Ghost hunting with Gretchen

As everyone who knows me or regularly reads these posts knows, I LOVE ghosts and the paranormal. Halloween or Samhain, depending on your beliefs, is my absolute favorite holiday. I read all the books, watch the TV shows and go on all the tours and hunts I can drag Randy on. Every year for Halloween, my family adds another witch or some sort of themed item to my collection.

Today, we celebrate our 20th anniversary and decided to do something special for it. We stayed at a reputed haunted bed and breakfast called The Farnsworth Inn. We checked in around 3 p.m., set up the video camera to scan the room while we're out and went off the see the sights. I had set up two stuffed animals on the bed because there are reports of a little ghost boy named Jeremy who plays with things in the room. I haven't watched the discs yet, but will do that tonight after hubby leaves for work.


We also went on a tour with Mark Nesbitt's Ghost of Gettysburg Tour. We had taken one before and loved it, so we wanted to try another of his tours. It was great, as usual. I'd never go on any of the other tours in the town. We've tried several and were always disappointed. One was downright fake to the hidden speakers Randy managed to capture on film by sticking his hand way back the hall. Anyway, I did capture a face at one of the stops. There was nobody in the store at the time because it was 10 p.m. It could have been something else, but we can't figure out what it might be.

We set up the camera to record over night in the room again, so I hope to have something to show for it. I was kept up all night by loud bangs from upstairs. That's the attic where the Louisiana Tiger sharpshooters were stationed during the Civil War. There was nobody up there. It's locked and padlocked. Randy never heard a thing. I asked everyone else when we were on our way to breakfast. Only the people right next door heard it. The mother said she hadn't heard a thing, but her teenage son heard one loud bang. Guess I just got lucky?

After we checked out, we did a double decked tour of the battlefields. We were on the top in the front seats. We had take the tour before and loved it, so had to do it again. :) After that, we drove around to see Sachs Bridge and an old paupers cemetery that is still in use today. It was so horribly sad to walk there among the stones. Many were broken off, uncared for and many had Unknown man.

By then, it was getting late and we wanted to spend a couple hours at Devil's Den. The park allow visitors on the battlefields until 10 p.m., so we sat on the rocks taking photos and EVPs until then. I haven't listened to those yet either, but will get them all done tonight. One really strange thing that happened while we were sitting there, we smelled very strong pipe tobacco beside us. There wasn't anyone else near enough to have caused that. One other person a few rocks down said the same thing.

It was eerie to be in a place where so many hundreds of young men and boys died in such agony. If any place is haunted, it would be there. These boys hadn't even begun to live and were suddenly gone.


The only time I had any, fear isn't the right word, but the only time I paused was when Randy asked me to step inside the den for a photo. I did it, but quickly jumped out as soon as the photo was taken.

It was truly a wonderful trip and I can't wait to go back again. Something about Gettysburg just calls to me and it feels like "home." Does that make sense?