The first two times, Aunt Belle and I were in Austin. We had decided to take a break from sightseeing and looking around the haunted places to eat lunch. We settled in at a cool Cajun café. It's been a while, and I don't have my notes in front of me, so I forget the name of it. However, it's right downtown. We left our car parked on one of the steep, hilly Austin side streets. I recall I had to turn my wheels into the curb, as well as set my emergency brake, to keep my car from potentially sliding on down into the next street. Also, there were parking meters at each space.
We had placed our lunch order when Aunt Belle looked across the table at me and said, "Did we put any money in the parking meter?"
I blanked out and said, "I don't remember."
Well, a ghost just told me that we didn't. And there's a meter maid heading for our car."
I jumped up and raced out of the restaurant, down the block and around the corner. Yep, there came the meter maid! I raced up the hill (that was a few years and pounds ago), and stuck some money in the meter as she checked the car right behind mine. She just grinned and winked at me, then went on by. I didn't tell her a ghost had saved me a ticket. I went back and reported to Aunt Belle, and she just nodded, not a bit surprised she had been given a truthful warning by a ghost.
Later, we wandered over to the Governor's Mansion, which we'd heard was haunted. There was a demonstration close to the mansion, some sort of environmental group. The Texas Rangers (the law enforcement ones, not the baseball team) were keeping the crowd of demonstrators back. We didn't think that would pertain to us, so we walked onward.
A Ranger came over to us as I was taking pictures of both the mansion and the demonstrators. "Ladies, I'll have to ask you to move on," he said.
"We want to see the Governor's Mansion," I said.
"It's closed right now, due to this crowd."
"Huh," I said as Aunt Belle and I looked at each other in disappointment. We don't like having our plans disrupted, especially by people we don't even know. Well, that's not counting ghosts we haven't met yet.
I stood my ground for a moment, snapping more pictures.
"I have to insist you move on down the street," the Ranger said more sternly.
We walked a few feet away, then I turned for more pictures.
"I'd hate to have to arrest you two ladies," the Ranger said, this time with his hand on his pistol.
"Whoops," we both said at once. This time we left without any hesitation! We knew for a fact that if we called our hubs, they'd laugh their butts off and probably let us languish overnight before they came to bail us out. J
Later, we went to visit the beautiful, historic cemetery in Austin, where a lot of the Texas pioneers and statesmen are buried. We wandered around on foot, but also drove some. At one point, we both sort of looked out the car windows at this nice, paved road we were on. I'll admit, it was rather narrow. Then it sort of hit us both at once.
"Is this a street or a sidewalk we're on?" Aunt Belle asked in a hushed voice.
"I think it's a sidewalk," I said in return.
"What are we doing driving on it?"
"Don't ask me. I thought it was a street! More important, how do we get off it?"
I recall bumping down over a curb onto what really was a street through the cemetery. Lucky for us, the Rangers and local police were tied up at the mansion.
We're a tad more cautious now when we go "tourist'ing," but sometimes we do get sidetracked chatting while we are lookee-loo'ing. I hope we never have to call our SO's to get us out of jail.
I'll write about the two cemetery incidents next week. In the meantime, I have started working on Volume V. Of course, now we're heading into the Holiday Season, so it's time to start thinking of … yum … food. Sis and I always do a lot of baking and decorating. Plus our other Sis and her husband from Minnesota are coming to Dallas right after Christmas for a conference. They'll stay over New Years Day and the day after to visit with us, so we want the house to look nice. Still, I'll squeeze in writing time.
I'm also thinking of making a separate volume with my blog entries. I think it would be nice for new readers to be able to have one place to get caught up with my ghost hunting and books. Will see if I can work that in, also. In the meantime ….
Boo!
T. M.
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