Spook Hil and the Sanford Summit IV - Sept. 2, 2006

On Saturday morning another dear friend of mine and Karen's, Beth Blechschmidt, made a safe sojourn to our Plant City abode from Clearwater to attend the Sanford Summit IV event being held at Sanford residents and Florida Folk Heroes, Art Litka's, and his wife, Treena Kaye's house. Readers may recall the Sanford Summit III at the Halloween Village as the frontpiece to PCR #329.

Karen and Beth and I drove first over to Lake Wales to meet up with our friend Susan Hughes. As Susan wasn't quite ready for us yet, we treated Beth to the Spook Hill experience where the Trans Am appeared to roll up hill.

From there we caravaned to the Sanford home of Florida's Mister Magic Harry Wise where other dear friends Lisa Clardy (F-Bod Studios and Tacky Flix.Com, Brendan McWilliams and his bride to be Anna Everhart had already arrived. We also had the honor to meet the director of the Daytona Beach Paranormal Research Group, Inc., Dr. Doris "Dusty" Smith who has recently authored a new book on a terrifying real-life encounter with the unknown in Central Florida called "Dread and Dead Filled the Dunnam House". Look for Dusty's exploits on the Discovery Channel later this month!

From Harry's, the nine of us dodged raindrops of the way to Art and Treena's beautiful residence which is located in a Cabbage Palm savanna east of town. This was to be a late afternoon/early evening affair so that we could behold Art and Treena's Halloween Village at night. As always, Art and Treena were gracious hosts and everyone had a magical and joyous evening. Everything went smoothly except for the weather where we were hoping to get in some serious star-gazing.

After recounting several chilling and spine-tingling tales to me and some of the entourage, our newly-made friend Dr. Smith had to leave early, but not before having us pose for a beautiful group shot taken by Susan Hughes. Harry and I not long afterward ventured into town to pick up pizzas for dinner.

Then night began to fall, and the Halloween Village took on a whole new magical dimension that has to be seen to be believed. Like Susan's Florida and California architecture, Harry's unicorns and Nolan's clouds, Art and Treena's inner child was majestically manifest that evening as it beckoned us to behold its complexity and composition.

But as all good things must come to an end, so did Sanford Summit IV by 11:00 that night. But that would not be the end of a magical Labor Day Weekend.