Just like a good flight of bourbon, our trips are over way too quickly. We had to go home. Thanks to the greasy pile of leftover appetizers that absorbed all the toxins in the booze we consumed, we were hangover free. We bid Bardstown bye-bye.

We always tend to drain the last drop of time together on the last day. Grace had found an antique store that specialized in toys that was on our way back to Cincinnati. She knows I’m always down for a squeaker hunt.

This place is massive, and well organized. We cruised the aisles, looking for squeakers for me and a 70s Boba Fett action figure for Grace. There were lots of cries of “I remember that”, or “I had that” or “I was deprived of that” as we made our way. There’s something a little melancholy about seeing parts of your childhood tagged and displayed in an antique store like you’re OLD or something.

Grace reunited with her old friends The Sunshine Family.

They were favorite toys of hers when she was a kid. Now, no one would ever connect Grace’s gothy sensibilities with any object associated with sunshine. But then she told me that she used to pop their eyes out and back in for fun. Reputation restored.

Grace’s own unpopped eyes spotted a squeaker for me, but the little bear was locked in a case, so we had to cross back through the labyrinth of showcases to get the man with the key. He opened the case, and I gingerly picked up the bear. The moment of truth for any squeaker collector was nigh, was the squeaker intact? I gave him a squeeze, and the bear squeaked with gusto. Grace, the key man and I all gave a collective gasp of joy, which makes me laugh still to think of it.

We left the antique mall, and drove on to our next stretch-this-time-out destination, Florence Mall. When this mall was being built, it caused quite a sensation in the tri-state area because it was two stories. The developers first put in a massive, ugly water tower that said “Florence Mall” for practical and advertising purposes, but the mall took so long to complete that they felt that it was false advertising to promote a structure that wasn’t completed, so they modified the M to a Y.   (Photo obvs from roasdsideamerica.com)

Now the tower had a folksy “Florence Yall” message. This gained the mall much more publicity than the original sign would have. They decided to keep it that way, and the good people of Florence, Kentucky have been blessed with seeing that grammatical eyesore on their daily commute for thirty years or so.

Grace consulted a “Weird Kentucky” website to get ideas for this trip, and was chagrined to find the tower listed alongside Civil War battlefields and haunted historic cemeteries.

But we went anyway and tried on a bunch of ironically eighties style clothing at H&M.

Then, the inevitable parting of ways had to take place. Another successful paranormal/antiquing/boozing trip on the books. Where will next years trip take us? I can guarantee that Grace will cook us up something super fun and spooky. With a little mall time thrown in at the end, of course, y’all.

Blog ghost hunting haunted b&b Memoir paranormal Strangeways Here We Come #bourbon #bourbontrail #strangeways #hauntedbnb #strangewaysherewecome #spookyblog #ghostblog #thomashousebnb #travel #ghosthunting #evp #haunttedtravel #hauntedinn #hauntedtravel #hauntedtravels # #memoir #toys #spooky #haunted # #spookydoll #spookydolls