Haunted history, and yes, some hilarity.

I've bravely gone where no chickenheart has gone before! Alright fine if you must know, this past October, my intrepid and yeah, bossy friend made me go on this haunted walk in the French Quarter of New Orleans. I didn't see anything overtly scary. Of course, I wasn't looking all that closely either. If you haven't figured it out, I'm Scooby Doo and she's Velma of this dippy duo, or terrible trio as we did have a third with us. To protect the guilty, I shall simply call her Shaggina of the frozen north, as she was as scared as me. If something did decide to jump out at us, and say "Les Le Booogity Boogity" well, 'Velma' would have a heavy load to carry is all I'm sayin.

At the beginning of our tour, the guide informed us that if anyone jumped out in a mask and said 'boo' at us, they were not ghosts, they were in fact muggers and we were to look to him for instructions on how and where to run. Ha, very funny, right? Riiight. But, he was full of trivia about the fair city.

The above picture was taken by me, and yes, it sucks. For some reason, my camera which had been acting fine, decided to become the heinous one and darken up. Was it ghosts? I doubt it, more like cheap batteries. Here is the story which I heard third hand and the tour guide got second hand, so I guess it's about fifth hand. So take it with a grain of salt and since it's in New Olreans, some gumbo file` too, cher`. *winks*

This is the house where Julie lived. She was the beautiful octeroon mistress of a wealthy businessman. She was so desperate to marry him that she stayed outside on the roof naked in the middle of December to prove her love. Her lover found her the next morning dead of exposure. A sad tale, and the only one that didn't scare the beejeezus out of me, just made me sniffle. But it is also said that she still haunts The Bottom of the Cup Tea Shop at the bottom of the building which you can't see in the crappy picture. But I like my picture, it's got atmosphere.

So, what did I learn? Just walking around in the dark is scary. No we didn't get mugged, but after the tour was over I was left all by myself with 'Velma' I found out that without the buffer of say Shaggina or perhaps even *coughs* Daphne the Designer Diva, Velma will say things like "jenkies" and drag you to every haunted nook and cranny of New Orleans in search of 'phenomenon'.

Did she forget that I'm Scooby Doo? I don't want to see phenomenon! I want some beads, a few scooby snacks and my nice air conditioned bed, (please recall this is New Orleans air conditioning is a must) not be subjected to dark and scary voodoo shops and creepy corners that make me scream so that people look at me askance. More than usual I mean. I won't even go into the chicken feet incident except to say. "Bok you!" While my own feet were killing me by the end of the night, my horizons had been broadened. I didn' t see any real ghosts, but she delighted in scaring the crap out of me at least ten times. Don't be fooled, by the cartoons yall, 'Velma' is the devil.

Les Le Boogity To Yall Too,

Jenna Leigh