Alleghany County Gets a Ghost Tour: Haunted Clifton Forge, VA

K grew up doing a little acting in what was then the Stonewall Theatre--and hearing tons of ghost stories from the cast and crew.  Folks talked about entering the theatre for the evening and seemingly interrupting a crowd, hearing the sounds and smelling the perfume of theatre-goers. There were reports of people watching shows in the balcony--people who weren't people.  And one can't forget the reports of a death in the theatre's apartment.  K has told J the stories and has wondered if anyone else remembered them, true or not.  So, when on a recent trip to Clifton Forge, this sign meant we were headed out for a Halterman Evening ghost tour.

Haunted Heritage Tours is a new venture from a new resident of the Alleghany Highlands named Audrey.  She's grown to appreciate the area and has a desire to both tell its history and attract folks to pay attention to the stories and places nestled in the beautiful hills.  Her 90-minute walking tour is well-priced, not gimmicky, and worth your time.  A gracious storyteller, she is receptive to input from locals and incorporates information about her primary-source local history research.  Expect an outdoor tour from Town Hall to C & O/Jack Mason's and back again with outdoor stops for stories and sightseeing.  We were particularly pleased to hear stories of Mary, the former proprietor of what was the Stonewall Theatre and what is now the Historic Masonic Theatre, and of the apartment above what was Zimmerman's menswear store.  This tour is strong on history and safe for kids who enjoy stories of ghosts and odd happenings.

The tour goes on, for now, weekends through October, although you should watch the website for future offerings at other times of the year and for different events.  In our humble opinion, the Highlands have not yet reached peak colors, so this is a great excuse to get Roanokers to drive over this month and take it in, routing through Craig Creek-Richpatch-Roaring Run encouraged to see the great fall colors in Botetourt.  While you are there, visit a great outdoor site like Humpback Bridge, take in a good meal, and, of course, enjoy the ghost tour.  Couples on an adventure, consider Cat and Owl for steak and seafood or Cafe Michel for French food--both can be destination restaurants. Families, try Vic's Family Restaurant.

Ghost Walk in the Carolinas: Ocean Isle Beach Date

For this year's beach date, J and K hopped an island or so over on the Brunswick coast, leaving Holden Beach for a short time at Ocean Isle Beach.  The main attraction?  Ocean Isle Beach Ghost Walk, a summer activity available two evenings a week at present.

OIB Ghost Walk is a small operation with owner-storytellers who recount ghostly experiences had by individuals they've met personally.  The owners are also educators by day, so they carefully analyze the stories as they craft them from sources for recounting on the tour.  This gives the tour a special first-hand feel and an openness to questions, discussions, and deeper connections to local history that's not characteristic of all ghost walks.  Quite honestly, we really admired them for their zeal for their community and their scholarship.  Our favorite tales included connections to WWII submarines off the North Carolina coast and an absolutely fascinating story from Hickory Hall Mansion in Calabash.  The tour is also a great deal--just $10 per person, and a small book of stories is also available for purchase.  What's this?  Clearly, it's part of a non-existent military training mission. Take the tour to learn more.

Ocean Isle itself was a pleasant visit.  The character of the beach put us in the mind of Wrightsville--a little more bustling than Holden but not approaching Myrtle in its busy-ness.  On the tour, you'll be outside--and you'll get to step a bit on both sand and streets.  Dress comfortably.  There are no gimmicky sound effects and no visually scary moments; this is a fine tour for interested older kids. You'll meet the walk very near the place that emergency vehicles can enter the beach near the pier just over the bridge on the island.  We arrived early, and we asked some local business folks if we were at the right place--they didn't know, but we were.  Then, the tour operators reassuringly arrived in OIB Ghost Walk T-shirts.

If you go, consider also visiting the Museum of Coastal Carolina, a history/science museum started by local volunteers that has evolved into a facility broader in scope than most similar local museums. We haven't been yet, but there's at least one story from the museum on the ghost walk, so visiting would tie nicely to the ghost walk experience.  The museum is very near the pier where you can meet your ghost walk crew, as are several beachwear/surf wear shops, restaurants, and a well-tended modest putt-putt course. We ate at Provision Company, famous for bad parking, good food and great views, before leaving Holden.  "Pro Co" is a fine place with kids, but the atmosphere is currently lost on our young ones, so we find it better for a date.

Pirates Meet Ghosts of the Swamps: Pirates Voyage and Myrtle Beach Ghost Walk

Even though we've only done so twice, we've decided we have a new tradition: a Myrtle Beach date for our anniversary treat.  We had a stunning experience again this year at Pirates' Voyage, a dinner show that is pure fun.  The pirates better fit the beach than the Dixie Stampede formerly on the site, and this year, the show was even more impressive to us.  We had excellent front row seats without paying for preferred seating (our best explanation is that we booked early).  This year, however, there was no American Express discount.  We continue recommend being there when the doors open, enjoying the preshow and taking time in the gift shop before the show when it is substantially less crowded.  

The presentation of the Pirates' Voyage show is so dynamic that our thoughts always turn into "How'd they do that?" questions.  How'd they find a cast that could do acrobatics and swimming?  How'd they figure out how they were going to make all this food service happen simultaneously?  It's all very fun to think about, in large part because the show is so seamless.  Don't go looking for plot or the same kind of fun you'd have seeing a great work of literature on stage--but do go looking for all-out enjoyment and spectacle.  We go as a couple, and we're confident the show's tons of fun for most elementary-aged kids. 

We've also developed a preference for the earliest show, affording us an opportunity to enjoy Barefoot Landing at night afterwards, a throwback to Kim's childhood.  This year, Justin surprised Kim with ghost walk tickets to the Myrtle Beach Ghost Walk with Ghosts and Legends.  We'd always said we'd go sometime--and Justin, seeing a sign in the window indicating "last season," rightly felt we'd better step on it.  Our tour was a charming walk with a fabulously knowledgeable, passionate, and confident guide in Penelope the Pirate, one of the best guides we've seen on any ghost tour.  There was an unexpected and pleasant side trip to the House of Blues, and a good bit of North Myrtle Beach-area history was included.  If you follow this blog, you know we do ghost tours to hear local stories and get a flavor for local cultures--and this tour definitely delivered!   We also recommend the Ghosts and Legends show (presented every 30 minutes in their building) and suggest anyone who likes books of local legends stop in their gift shop. 

More good news: the business is for sale. We're among the hopefuls that it's not really the last season! For info, give them a call or try a google search for the listing.  We wish the original owners good luck as they drive their DeLorean cross country raising funds for health research. 

For more of our recommendations in Myrtle, see another Myrtle Date here and a family spring break trip here.  We did not go to Alligator Adventure as we'd initially planned, largely because we had a very unresponsive customer service experience with them ordering tickets as gifts this spring.  We'll think about it for next time but did not have good success purchasing tickets through their online interface or trying to contact the business via email, social media, or phone. 

Gettysburg!

Justin wouldn't believe it to be a good summer without a trip to Gettysburg, PA.   It's a town that has grown on Kim, too, particularly for its qwirky tourist attractions.  Late summer is a nice time to visit--businesses are still running "high season hours," affording the opportunity to walk the town at night.

This trip, we enjoyed visiting Ghostly Images Legend and Showcase, a new indoor ghost storytelling room with automated, simplistic special effects.  It's less impressive than Myrtle Beach's similar (but unaffiliated) Ghosts and Legends Show, but we'd judge it a fun place to "sit a spell" and enjoy some classic Pennsylvania ghost stories.  More pleasant than scary, it could be an excellent way for those who do not do walking ghost tours to visit a "haunted attraction."

We also spent time talking with a family member of the proprietor of the Gettysburg Diorama, a large-scale model of the battle of Gettysburg that was once lovingly built and housed at a local campground.  Now inside, it is a treat for model enthusiasts and equally impressive as the History Shop's more famous Alamo diorama in San Antonio.  It has the potential to give new visitors a battle overview commensurate of that with the former National Park Service visitor's center electric map (no longer on display).

If you go, pay the small admission fees to some of the small mom-and-pop attractions in town.  Each of them has their own charms.  If you don't go for these two, Kim recommends the Lincoln Train Museum if travelling with kids; Justin never misses the American Civil War Wax Museum.  This trip, we also discovered a new coupon book, available mainly at the Gettysburg Tour Center, that included some good restaurant deals. 

We Met Mark Cline!

In our travels, we've found ghost tours to be a wonderful way to experience local culture and a bit of history while enjoying an entertaining evening. Until recently, we'd missed the relatively-local Haunting Tales: Lexington's Ghost Tour. We were thrilled to pick an awesome night to take the tour--one when Mark Cline was leading himself! We found Cline to be approachable, interesting, and kind; we found the tour to be quite pleasant. Cline presents nuggets of unusual local history embedded with ghost lore, magic tricks, and personal stories. We traversed the core blocks of downtown Lexington thoroughly, including the cemetery. Justin and Kim were thrilled to visit a mausoleum with "air holes" (and with which we'd always been fascinated).

If you go, call in advance for tour details--and don't be put off by the answering machine procedure to which you are directed. We'd recommend tying your ghost tour visit to a walk through Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and Washington and Lee University to get a sense of the town's current culture. Each institution has interesting--and free/cheap--museums to visit. On our September Saturday night, the dinner scene in town was lively with several bistro-type restaurants featuring prix fixe meals that sounded interesting and some al fresco dining. Makes for a nice date night!

Reference Link:
Haunting Tales of Lexington