WP Prompt: What’s a movie or book that inspired you to travel?

When I was in elementary school, I won a short story contest and one of my prizes was  a book called ” The Ghost Belonged to Me. ”

1913. Alexander Armsworth is a normal boy until he sees a ghost of a girl in his barn, warning him of an impending disaster. This leads to him to become a local hero. But when he explains that a ghost warned him, it uncovers the story of how she came to rest on their property, far from her home in New Orleans, Louisiana. He takes it upon himself to take her body home to New Orleans.

Richard Peck went on to write a series of books featuring Alexander and his neighbor Blossom Culp. To this day I will fight and die on the hill to claim these books are among the best ghost stories in print.

However, after I read and re-read ‘ The Ghost Belonged to Me ” I decided at the age of 11  that one day I was going to go to New Orleans and see the cemeteries and the people who walked to music that you couldn’t hear but you could see.

I wanted to visit the grave of the Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, I wanted to take tea with ladies with a checkered history and wear a fancy gown. I wanted to meet the larger then life characters that Richard Peck wrote about.

Most of all, I wanted to roam around and find ghosts of my own.

The upshot is, when I grew up I visited New Orleans several times and each time I had a great adventure, just like Alexander and Blossom.

But that’s another story.