Posted in Baer House Inn, blogging, breakfast, drinks, Family, food, friends, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, Vicksburg, weird, writers, writing, tagged B & B, B & B's, breakfast, disappear, disrespectful, friends, Home, hotel, hotels, house, houses, inns, management, microwave, mistake, mistakes, motel, motels, not friends, questions, take advantage on December 16, 2019| 21 Comments »
Many of you have told me that you like my posts about my odd inn guests. If that’s you, you’re welcome because today I’ve got another one. The people who stay here are certainly entertaining at times. There is never a dull moment when you deal with the public. Especially when said “public” often have a warped understanding about what exactly a B & B is.
Posted in Amazon.com, Baer House Inn, blogging, books, breakfast, Christmas, Family, Fiction, Holidays, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, On Common Ground, Vicksburg, weird, writing, tagged busy, crazy busy, Cyber Monday, dark glasses, Diva, Hallmark movies, hostess, January, Kentucky Derby, orange juice, pageantry, pajamas, sunglasses, Thanksgiving, toasting on December 2, 2019| 13 Comments »
I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and you survived the travel and stress of the long holiday weekend. To me Thanksgiving is really just the start of 6 weeks of chaos that is known as the “holiday season.” I don’t know how others feel, but this time of year often causes me great angst. I’m always glad when January rolls around and things settle down a bit. Not that I don’t love Christmas and all of the pageantry that accompanies it, but everything seems to be operating at hyper speed through the end of the year. (more…)
Posted in authors, Autumn, Baer House Inn, blogging, breakfast, Fiction, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, night time rituals, travel, vacation, Vicksburg, weird, writing, tagged bed, bed & breakfast, breakfast, check-in, credit card, disappearing, gates, gone missing, hello, innkeeping, inns, invisible, keys, missing, rooms, strange, what happened, what's up, why, windows on October 14, 2019| 16 Comments »
That’s right folks, you read the title correctly. I had some guests who simply – disappeared. They were here and then – they weren’t.
Posted in Baer House Inn, Family, friends, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, laughter, social media, travel, vacation, Vicksburg, words, writing, tagged Americans, crazy, different, diversity, foreigners, hotels, motels, people, personality, politically correct, tourists, weird, weird people on July 29, 2019| 8 Comments »
Times they are a changin’ my friends. I can’t tell you how often I’ve had conversations with people about how things were so different when we were kids. I’m sure this is nothing new. I’m sure my parents probably had these same conversations with their friends and I’m pretty sure the next generation will have these conversations with their friends. And so on.
Posted in beer, blogging, drinks, Family, food, friends, Holidays, humor, Jansen Schmidt, laughter, trivia, vacation, Vicksburg, weather, weird facts, writing, tagged 4th of July, Congress, funny, history, hot, hot dogs, Independence Day, lazy, lazy days, Presidents, rum, sarcasm, summer, US Presidents, watermelon on July 1, 2019| 10 Comments »
So here it is July already. 2019 is just zipping right along isn’t it? We’re already past the longest day of the year and diving head first into those REALLY hot summer days leading up to Fall. (more…)
Posted in April, authors, blooms, books, desert, deserts, Fiction, Jansen Schmidt, love, reading, romance, travel, Vicksburg, weather, writers, writing, tagged American Indians, Arizona, book launch, books, characters, Indian reservation, Native Americans, research, romantic suspense, sequels, suspense on April 8, 2019| 4 Comments »
Spring is finally here with warm gentle breezes and blooming flowers everywhere. While the Mighty Mississippi River is still REALLY high here in Vicksburg, things are starting to feel cheery and optimistic. The winter doldrums are waning. Birds are building nests, bees are pollinating and life in general looks bright. (more…)
Posted in authors, Baer House Inn, blogging, books, breakfast, Christmas, Family, Fiction, food, grammar, health, hill billy, Holidays, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, redneck, sports, travel, Uncategorized, Vicksburg, words, writing, tagged chicken, chicken dinner, chitlins, cracklins, Faulkner, food, football, Halloween, hunting, hunting season, kale, Kansas, kumbachu, Mississippi, pork rinds, quinoa, unexplained, weird, Welty on March 4, 2019| 12 Comments »
I’ve lived in Mississippi for almost 4 years now and there are still some things that I just can’t comprehend. Mostly I love the laid back way of life and southern hospitality. I love the charming small town feel of a lot of places in this great state. Other things, I don’t get. At all. (more…)
Posted in blogging, Family, Fiction, friends, humor, Jansen Schmidt, Paranormal, travel, vacation, Vicksburg, watching tv, writing, tagged cemetery, Craigdarroch Castle, creepy, creepy places, fog, graves, haunted houses, haunted tours, Ione California, McRaven House, Merle Haggard, orbs, Preston Castle, Victoria British Colombia on February 18, 2019| 6 Comments »
I love to explore creepy places. Haunted houses are always cool, old dilapidated buildings at night, attics, basements, cemeteries in the fog, those kinds of places. I like to check out all the little nooks and crannies to see if there’s any hidden switches that open doorways to secret rooms. You know, the kinds of stuff you see on TV.
Photo courtesy Google Images
Here are some photos of some mysterious and supposedly haunted places I’ve had the privilege of exploring:
We’ll start with a local one. These pictures were taken on one of the nights I took the haunted tour over at the McRaven Tour Home here in Vicksburg
If you are interested in touring this fabulous house, and you should if you’re in Vicksburg, here is the link for more information https://www.mcraventourhome.com/
Next we’ll go to California, to a VERY small town called Ione in Amador County. One of the last places I visited before leaving California for Mississippi was Preston Castle. Here is a brief bit of information about Preston Castle:
In 1890, the California State Legislature purchased 230 acres from the Ione Coal & Iron Company for construction of the Preston School of Industry, a place where troubled boys could learn a trade instead of being incarcerated in juvenile prisons.
The complex was highly self-sufficient; the large acreage of the purchase allowed the boys to grow their own food, raise livestock and learn farming trades. Additionally, there was a print shop, bakery and cobbler shop where the young delinquents and otherwise homeless boys could learn skills for self-preservation in the real world.
The school officially opened on June 13, 1894, and the first wards moved in only two weeks later. The superintendent controlled life inside the Preston School of Industry, where discipline was extreme. Loss of privileges seemed minor in comparison to starvation, isolation, and public paddling and lashings, severe strategies that were common at Preston.
Here are some of the photos from my tour:
For a brief time in 1954 country music legend Merle Haggard did time at Preston Castle for auto theft. For more information about Preston Castle click here:Â http://www.prestoncastle.com/
Next we’ll head up north to Victoria, British Columbia and take a peek at Craigdarroch Castle. The castle is a historic, Victorian-era Scottish Baronial mansion. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada due to its landmark status in Victoria
All of these places are reportedly quite haunted although I never experienced anything supernatural while I was there. Quite a few of my photographs from Craigdarroch Castle have what appear to be orbs in them, but it might just be dust motes in the air. This one in particular is of interest.
Me and Corey on the grand staircase at Craigdarroch Castle.
I don’t know what that big cloudy bubble thing is near my hand but it darn near touched me. And, there are at least 3 more smaller orbs in this photo. Do you see them?
Anyway, if you’d like more information about this creepy cool place, here’s where you need to start:Â https://thecastle.ca/
So there you have it my friends, my nod to keeping it creepy in February. What creepy places have you explored? Do you like visiting haunted houses?
Word of the day: Zloty
Fun fact about me: I guess I live in a haunted house, at least that’s what people tell me.
Original post by Jansen Schmidt, January 2019. Photos by P. Rickrode and Google Images.
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