Wish you were here.

This blog title was brought to you by Itunes. I was having a hard time thinking of a good title for this latest entry. So I threw caution to the wind and hit the random play button our music library and this was the first thing that popped up.

It seems appropriate to me, since I do wish you were here! To experience some of this magnificent and devastating history and beauty that we keep stumbling upon.

Since I found out in April that we were moving here I have been anxious to do the Ghost Walk tour. I LOVE ghost tours, I love watching shows about ghost hunters and paranormal experiences. Yes, I have even had a few of my own ghostly encounters. It seemed like every time I would try to do the tour here something would come up and I would not be able to make it. Then for a long period there I worked Saturday nights which is the only time they do them. Well thankfully the schedule changed and so now I work Saturday mornings and the first Saturday night I had off I was downtown in line to get two tickets for the walk. Paul reluctantly came with me. He is not into ghost stories or anything like that at all. He is Mister "I don't believe in that stuff" and yet he gets scared. When we lived in Chicago and had cable and no office, so our computer was in the living room and I would watch my ghost show, he would immediately put on his sound reducing headphones and turn up the volume on whatever he was listening to and make sure the back of his chair was facing the t.v. Does that sound like someone who doesn't believe?

This tour was pretty good, our tour guide come to find out is a sceptic and too me if you are going to do a job like this you really should have some sort of interest or belief in it. She mentioned she is majoring in Anthropology particularly in Myths and Legends, so I guess it is relevant then. The tour takes place at night and the first stop is at the Visitors Center. She was telling us that they feel the third floor is haunted given that people have seen a shadow walking around, and it likes to open and close windows. As she was talking I happen to look up and snap a photo. It's really hard to see here but the third window looks like it is open. She soon notices this as well. When we look back I noticed it was closed. Hmmm....

We walked up and down streets and then we stopped in front of this church. I have been strangely fascinated by this church in the broad daylight, and there is a tiny cemetery in its yard. At night this church takes on a new much creepier look. I am not joking it looks more ominous. Anyway, she stopped here and said that there have been reports of the worshiping area being haunted. She told a story about a older lady taking a cat nap while waiting for choir practice to start and she thought she was the only one in there, and hears a girl crying loudly. She opens her eyes to see a young lady kneeling dressed in all white crying. She reaches out to her to comfort her and she disappears. Hmmm...Just then a older man in our group steps forward and says, that he use to be a ward and would have to sit with the bodies in waiting all night. He had heard several things happen in the worshipping area. Things like chains rattling and various other experiences. Finally! First hand encounters! Now the tour was getting good! Sadly we didn't have any ghostly encounters of our own, maybe next time. The guides get dressed up in period clothing and carry a candle to light the way.

The next day Paul and I took a little hike. This one is only about 10 minutes from our house and it is called Lee's Drive. It is along this road on your way in you see markers showing you were the Union broke through and there are actual confederate trenches still there. As a matter of fact part of the trail we take crosses the trenches. It is very hard to explain the feeling you get when you are walking around here. This area after all was the bloodiest part of the whole Civil War. We found out our house was built on the battle field much later. Paul's Grampa said that two of their Ancestors fought here during that time. It's unclear if they were father and son or brother, cousin type thing. The local parks office which has all the maps of the battle said if we can find out their names and numbers they could pin-point where they were here and what happened to them. If they died in battle or if they were in a hospital here. (Dead Horse Hill, a canon demonstrating where the Union soldiers would have been firing across to the Confederates.)
Over 15,000 Union Soldiers are buried on this hill near our house, only 3000 have names on their markers the rest are numbered like this photo. Some you will see with a number and then a number below showing how many bodies are in that spot.

Outside of all the doom and gloom there is a lot of character here. Here is a Close which is reminiscent of my time in Scotland. They are putting in cute little cafes and markets down these alleys. The shops downtown have tons of fun antiques to look through and some new stuff too. Like I said; wish you were here.