Journey with Friends

Welcome my friends to our weekly issue of Journey with Friends.  This is a time that we come together for support, for encouragement, for fellowship – all with one single goal in mind – to live better.  Welcome to our journey to share our goals and our accomplishments and our disappointments and frustrations.

Together we can do this!

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Hey my friends.  How was your week?  Mine moved right along with its normal ups/downs.  But overall, not bad at all.  Food wise, we made good choices.  Now I did work a lot and I think my body was telling me over the weekend to slow down – and I did.  I rested all day Sunday with the kids surrounding me.  Who could ask for more than that, right?  We watched a couple of great movies on television, laughed and just had a great family day.

We also watched several football games over the weekend.  Unfortunately our beloved Tennessee Volunteers lost yesterday to Texas AM 45-38.  It was their first loss of the season and they did give it their all.  Shout out to Texas A&M for a job well played.  Now the next important game for our Tennessee is playing against their rival Alabama this Saturday 10/15/2016 at 3:30pm.  This is a game we will *not* miss.  We will be glued to our television.  In fact, you will probably here us screaming from the Hotel Thompson.

Another great game was the Atlanta Falcons playing Denver and winning 23-16.  Now, I have to give kudos to Denver and we know there are plenty of readers from that area here in the blogs.  Denver played a great game.  We also have to apologize for one of our Falcon players who got a little zealous towards the end of the game and got an unsportsman penalty.  We were not too happy about his behavior for sure.  So Denver it was a great game and Lynch was awesome.

Today is also Canadian Thanksgiving.  We would like to wish all of our Canadian friends a wonderful day full of love and happy moments.  Rejoice with your families and know that we love you too here at the Hotel Thompson.

So my friends, how was your week?  Did you watch any great games?

 

31 Days of Spook – Myrtles Plantation

Today, let’s talk about haunted houses.  When I think about the most haunted house here in the United States, the first one that always comes to mind is the Myrtles Plantation in St Francisville, Louisiana.  Today, it’s a quaint little bed and breakfast.  But before, there was an ugly past that took place that made it the spook fest that it is today.

Back in the day of plantations, there was a despicable thing that southern plantation owners did and that was called having slaves.  It was a horrible act to ‘own’ another person just because of the color of your skin.  Thank goodness that those days are long behind us and we have progressed to the point of not ‘owning’ someone ever again.

But back in the day of the Myrtles when Mark and Sara Woodruff owned the plantation, they had many slaves, one in particular was Chloe.  Chloe was caught eavesdropping on a conversation of the Woodruffs.  For punishment, one of Chloe’s ears was cut off and she wore a green turban to hide it.  Chloe, to say the least, was very upset over having one of her ears cut off.

In order to get even, Chloe baked a birthday cake containing the extract of boiled and reduced oleander leaves, which are extremely poisonous.  Her plan was to make Mr. Woodruff sick but it backfired.  Only Sara Woodruff and her two daughters ate the cake and all three of them died from the poison.  All of the other slaves were very upset over Chloe doing this and supposedly they hung Chloe and then threw her body into the Mississippi River.

To this day when the circumstances are just right, you can see Chloe wearing her green turban walking through the Myrtles Plantation or the grounds.  And, if you look closer, you can see the Woodruff children playing on the front porch just like they did when they were alive.

And there are rumors about a mirror in the plantation.  Shivers.  This one had my fur standing straight up on edge.  Back in the day, when there was a death in the family, people covered all of the mirrors in the home.  Perhaps with everything going on with Chloe and the three deaths, a mirror that hangs in the foyer got forgotten.  It’s rumored that this mirror holds the spirits of Sara Woodruff and her two children.  So if you are visiting the plantation and primping in this mirror, give it a close look.  You might see some little hand marks on the glass.

But let’s now stop here with Chloe.  There are still others that haunt the plantation.  The house itself is reported to be built over an Indian burial ground.  Legend is there is a ghost of a young Indian woman that can be seen around the grounds.

And during the Civil War, the house was overtaken by Union soldiers.  It’s claimed that there were three soldiers killed in the house in the doorway.  There in the doorway is a blood stain  where the three soldiers were killed roughly the size of a human body that will not come clean.  Legend states that people that try to use a mop or broom on that one particular area are unable to push the mop or broom in that one spot.

Have you had enough of this plantation yet?  Is your fur standing on edge?  Let me end with one more story of the Myrtles Plantation.

There is also the ghost of William Winter.  He was shot on the front porch of the plantation.  He came back inside and crawled up the stairs to the 17th step where he collapsed dead in his wife’s arms.  Often, you can see a ghost walking or crawling up the stairs and disappearing on the 17th step.  Doesn’t this make you want to go ghost hunting now?

 

31 Days of Spook – The Wicker Chair

Oh my friends I have another great story submission for you today. This one is from our friend Fozzie in Australia.  Happy rocking – insert evil snorts.

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“When I came home from hospital with Rhiannon..(some 30 odd years ago), we lived in a small two bedroom flat. Bradley, our eldest, was in his own room and Rhiannon slept in a cot in our room.  She must have been about a month old when this happened.

 We had in our room an old white wicker chair, you know the type that belongs on a porch under the shade of a wisteria. This chair was my grandmas (she was still alive at the time of this incident). Now the story went my grandma and her sister had some to and fro’s over who got to have this chair..and as it happened my grandma got it.. her sister is now deceased. I always loved it and my grandma was happy to give it to me.  And so it sat in the corner of our bedroom..

One night I was woken with the fright of my life.  As I lay on my side asleep, I felt a hand grab my shoulder! I sat bolt upright frozen. Phil was fast asleep. Rhiannon fast asleep. Me wide awake and terrified!

I woke Phil and made him get up to check the flat all over…nothing. I went back to bed..but not to sleep. This happened again for the next three nights. I was terrified so badly that I went to my doctor.

I told him I was sure I was losing my mind,such a violent grab and yet nothing!  My doctor, such a cool young guy he was, simply said to me, ““There’s a lot more to life than what we think. You aren’t nuts, just experiencing something you are not tuned to.”

Eventually, I relaxed a bit more and the grabbing stopped…after I politely asked it to stop as I was needing sleep…since then I have lots of special things happen. Life indeed is a weird and mysterious journey.”