About 10-15 min from where I live was supposed to be another ghost town in what is now North Augusta. It is called Hamburg and it’s off an unpaved road. I did find the old train tracks which is supposed to be part of it. I also saw what looked to be a still occupied house in the area along with tons of no trespassing signs. Hamburg backs up to a golf course because of course it does.
Even north Augusta is still Augusta!
So instead of going to Romania, I was a huge fan of Anne Rice’s vampire chronicles, I half joking said I wanted to go visit New Orleans to look for vampires. My father actually was up for this.
I also then asked how far away Gulf Breeze was knowing that it is or was a UFO hotspot. It was on the way to New Orleans! So we drove and spent two nights in Gulf Breeze where we went out on Pensacola Beach where I saw satellites for the first time as well as some other weird objects in the sky that we still can’t identify. Dad being a bit of an asshole asked if there were shirts saying “We went UFO hunting in Gulf Breeze”
Going to New Orleans was beautiful. I loved my Anne Rice tour even though I was not a fan of the witches, I can’t remember why we could not go to the vampire tour. Funniest thing is me walking around the French Quarter because I memorized the map in one of the old books.
I didn’t see any vampires, but I loved that city so much.
Completed : 1996
So on the 2019 Phoenix trip, I decided to go to Roswell to visit the International UFO Museum And Research Center. It’s not a huge museum (quite small really) but it is pretty cheap to go into (even cheaper if you are EMS or military) and I think it is a really good bargain especially if you leave and come back as it’s an all day access pass and they have different movie showings.
I will be honest, most of Roswell looks pretty normal, but as soon as you get near the museum, I stopped being able to take them seriously. When you realize I am an FI with MUFON, that should tell you something about the level of silliness it got to.
Completed : 2019
Now there are supposed to be several ghost towns in Georgia and I have attempted to visit a few. I tried to visit Constitution last year (never could find it not even a marker, it’s near the drive-in), Juliette a few months ago (could not find it at all even though there is supposed to be a restaurant still there), tried Mountain View near the airport (tried the same day as Constitution, nope). Finally I found out that I have been doing events just a few miles away from Campbellton which is classified as a ghost town. I am not really sure how much I agree with that labeling. The whole thing is a park basically. I drove past the Masonic Lodge, parked at the church (which is very much alive and well) and then walked across the street to the courthouse memorial. I thought maybe there would be more along the road so I went into the park. If you go further back, you see the boat ramp which is in fine condition and is active. Then going right past it there is a structure that looked like a place to picnic and a huge house that was obviously a private residence, I continued driving though and there were a lot of farms out there including a llama farm! The road was a dirt road and just kept going and there were holes and I would have continued to follow the GPS but at the bridge, it was blocked off despite the fact there were signs saying what type of truck can go on it! So I had to turn around and go back. It was easier going in than coming out as my car (and I have a Rav4 AWD) almost could not get back out! It was crazy! But I was able to get out. I would much rather see the ghost towns out west next time. The ones here are just not really there as ghost towns anymore.
What would you go see?
Completed : 2021
I’ve wanted to go to the Everglades since I was 9 and read “The Curse of Blood Swamp”. I lived… what… 20 minutes…. 30 minutes from them? My mother is scared of snakes and such for a lot of reasons. I also wanted to get on an airboat since I was introduced to them through the book. So I finally did! I went down to Florida to pick up my kid and I purposefully got there a very early so I could do this.
I went to Everglades Holiday Park and did the airboat ride. This was definitely not the type of airboat I saw in the movies, but then I think this was a touring boat designed for comfort (and fewer bugs in the teeth!) It was really nice. A little cold though, but I guess that’s just the way things are. 😦 The wind… ugh… But I got to see quite a bit. Saw some iggies. Some gators. The gators come when you call them. One of them was half blind, the poor baby. I had to explain to the other two people in the boat about some of the wildlife facts since no one could hear the pilot. I went to the alligator rescue show and donated $20 plus the change I received earlier that day from breakfast. And photo op with a baby gator. 🙂
Have there been any books that inspired you to do something crazy?
Completed : 2020
Someone suggested to me to visit an UNESCO site. However, according to the UNESCO World Heritage Center webpage, I already did! (Thanks mom!)
When I was practically in the stroller (ok not really, but it was before the age of 5), I would go with my parents out west to national parks. So I’ve been to Yellowstone (which I remember trying to get to), the Grand Canyon (I remember realizing I was scared of heights when we looked down), and I know I was in Yosemite as my mom still talks about it. Somehow I missed the Everglades DESPITE living in Florida less than a few miles from them.
As far as things that are a super clear memory, Masada in Israel and the old city of Jerusalem (why UNESCO claims it is not in Israel is likely just anti-semitism). My favourite of the all of them is surprisingly Masada. For those who don’t know about Masada, long story short Romans invaded Israel, a bunch of Jews told them to screw off and barricaded themselves in an incredible fortress on a hill for several months in the desert. The Romans built a ramp over some months and finally broke into Masada to find all the Jews dead rather than become Roman slaves. All the fathers had killed their wives and kids, then the men killed each other and the remaining killed himself. Suicide is a huge no-no in Judaism so this way only one committed that sin. We know what happened because 2 women and a few kids remained because they did not have a husband/father to kill them.
Which UNESCO sites have you visited?
Completed : Honestly I don’t know, but I know I did it again in 2013
One thing I wanted to do for a very long time, since I was 8 or so, was to go to Marfa Texas and see the Marfa lights which are a series of lights that started appearing in 1883 not far from the town.
Now Marfa is really in the middle of nowhere and I assumed I would never get to go out that area so I was really surprised when it turned out Marfa was only a few hours out of my way on my Phoenix trip. So… I went! It was a really good thing I have a hybrid now as I literally went 200 miles without seeing any form of gas station or restaurant (I was hungry) until I ended up in Alpine, Texas which isn’t far from Marfa. Lovely town Alpine, it lives up to its name as it looked so much like Helen in Georgia.
There was a viewing station for the lights I got there just as sun was setting. I took a quick walk around the viewing station which offered no protection from the below freezing temperatures and not even any places to sit and let’s not discuss the bathrooms. The smart people camped with their RVs at the site and I wish I had an RV to do that. That would be a great place to boondock.
Either way, I run to the restroom and decide to take a nap to let the sunset. I wake up and look outside. Absolutely great place if someone wants to do some astrophotography, unfortunately only one light seemed a little weird and I suspect that was probably a car light of something. Eventually it just got too cold so I was on my way back to Arizona. I would definitely like to go back and maybe camp there for a few days.
What do you think the Marfa lights are?
Completed : 2019
Of course one of the things that was on the list when I was going to the Erickson Congress was visiting Dr Erickson’s Historical Residence myself. It’s almost a pilgrimage point for young hypnotists who are a fan of Dr Erickson. It wasn’t the first place he worked, of course, but was the last place.
When I went to the Erickson Congress and as I was told there was an option for the tour, so I picked the very earliest tour on the very first day. Part of that was to avoid any temptation of putting my former CCHt into a weird position before we spoke. I asked if any one tour was going to be better than the other, they said the same guy did them. Cool
So I went to the house, and the door opened. No one said the tour guide was Dr Erickson’s son, Robert! That was a surprise! Only one other person showed up to the tour and he came late so Robert had to start over again. It was a really cool tour and I learned a lot that I did not know and that we (Dr Erickson and I) had even more in common than I was expecting. They even had a little gift shop and talk about people who trust you, if you didn’t have cash you could MAIL them a check after you got home with your stuff. Incredible!!! I know Dr Erickson trusted his patients but this was incredible!
Is there anyone’s historic home that you would want to visit?
Completed : 2019
I went on a road trip to go to the 13th and Final Erickson Congress in December. That was a magical time in and of itself. Since it was so far and all, I wanted to assure that I was able to see at least a few things on my bucket list which were out in that direction.
So about a week before I went, I wanted to get the information about Biosphere 2 knowing it was somewhere out there, the big closed ecological system where people were living for months and years on end and see how far it was from Phoenix (around 2 hours). I’d always wanted to see it in person. Little did I know they had tours! And not terribly expensive either!
After I visited Marfa, I went to visit Biosphere 2. I slept in a truck stop a few hours from it because I had the time and I was tired from driving all night.
When I came upon it and to visitor parking, it was like I was in scientific Disney World, even down to the different rows being labeled as different things like Food, Energy, etc. I went to follow the directions for admissions and nothing can prepare you for the size of the complex. There is a visitors center, a separate cafe, gift shop, and more apartments than you can shake a stick at… apparently you can do retreats there. And yet I still had a way to go to the main complex. Since I knew I had the tour but had a while, I went down to the outstanding ocean exhibit. Of course nothing could compare to going up to the crew habitat and then actually walking around the Biosphere itself! Most of it we could walk on it except the rainforest was doing a special experiment so we could not go there and the LEO we had to view from afar. Still it was such an outstanding discussion and the little space exhibit upstairs reminded me so much of my work with Space Studies that it made me really miss the work I did back then and reminded me of all the possibilities out there. Man I loved that degree and all the magic it had. All those memories and more came flooding back to Biosphere 2 which I studied when I was in that program. I wanted to be a crewmember so much.
What about you? Would you be a crew member?
Completed : 2019
So I am a former wiccan and of course had a lot of interest in the witch trials of Salem. I always wanted to go there to see. When my husband lived in New Hampshire I was finally given an excuse to go.
Our first spot was the Salem Witch Museum
The whole museum is in two sections and unless you are also going to do other things that your admission gives you a discount for, you might consider the less than an hour not worth it. Of the two sections, one is a narration which was interesting I guess. A little Disney-ish that talked about the history of the witch trials. The second part had a real guide who both my partner and I really wanted to correct the tour guide. (Hint: Skyclad means naked, not clothed by a robe. Both my partner and I spent many years as very serious Wiccans.) I also have peer reviewed publications on Wicca history. The gift store wasn’t particularly impressive either.
We also went to two things in the mall
Bewitched – It was a store in a mall. Had a mixture of New Age stuff and non-New Age stuff. The gems were priced a little less than I can get at home, but at home I could have seen a better store. I did not see where I could find a tour of Salem which is what we’d been hoping for but given the weather (bit of a blizzard) I wouldn’t have been there anyway.
Salem Toy Museum – This has since closed. $6 a person for a walkthrough that took only a few minutes. Now the owner was nice when we were there, but definitely overpriced for the money. It should have been donation only. When I placed a review on tripadvisor he went after me and insulted me.
The most important thing to me was the Salem Witch Trials Memorial
This was the attraction in Salem that I really wanted to see. It is not very big, but it stands as a memorial to the innocent lives taken during the trials. I wish I had visited when it was not rainy or snowy so I could have taken a few photos as when it has bad weather you can barely read what is on the stones. Instead after I walked most of the way through it, I pulled out my Siddur and did Kaddish for them much to the dismay of my quite soaking wet husband.
What would you have liked to see in Salem?
Completed: 2014
This is M.E.L - My Exciting Life 