Echoes of the Southwest

DAY SEVEN Rosewell Ruins, Deadrise Charters and the Lighthouse



I was so glad that I looked up Rosewell Plantation Ruins.  I found out that we can visit the skeletal remains of the mansion.  We picked this day to see Rosewell and I am so glad we did.  The remains are haunting and gorgeous.  I took pictures at every angle and close-up shots of interesting features.  There was a gravesite near the structure with a marker.  The lingering walls and chimneys were poignant and made my visit memorable.





After visiting Rosewell, we went to Haven Beach.  We liked this beach because it was small and not-so crowded.  We lay on towels on the sandy beach and swam in the bay.  We relaxed and enjoyed the quietness of the beach.



Our next adventure was to take a boat cruise out to the Newpoint Comfort Lighthouse.  The boat, Mathews Deadrise Charters, was docked at The Inn at Tabbs Creek (B&B).  We met up with our captain, Trey, who was a wonder host pointing out historic sites and buildings while tra…

DAY SIX Jellystone Park, Little England and Gloucester Beach


We decided to try Hardee’s for breakfast before heading out this day.  The first thing we wanted to do was to go back to the suicide/ghost/witch house to see if Bigfoot is still there.  We found out that not only was a murder and suicide conducted inside the house, but apparently there were witch rituals preformed as well.  Magic and spells were done in this haunted house.  Nothing exciting happened on this visit.

Afterwards, we headed out to try and find the mansion known as “Little England”.  My three-time great-grandfather once owned it so I was curious to see a bit of my family history.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t get passed the front gate and the house was not visible.  I did take what pictures I could of the grounds from the gate.  Disappointed but happy to see where it was located, we decided to hit a beach.  We found that Gloucester Point Beach Park wasn’t far away.




While driving out of the neighborhood where Little E…

DAY FIVE The Doug, Murder/Suicide House and Ghost Pirates



We choose the Courthouse Restaurant for breakfast.  I had their specialty breakfast called “The Doug”.  It was in a long bowl with hash browns on the bottom, next was scrambled eggs, and sausage gravy on top.  WOW!!  It was so good!  We picked this day to urban explore and find a haunted house Sharon heard of in the area.  This house was known as the murder/suicide house and located at the end of a cul-de-sac near the lake.
Before hitting the murder/suicide house, we stopped at Mount Zion United Methodist Church with a cemetery on a hill and took photos.  That places was stunning with green grounds and old headstones.

After that, we went to look for the haunted house while stopping at most of the abandoned houses along the way to take pictures.  Of course, we passed up the street a couple of times, but glad we did.  We wound up on a street to Rosewell Ruins.  We never heard of that place, so I planned to look it up when we got …

DAY FOUR Driving, Cemeteries, and Summer Home


After packing and eating breakfast, we got on the road to our next destination, Gloucester.  We drove highway I-95 from Fairfax, and then highway 17.  We decided to stop in Fredericksburg for ice coffees at Dunkin Donuts and to pee.  Along the route to Gloucester, we ran into several places to stop and take photos.  There were old churches and cemeteries at Vauter’s Episcopal Church & Cemetery, along with Angel Visit Baptist Church & Cemetery.  We also saw several cool abandoned places such as an old tobacco barn with vines consuming it, and houses.






We enjoyed lunch at Lowery’s Restaurant along the way and arrived at the Comfort Inn later in the afternoon.  We were greeted with warm chocolate chip cookies and cold lemonade.  After resting a bit in our room, we set out to have dinner and locate Sharon’s summer home.
After dinner, we drove the highway towards New Point where her summer house was located.  We didn’t have an address, bu…

DAY THREE Cemeteries, Museums and Crab House

This was our last day in Fairfax and Sharon wanted to see Aspen Grove one more time.  We started the day at St. Mary’s Catholic Church and cemetery.  There were many old graves around the grounds.  The Grotto was hit by lightning and is still standing.  After leaving there and before Aspen Grove, we had breakfast at Bakery Bread & Grill.  I just love it when we find these small and delightful places.




Since we were not able to get inside the house on this day, we did ask the owner if we could wander around the grounds, and she was just fine with that.  We walked around the entire property and Sharon shared many stories of the fun times she had there.  We took tons of photos of the gardens, house and the townhouses in the back.  Even a deer ran in front of us to get his picture taken as well.  He didn’t want to be left out.  One of the townhouses was for sale so we couldn’t resist going inside.  We pretended we were looking to buy for Shar…