Happy Labor Day

To celebrate my current plans are to:

a) go to Ravenwood Castle that I used in that recent Jenny/Giles story

b) go to the cemetery of a repurposed haunted insane asylum in Athens (the Ridges and it's equally haunted potters fields have made it onto a few haunted tv shows)

If you never hear from me again, you'll know heading into the possessed cemetery in the woods by myself was not my bestest ever idea

my labor day in photos

Just because he sensed that I was on time for a change, Kanda had something say about it. After bouncing around and off my door since 7 AM (which he thankfully DID stop after me telling him just once) Kanda vomited 3 times his body weight all over the carpet (explain to me why they can't puke on linoleum? Why do they run from the kitchen to be sure to puke on carpet?) After efficiently slowing me down he went back to bouncing around like I put red bull in his water bowl.

I headed first to Ravenwood Castle. I've been seeing ads for this for a decade or more in Renn faire magazines and it's like 30 miles from here. I've been just so damn lazy that I've never been out there so I decided today was the day.

this is the point where the GPS said, dude are you SURE?


pink 'gypsy' wagon

yellow wagon

Frankly I thought these would be fun to stay in if it were cool (however if you look at the pricing you'll notice this place ain't cheap)


Ravenwood Castle

I did get to go inside, more on that later.

village 'houses'

I was taken with this one

From here I met one of the maids who said go thru the drawbridge and go on inside and look around


Guarded

After being licked, I went in. Couldn't find the main person but the maid showed me the King Arthur suite which was actually smaller in some respects than anticipated but it IS two story and the bed was to die for. The gift shop and tea house didn't really seem to be running so I figured it's a half hour to Athens I could wait.

inside the castle

The one thing with my camera, dark pictures LOOK like they came out on the view screen but you get them home and nada. this was the only one that was decent. I didn't get the big fireplace.

Sadly I bid the castle adieu. I loved it. It was SO quiet. THe brochedure raved about being able to see the stars at night. That's what I love so much about living in the country. I don't know how city dwellers survive. I'm not sure I could.

If I made more money with my writing, I would seriously just rent a room for a weekend and write in the silence. I would love to come to their mystery dinner events but this stuff is just out of my current price range.

the driveway down

I headed into Athens and went to one of my favorite places to eat Casa Nuevo which has an amazing bar. Unfortunately there were no seats (very limited seating) so I sat at the bar with the abbreviated menu. I had a Taj Mahal lager from India, good but nothing I'd probably get again and tofu fries with tomato-cilantro-soy-mayo dipping sauce. Couldn't finish them so into the cooler they went.

Then I headed to the Ridges. From the mid 1800's to the 1970's, this was an insane asylum and was progressive for it's time. However, as time progressed and it became fashionable to dump off problem children, suffergates, demented elderly, the asylum couldn't handle it all and things got a little well barbaric. In the 80's Ohio University bought it and it remained a collect of hinterlands on OU ground.

It's an art museum now (and I guess I can use that to get into it some day) and something else but I'm not sure what. It's made it onto Scariest Places on Earth (something that the vistor's guide was appalled by). I can spot an asylum just by feel from 500 yards away, even if they're not in use any more. It's like a radar of utter sadness. The Ridges blew me away. I'm going to show you SOME of it. Trust me when I say the building is much bigger than this.

The Ridges

The Ridges

The ridges


The other thing I wanted to see was the potters fields for the asylum. I only found one (Athens peeps, do you know where the others are?). This is the oldest of them. SO MANY of them are Civil War soldiers who obviously were fractured by their battle experiences. The truly sad thing here are 90% of these have NO name, just a number (I do believe that the registry still exists since people have put up a few modern stones). In one of the cemeteries the stones are in a circle which might have been a cruel fraternity prank way back when.

It is now a nature walk and park named for an unfortunate young OU student who lost his life as a result of his mental illness. I started the walk but thought a) I'm alone b) I was getting very nauseated and weak and thought it was my sugar (later I learned it wsa actually 91 degrees out, way hotter than the weather channel prepped me for). Here are a few of the stones that really struck me and a few overviews.


standing close to the bottom since the ones from the top weren't impressive

bet i'm getting chiggered at this point. For all the talk in the brochedure about thinking it's haunted is disrespectful, there's apparent no disrespect in NOT mowing it

along the trail

these segregated graves across the stream (Dried) are supposed to be the most evil and haunted. I felt nothing but peace here myself

Margret Odfer, that is corn growing out of her grave and my shoes trampling uninteresting weeds

George Saunders, Civil War

given the state of decay, this is made of the same limestone as the numbered markers so it's one of those odd things, we cared enough to give mom a stone but not get her out of the nut house's potter's field

a new stone from her grandkids



Afterward, I headed into town to the fancy Krogers. Boy it's expensive (same stuff as Trader Joe's but WAY MORE). I did get like 50$ worth of food I didn't need but decided it was a celebration so there budget. I did get Murphy's Ale that hails from Ireland, and my beloved olives and a kalamata olive spread that will wreck your sodium intake like whoa.

Then I decided to go to the Star of India that all my friends raved about. GPS that since I wasn't quite sure of it. Drove BACK over to the OU area Found it but by the time I did, my stomach was still icky and I decided maybe Indian food was unwise. So I figured Salaam and then the Donkey for coffee before going home. Salaam was closed.

Went back across town again to the Chinese place. Still wanted coffee but didn't want to go back to the college side a third time (I think it's move in weekend. it was a freak show of people). So I went to the starbucks in the Krogers. I should have just given the drink back or called over the manager but there was a line so I said fuck it. They gave me 3/4's a glass of milk with barely any caramel OR coffee in my caramel macchiato (they've done this once before too). THe coffee was burnt. And now I'm in horrible pain because that much milk is a bad idea. I don't care how tired I am. Next time I AM going back to the college side and going to a real coffee house.

on the way home, I had to stop and take this but it's a hard place to pull off but everyone needed to see it.


jacked up stretch limo

so how was your day?