Travels in the South

Welcome my friends to another edition of Travels in the South.  As you know, my mom/dad are foodies.  And one of dad’s favorite foods is pizza.  And don’t think that the south doesn’t make good pizza.  Dad believes that the South is right up there with some of the best places when it comes to good pie.  And when mom/dad go out for a good pizza, they always get more than enough so that they can have leftovers for the next couple of days.  Mom likes to think of these meals as “Meals that keep on giving.”  Plus it means she doesn’t have to cook, smart huh?

So mom/dad went this past weekend to one of their favorite pizza places.  Once there, mom saw that they had cajun french fries.  Now, that’s way up her ally – the mommy LOVES french fries.  Not just any fries – they have to be extra crispy.  You know – no wimpy limpy fries on mom’s plate – snorts with piggy laughter.  They have to have standablility when it comes to dunking them in ketchup.  Mom is weird like that and trust me – over time it has ran over to daddy.  So they started with these delicious fries that had just a bit of kick but not overpowering kick.  Mom called them awesome and said that she could have eaten the entire basket.  But she didn’t.  She was a good girl and split them with the daddy.

Then it came time to ordering the main event.  Dad went for the pan crust meat lovers with cheddar crust and mom went for the hand tossed pepperoni lovers pretzel crust.  Now even this oinker has to admit that these pies look awesome.  Oh and mom/dad always get their pizza double cut and light sauce.  What do you think about these masterpieces?  Do you like pizza?  What are your favorite toppings?

And remember what I said about meals that keep on giving?  Both pizzas, french fries, two sodas and tip came to $20.34.  Now, take that price and divided by three meals (cause they have dinner Monday and Tuesday night) and you come up with $6.78 per night = that’s only $3.39 per person for fabulous eats.

 

 

 

 

31 Days of Spook – Sheraton Read House Hotel

Happy hauntings my sweet friends.  Today I have a story for you that was sent to me by Lexi’s mom, Amy.  Amy told me to look into a haunted place in Chattanooga, Tennessee called the Sheraton Read House Hotel.  This sounded just like the place I needed for my 31 Days of Spook so I started my research.  I was *not* disappointed at all my friends.  So if you need to, grab someones hand, paw or hoof and get ready for a bumpy ride.

The Sheraton Read House Hotel is located at 827 Broad Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee.  The most haunted room in the hotel is room 311.  Room 311 is rumored to be haunted.  You see back in the day there was a lady named Annalisa Netherly who lived at the hotel with her husband.  One day, her husband came to the hotel and let’s just say caught Annalisa Netherly in a compromising position with another man.  Well, the husband lost his mind – was it momentarily or was it already lost – and killed Annalisa.

Now if you talk to some of the workers of the Sheraton Read House Hotel that have been there for years and know about the history, they will tell you that room 311 isn’t really the room that this death took place.  They remodeled the hotel and sealed off the room the murder actually took place.  They then moved the room number down one door.  Now the murder room is still there and you can see the barred window but yet the room remains empty… or is it.

And also a side note that I found out during my research.  When Al Capone was awaiting trial, he stayed in the murder room.  Can you imagine that?  And let us not forget of the story of a soldier ghosts that walks around the 4th floor of the hotel.

And if that murder room and soldier ghost isn’t intriguing enough, there are also secret corridors throughout the hotel.  Some that even the longest employees haven’t even found yet.

So my friends, are you ready for a field trip to spend the night next door to the murder room?

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AND A SIDE NOTE:  This is a personal story that happened to Lexi’s mom, Amy.  Shivers to mergatroid!

Long before Lexi was born, this actually happened. At that time, I lived in a house just north of Cleveland, Tennessee. I had three pictures hanging adjacent to each other on two walls. For a while, when I would get up in the morning, I was sure they had been rearranged. (They were very similar.) So one night when no one else was home and no one else was going to be home before morning, just before retiring for the night, I said out loud, “If you can hear me, I want this picture (pointing) over here and this one over there.” The next morning they had been rearranged, and instead of hanging on the walls, they were propped on the floor in the order I had specified. The spirit wanted to be sure I noticed.

 

31 Days of Spook – Givens Castle

 Today we are focusing on a spook in Chicago ion an area where my Aunt Tina lives.  Buckle in for some bumps and scares.  Enjoy – don’t be scared now – BOO!

Givens Castle / Beverly Unitarian Church

The Givens Castle was originally built in 1886 as a residence by Robert Givens. Givens was real estate developer and wanted the house to be a replica of a castle in his native Ireland.  Some say that Givens built the home for his fiancee who died before the house could be finished.  Maybe that accounts for why Givens only lived in the castle for 8 years.

Around 1894, the castle turned into the Chicago Female College. It is reputed to have had a student die in the 1930’s from flu.

During the 1960’s, the castle was turned into the Beverly Unitarian Church.  A janitor once reported that he had a conversation with a woman who disappeared from sight. Their conversation was about the house and how much it had changed over the years.  The janitor saw no footprints outside in the snow and all of the doors were locked.  Where did she go?  Was it the student that passed away from the flu?

The pastor of the church at the time was a woman who claimed she saw a pair of hands touch her husband’s waist.  Even more, the pastor thought the hands were those of a woman.  The husband never felt a thing.  During this time as well, there were reports of a candle being seen through windows when nobody was present in the building.

Unexplained noises have also been attributed to the ghost and a former pastor said that he often tried to track down the source of the noises but was never able to.

The story is courtesy of Chicago Ghost blogger.