gone on a true "vacation" in two years so we are talking about trying to this year.  The kids have been busy with baseball and football camps the last two years,and it just has not worked out for us.  Jack played All Stars the last two years and of course that takes up a lot of time.  This year he said he didn't want to do All Stars so he could go to our Church camp.  We said that was fine.  The coach, however, talked him in to playing All Stars but told him it was ok if he missed practice or a game for Church camp.  We said that was fine too.  So I have to try and work in a trip somewhere in between camps and All Stars.  Big T informed me that he wants to go on the ghost tours around the beaches of North Carolina.  He has developed quite an interest in ghosts and the paranormal.  They have been studying North Carolina history in school this year and of course they have talked about pirates and the light houses also.  I have found several different places around that offer ghost tours and pirate tours.  If you guys know any interesting places to visit please post a comment.  We are going to have quite the adventure this summer.  Check back to see what all we find.