Tour

After our hike we wandered into camp in time for lunch. We roasted hot dogs over the fire and talked for a while till it was time for the tour of the Gregory House. We car pooled up the road and arrived just in time. I was very excited, I'd never been on the tour of the house. I promise I kept the photos to a minimum, I even trimmed them down from my first selection.

The Gregory House was built in the mid 1800s by Jason Gregory. Mr Gregory was only about 5' and that can be seen in the construction of the house.

A painting of Jason Gregory

Entering the first room on the tour the doors on this bookshelf swung wide open. I know it was the shift in the floor boards but it made me happy because the house is suggested to be haunted.

The Gregory House in it's original location across the river, it originally stood on 5 foot pillars but still flooded several times.

While most of the furniture is not authentic to the house, much work was done to bring in pieces from the era.

 This cradle was the center of paranormal activity when a group of ghost hunters studied the house. It was said to start rocking on it's own. While the floor board shifts made a few things around the house move the cradle was pretty steady and did not swing or even shift while we were there.

This chair was made from a spinning wheel

One of the first sewing machines in North Florida

What's the shadow on the other side of the door?

Looking in from the upstairs porch

Civil war chest

An old quilt that the dye from one color ate through the fabric

I really enjoyed the tour, I love history and anything that has to do with the paranormal.

After the tour most of our group headed back to town, 6 of us remained for another cold night. We sat around the fire for warmth and enjoyed each other's company. After a dinner of fire cooked potatoes and southwestern chili our friends turned in for the night. I can't blame them, both couples had heaters in their sites. Hubby and I sat by the dying fire till it was just coals. Around midnight we had a furry visitor, a raccoon. He wasn't afraid of us at all, he checked out our whole camp while making the cutest noises at us, he must have been complaining that we were still awake. When the fire was no longer giving off enough heat to keep us warm we crawled into our cold tent. We snuggled to keep warm and soon it was morning.

It was a fun weekend of friends, food, and nature. The days were beautiful but cold although there was nothing like the light show from the moon and stars. I can't wait to get another trip together.

Some Bunny Loves Ya!

Hiking

November swept in with vengeance, it wanted to us to know it was here. Intense winds blew in around 3:30 am waking Hubby and myself up. We thought for sure we wouldn't have anything left in the campsite, including our tent. We snuggled deeper in our sleeping bag and tried to get back to sleep but the brisk cold wind made it difficult. Somehow we managed to get to sleep and woke up to everything being just fine. They only damage we sustained was to our lovely guardian spiders's webs, leaves and twigs had gotten blown through them. 

Some of our friends made a lovely pancake breakfast and we sat around the fire drinking coffee and hot chocolate while we warmed up. The temp was lower than forecast and with the wind chill it was even colder. I didn't pack warm enough clothes but I did pack plenty of layers so I wore 4 layers Saturday and I still was chilly. (I want to put a note in here about how wonderful my Kenneth Cole sports bra is, I wore that sucker for the better part of 48 hours and I never once was uncomfortable)

After we warmed up a little we went on a hike with a friend. He told us about an old cemetery in the park that isn't on any of the maps. We went out in search of it. Our friend couldn't remember exactly were it was so we retraced the path he took last time he stumbled upon it. We didn't hike that far (around 2 miles) but it was an intense course with vertical hills. Don't let anyone tell you Florida is flat, Torreya has estimated elevation gain is 3200'-6700' on the challenge trails. It really is the best hiking in Florida. Hubby is a little out of shape and doesn't get to walk with me often so after we hit the highest point he though it would be best to turn back to camp. Our friend wanted to go further and find the cemetery so he went on and we turned back. He didn't have luck finding the spot again but later when we asked the ranger about it he gave us a good starting point and general location so next time we can start searching in the right area.

Lots of pictures while hiking

Still more to come

Some Bunny Loves Ya!

Halloween in the Woods

We just got back yesterday afternoon from camping with friends over Halloween. We camped at Torreya state park. Shortly after we camped there last (in July) we booked a spot for Halloween and encouraged our friends to join us. While we didn't take over the whole campground like I wished we could of, we did cover 6 spots and had 13 people come. Everyone showed up on Friday and pitched their tents, after setting up we hosted a Halloween party in our campsite. 

The beautiful Golden Silk Spider that kept us company at our campsite. 

We all dressed up, ate a lovely vegan dinner, drank mulled cider, ate candy, and talked around the campfire. Oh yeah, s'mores, don't forget all the s'mores. 

 

My quick and easy Rosie the riveter costume.

Bandanna- $1 store, old

Pepsi work shirt- thrifted

(cross stitch accents done by me, Rosie name tag and small "we can do it")

Wide leg sailor jeans- thrifted

Steve Madden $150 boots- thrifted for $3

 Hubby as Dale and our good friend as Tucker from Tucker and Dale vs Evil 

(possibly my favorite "horror" movie next to Shawn of the Dead)

Here is a reference photo,they went with the the pre-college kid look LOL. 

Hubby and I brought our glow props, 7 light up juggling balls and I attached glow stick to my poi. It was pretty chilly away from the fire though so we only showed off for a little. We didn't get any pictures of us juggling though, just me swinging my poi.

^ Do you a grim reaper with a sickle? My hubby spotted it first ^

 

 

 

At quiet time people started funneling off to their tents. It was a super cold and windy night. I was so glad we tied and staked everything down, I was sure we were going to blow into the ravine. At one point our camps had a family of raccoon visitors, one of our friends got to see all the little eyes reflecting. We did get to see one of them the next night, he sassed us for not going to bed early, he wanted to skitter around our camp unbothered.

More of our adventure coming soon.

Some Bunny Loves Ya!