"The Hunted" Haunted Trail and Bonez & Booz.

Ms. B. and I were originally planning to visit friend/fellow author Richard Dansky in Durham, NC, this weekend to celebrate his birthday and drink his scotch, but since we came back from Wintergreen very much on the sniffly side, we decided not to potentially afflict anyone who might be in close quarters with us. Neither of us feels particularly terrible, so we figured we'd avail ourselves of some outdoor Halloween activities where we could effectively practice social distancing.

 

Friday night, we rode up to Ferrum, VA (the location of Ferrum College, my old alma mater), to visit their haunted trail, this year titled "The Hunt." As in previous year's, it's not all that elaborate, but the woods there are lovely as well as spooy (I haunted them frequently when I was in college, long before they became part of Ferrum Park, as they are now). There are plenty of weird sounds from deep in the woods, pitch-dark tunnels, roving monsters, and unexpected scares. Suffice it to say that, as we have in the past, Kimberly and I really enjoyed it. Plus, the wooded back roads to and from Ferrum are themselves pretty damned creepy, so the drive only added to the experience.

L: Our greeter; R: Wonder where that path leads...

A scary tunnel ahead!

I wonder who that is in the bloody fog!

Then, Saturday evening, Brugger and I decided to check out Bonez & Booz at the Virginia Museum of Natural History uptown. I had no idea how big an event this would be — several hundred people had packed the Museum's spacious parking lot, where the exhibits and vendors were set up. We immediately ran into friend Joe Keiper, the museum's executive director, and spent a little while chatting. Then Ms. B. and I went in search of beverages and vittles, which we found — the beer garden for drinks, a BBQ food truck for dinner. Both of us got BBQ quesadillas, and they were fantastic. We wandered a bit more and watched the fire dancing show, which was pretty cool. After that, we were pretty well tuckered out, so we returned home and watched Sinister, which is a favorite of ours.

I was kind of hoping our mysterious ghost (guest?) would have turned on our Halloween lights, but no such luck.

Haunted Halloween Lights?!

Welp... I may have experienced the most inexplicable events of my life in the past couple of weeks — a pair of incidents for which I have no reasonable explanation.
 
Here's the setup: on the front porch and in the yard, we have a number of Halloween decorations with lights that require one to turn them on and off manually, some of them from the front porch. One evening a little over a week ago, I stepped outside to light them up... and found them already lit. Neither Kim nor I had done this (in fact, she has never turned them on or off; I've always done it myself). Had they been lit for the past 24 hours, I was certain we would have seen them, since I'm outside numerous times during the day and early evening. The porch camera revealed no activity at the lighting controls.
 
Eventually, I settled on the most logical explanation: that I had neglected to turn off the lights the previous night and they'd been on for the past 24 hours, somehow unnoticed (I cannot stress enough how unlikely this scenario remains).
 
Last night, after we returned from a five-day trip to Wintergreen, the same thing happened: I went out to turn on the lights... and they were already lit. Here's the kicker: only a short time earlier, I had looked outside, and since it wasn't fully dark, I decided to wait a few minutes to turn the lights on. However, make no mistake: it was dark enough that I could not have missed them already being lit.
 
Again, I checked the porch camera videos. They showed me going out to pick up the mail during the afternoon; coming back from picking up the mail; and then stepping outside to turn on the lights, only to find them on (and uttering a few colorful expressions of astonishment). No video showed me — or anyone else — turning on the lights. Now, the chances of those lights having burned for six nights and five days without any of the weenie batteries in some of them expiring are roughly nil — about the same as me looking out last night and somehow determining the lights were not on if they actually were. Furthermore, before we even left on our trip, I had made double sure that all were off specifically so they wouldn't burn for six nights and five days, even if that were possible. From many years of past experience, I'd say the maximum lifespan of those weenie batteries is maybe 72 hours of constant use.

Unfortunately, I had already deleted any videos from the days/nights we were gone, which could have confirmed whether those lights might have been on for that long. Thus, I'm left with no explanation that makes any real sense. Even if the disturbing possibility that my memory is failing were true, it still wouldn't explain the lack of video evidence of me (or anyone) on the front porch turning on those lights, either last week or last night.

If, somehow, someone else is managing to turn on the lights, it brings to mind Detective Kinderman's tale in Exorcist III (Legion) about the notorious criminal Mushkin, "who breaks into people's homes and completely redecorates."
 
So... a haunted Halloween experience? You be the judge. I sure can't explain it. 

A Wintergreen Anniversary

Ms. B. and I wanted to have a getaway of some variety for our fifth anniversary, primarily just the two of us because she's had to be gone so much to Michigan to look after her folks (not to mention on various arts & crafts long weekends). Last year, we enjoyed two lovely trips to Wintergreen in the mountains of Central Virginia, so we decided to return to it for our anniversary trip. Five years ago on October 19, we we were married in Venice, Italy; Wintergreen isn't exactly Venice, but it surely is a beautiful area, with lots of wineries/distilleries/breweries/dining. Yep, just the place.

Sunday, October 18, 2026
During the morning, we packed up the car, and precisely at noon, off we went. Our first stop was lunch in Gretna, a little Mexican joint called El Cazador. The food was good, and they hit us with some extra-jumbo margaritas that were delicious. After all that had settled, we moved on and arrived at our lodgings in Wintergreen precisely at 4:00 p.m., our designated check-in time. It's a lovely AirBnB at the Wintergreen Resort — although, for a brief time, we wondered if we were going to be able to get inside, for the door code did not work. I messaged our host, and, happily, he saw it immediately (it was quite chilly outside). He was able to reset the code remotely, so in we went. The place is the perfect size for the two of us, cozy and fairly romantic for an anniversary stay.

 

Once we settled in, we popped over to the nearby market, where we picked up a few staples, and then we trucked over to The Edge for dinner, which is right on the ski slopes and offers some beautiful views. Right now, the fall color isn't quite at its peak, but it's getting there. Last year when we were here, conditions were similar; we saw minimal color, and then one morning we woke up, looked outside, and found that autumn had exploded. Perhaps we'll be so lucky again this year. At The Edge, we both had excellent mushroom & Swiss burgers. And they do make a damn fine martini.

 

Afterward, we returned to our place and settled in to watch Tales of Halloween and an episode of Cabinet of Curiosities, which satiated our craving for some Halloween-themed entertainment, accompanied by a smidgen of wine. Then off to bed.

Monday, October 19, 2026
I got up bright and early, had coffee and a cinnamon roll, and hoofed it to a nearby geocache — one I'd been unable to find on our previous trip here — called "Exploring Wintergreen #5: Ski Fever" (GC29P8R). This time, I managed to turn it up in short order, so that was most gratifying. It was cold out there, I can tell you.

 

Brugger was awake by the time I arrived back at our lodgings. I worked on the blog a bit until lunchtime, when we set out for Three Notch'd Brewery & Craft Kitchen, which looked like a happy place from the info online. And indeed it was. Their hot honey chicken wings about sent me over the moon, and they make a dynamite Bloody Mary.

Then we rode up to Pollak Vineyards, between Waynesboro and Charlottesville, which we hadn't visited before. It's a nice spot, with several very decent white and red wines. They had a Petite Verdot that was as good as any I've ever tasted, so I picked up a bottle. From there, we headed a few miles eastward to Chiswell Farm & Winery, our favorite of the numerous wineries we'd visited on our last trip. It's a beautiful old mansion with sprawling grounds and scenic views. Plus they have very good wine. Ms. B. has turned to drinking mostly whites, so she tried a flight of whites, and I had a flight of reds. Here, I liked the Meritage marginally better than the Petite Verdot, so my favorites were flip-flopped from Pollak's. And again, a lovely experience; Chiswell is probably my favorite winery that I've visited in the Eastern U.S.

Those stops took us till dinnertime, so on the way back to Wintergreen, we found dinner at Blue Mountain Brewery, which we'd visited on previous occasions. I killed a very good pulled pork sandwich, with potato salad, and I hoped I wasn't overworking the stomach today — on trips like this, healthy eating is a rarity. Back at our place, we watched Cabin in the Woods and, after a little while, zonked out.

 

And that was how we spent our fifth anniversary. A truly lovely day for both of us. I love you, Ms. B.!

Lunch at Three Notch'd Brewery

The tasting room at Pollak Vineyards

Chiswell Farm & Winery

Wine flights at Chiswell

Tuesday, October 20, 2026
First things first: geocaching! There was a cache about a mile down the mountain — "Top of the (Wintergreen) World!" (GC2KJWT) — on the Devil's Knob Trail — and the rather foreboding name is quite apt. The long descent by road from our place to the trailhead was steep, to be sure, but the trail... wowz. It's steeper than steep, rocky, narrow, and slippery in places, with a couple of plunges on one side that would prove fatal should one take a bad step. The terrain rating is 4 out of 5, with 5 being the most difficult, and I'd say that rating is spot-on. It was less than a quarter mile from the trailhead to the cache, but that trek took twice as long as the mile down the mountain.

I spent a good while searching for the cache, as ground zero was a target-rich area. In the end, the coordinates and hint ("Just hanging out") proved very good. Also... that last step to reach the cache was a doozy. It was one of those long "plunges" one does not want to make. In the end, I awarded the cache a favorite point on geocaching.com for its enjoyable placement and the challenging hike.

View from the overlook at the trailhead

A couple of views of the trail

The cache is down there...somewhere.

L: Living on the edge at GZ; R: That last step could be a doozy.

Having survived the Devil's Knob Trail, I hoofed it back to our place. Brugger and I got ourselves fit to be seen in public, inasmuch as that's possible, and drove down to the nearby market where they have a deli with really good sandwiches. We had a couple for lunch, and then set out on the day's winery tour. Our first stop was Flying Fox Vineyard, which we'd visited last year when we came to Wintergreen with friends Terry & Beth. Their wines are okay, but what I most appreciate is their four varieties of vermouth, since one isn't going to find any comparable spirits elsewhere in the area.

Then we went a short distance up the way to Veritas Vineyards, on Afton Mountain. Veritas was the first vineyard in this area we ever visited, well over a decade ago, with friends Elizabeth Massie & Cortney Skinner (whom we plan to see tomorrow). The wine here is excellent, and the facility is huge — it has expanded considerably since our first visit. We very much enjoyed our return.

Next on the docket was another visit to the Blue Ridge/Crozet Tunnel, also at the summit of Afton Mountain. We went last year when we were here and quite enjoyed the experience. It's a mile-long railroad tunnel, now part of a nice rail trail. It was cold and damp in there, but we didn't mind a bit. And at the far end, a geocache awaited, which I found with ease. Last year, we encountered a good many folks along the trail, but this time, the tunnel and trail were almost deserted. We passed only a scant handful of humans on this outing, which made it all the spookier — and thus fun.

We needed some dinner, so we found it at Devil's Backbone Brewing Company (there's a shit-ton of places with "Devil" in the name around here). It's a huge establishment, and we found the food, drink, and service quite good. I ordered fish & chips, and Ms. B. got a huge plate of roasted brussel sprouts, so we ended up sharing dinners with each other. Good stuff!

For our evening entertainment, we watched As Above, So Below, a cool horror flick we'd seen some years ago. Still very enjoyable. It's one that made me glad we had gone caving before watching this, rather than after. Since we have a fireplace and plenty of firewood, I built a fire to make things nice and cozy. Another excellent evening for Ms. B. and me!

Wednesday, October 21, 2026
It wasn't exactly the crack of dawn, but I got up before Kimberly so I could have coffee and some scrambled eggs, work on the blog, and go geocaching. It wasn't a terribly restful night; my sinuses are succumbing to fall allergies, and the vast change in diet/drink over several days gave my stomach a few fits. And it ain't quite over. Anyway, about the time Ms. B. roused from bed, I set out on the mile-long downhill trek to a cache called "Sparkledust Fairy Village" (GCBR33H). It really was a little fairy village, nestled amid the trees and rocks in a small green space between the main road and one of the housing developments. It was a clever, imaginative hide, and it took me a little while to find the correct address amid the fairy houses. I liked it.

Then... the mile-long return trek up the mountain. It was nowhere near as taxing as yesterday's rugged hike, but the inclines here are nothing to laugh at, I can tell you.

Once back, I cleaned up, downed some more caffeine, and wrote in the blog. Then Ms. B. and I mounted up and drove to Barren Ridge Vineyards between Waynesboro and Staunton. It's another winery we had visited on a trip to see Cortney and Elizabeth — back in 2014, I believe. It's a beautiful location, and the wine is very good, particularly their Touriga and Petite Verdot.

The view from the terrace

Having completed the first phase of our mission, we drove to Staunton, about twenty minutes up the road. Our plan was to meet friends Cortney Skinner & Elizabeth Massie at Accordia Wine Bar, but when we arrived, it was closed, much to our surprise. Apparently, they're always closed on Wednesday, but their Google listing did not reflect this. Happily, a quick search indicated that Yelping Dog Wine Bar lay a short block away. About that time, Cortney & Beth arrived, so we settled at Yelping Dog for a great afternoon of catching up with each other's exploits.

 

For dinner, we chose the nearby Depot Grille. The restaurant is in the old train station, and I recalled seeing it last year while I was geocaching in the area. What a great choice it was: beautiful ambiance, great food, and excellent service. I killed one of the best bison burgers I've had anywhere — and I do love me a good bison burger. Plus they make damned fine martinis.

 

On a more ridiculous note, all of us neglected to take a single photo while we were together, which was... well... ridiculous. I reckon we're all old and were so busy chatting that we never reached for our phones. Alas!

The impressive bar at Depot Grille, Staunton

After we parted company with Cortney & Beth, Kimberly was craving ice cream, so we hoofed it to the nearby Split Banana Ice Cream Parlor and killed a couple of cups of the cold stuff. Yep, it was delicious.

 

We drove the dark, winding backroads back to our lodgings in Wintergreen, a truly dark and eerie route, at times reminiscent of the opening scene of Professor Harrington driving away from Lufford Hall in Night (Curse) of the Demon. Needless to say, I loved this.

 

We watched 2014's Ouija, which we enjoyed. We'd watched the 2016 Mike Flanagan prequel, Ouija: Origin of Evil, a couple of weeks ago; Flanagan's is a better film, but taken together, they are both quite entertaining.

 

And then... lights out. G'night.

 

Thursday, October 22, 2026
This was the last morning of our Wintergreen anniversary trip, which made us a little sad because we've had an awesome time (except for the possible onset of a creeping crud for both of us; hoping it's allergies, but this is pretty ugly). We packed up and headed out right at 10:00 a.m. We stopped for gas in Lynchburg, and lunch at cool coffee shop called The Pod in Gretna. Quite delicious, and a fitting close to another fantastic Brugger-Rainey outing. Kimberly, especially, has needed a break from the stress of dealing with her parents and trying to gain new clients for her freelance work. Our AirBnB was fantastic, and we'll be looking forward to a return to this area next year, assuming AI hasn't gained sentience and sparked the Rise of the Machines.

 

I'll be back.

Orange Bitters?!

I envy Brugger for having seen Alton Brown while she was in Michigan this past week. I've found him a font of great ideas and wit. But I tried his fucking martini, and I don't know what the hell, man. Orange bitters? Really?

Dude.

Alton Brown's Martini Recipe

Now, if you're not a drinker, this is not going to be your speed. But if you are... read on.

Me, I generally like my martini shaken, not stirred, not because of any 007 fetish, but because I prefer the drink aerated and very cold. I generally favor gin over vodka, although I'll do either/or, depending on mood (sometimes I'll do a 2:1 gin/vodka mix). Stirring leaves a slick, rather oily mouthfeel, and as a rule, it's never adequately chilled for my palate. Personally, I want the martini cloudy, aerated, and very dirty, with the heat of a habanero or ghost pepper dumped into it. I like mine more savory (hot peppers, olives) than fruity (lemon, orange, bitters). Unlike James Bond, I prefer an herbal vermouth to a citrusy Kina Lillet.

If you're feeling brave, try this: Damned Rodan's Dirty Firetini Recipe

Get Out & Vote!

I tend to be more politically active these days, mainly because I cannot turn a blind eye to the devastation and depravity being wrought by the so-called President of the US and the horrific regime behind its bloviating, useful idiot. I haven't been able to hold back since 2016, when it became clear to anyone with two brain cells that even accidentally bump into each other that there was nothing remotely right or decent or even sane about the state of affairs under this "administration." And no, contrary to every very vocal MAGA assertion, it's not the "Liberal media," or "fake news," or the ubiquitous screech of "TDS!" that informs the resistance to this regime; it's the content of Project 2025 (which has been out there for all to see, and by rights should have been the biggest, brightest red flag to anyone who even claims to be a patriot); it's the absolute vileness of unfiltered Donald Trump, largely via his press and social media releases; it's the tangible results of MAGA policies, such as a needless war with Iran; inflation far in excess of that under the previous administration, which ostensibly spurred so many votes for Donald Fucking Trump; it's the alienation of our best allies and trading partners; it's the stunningly overt favoring of totalitarian policies, exemplified by the admiration of Russia's and (sometimes China's) despots — despite the desperate MAGAT screams that it's the Left promoting "communism" (if only any of them knew the difference between totalitarian "communism" and what the term really means); it's the tearing down of our most worthy institutions, which represented some of the most important guardrails against an autocratic chief executive; it's the blatant grift that is enriching the occupant of the White House (hideously damaged by that self-same occupant) and his degenerate family.

I could go on. And on. And on.

So, yeah, when the organizers of the local No Kings rallies announced a day to show up and encourage people to vote, then yeah, I signed up. It's true that this rally represents protest against the awful goings-on in this country, but the number one message was, indeed, "GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!" At today's event, about 60 people showed up, which for this sized community — and with very little publicity — proved pretty damned respectable. The vast majority of passersby showed obvious support as well, which was heartening.

No one — NO ONE — in this group is some radical who hates America. That's total MAGA bullshit. This is a solid group of very intelligent, very decent, very moral Americans who believe strongly in policies that help more people than they hurt. Religion plays no part in these ideals; no one is espousing the imposition of radical Islam and Sharia law; no, you're thinking of Christian Nationalism, which is closer to Sharia law than any other belief system in this country.

Now, if you're quite happy with the status quo, then by all means, vote your conscience. However, if your conscience isn't mortified by the goings-on of this regime, well, you and I have nothing in common. And you just have yourself a nice day with your head in the sand, you hear?

Setting Up for the Season

Halloween is our favorite holiday (I'm sure this news stuns you), and we always do up the house and yard a bit. Our decorations are modest compared to many folks around who really do it up, but they're at least as sincere as Linus's pumpkin patch. Here's a few pics of this year's fall dressing.

Last week, we kicked off our Halloween movie season with our traditional favorite, Night (Curse) of the Demon (1957). We've run several seasonal goodies so far, including The Autopsy of Jane Doe; Halloween III: Season of the Witch; Oculus; Malevolent; Nope; The Ritual; Ouija: Origin of Evil; Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark; It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!; The Thing (the 2011 prequel); The Thing (John Carpenter's 1982 classic); and a handful of others. Brugger is in Michigan again, though this time for a relatively brief trip, so I'll probably entertain myself with a few Bigfoot flicks while she's gone.