Photos From The Devil's Tramping Grounds.

We decided to invite the kids' friends, Anthony-age 19 and Jarod-age 10, on our field trip. We are very blessed to have fellow homeschoolers who live next door to us. My younger kids enjoy the trips more when their friend, Jarod, tags along. My oldest son, Josh, is in college and would not normally take trips with us, if it wasn't for his friend, Anthony. Before we left, I took a group photo of the six kids together.

Because I am a masochist, I let the kids each get their choice as to what CD's that would play. They took turns picking the music. So, we had a variety of heavy metal, religious and country music blaring from our minivan. My ears are still ringing.

Surprisingly, a minivan with eight people in it is very loud. Anthony and Joshua entertained us by clowning around, although I think Josh. was a little perturbed when his friend jokingly threatened to kiss him.

Unlike other historical sites, there are no road signs or markers for The Devil's Tramping Grounds. A portion of the trip went through the proverbial "boonies". There was really nothing on either side of the road except forest. It made pretty scenery, so I snapped a photo.

On a funny note-at least to everyone else in the car- my son, Chris. complained that he really had to go to the bathroom. So we pulled over and he ran into the woods. We females all needed to use the bathroom also but we decided to wait. Poor Chris, just a mile further down the road we found a gas station. LOL

The attendant at the BP very kindly directed us to the road that the tramping ground is on. Just past a tire store is a road fittingly called The Devil Tramping Ground Road.

As I wrote previously, there is no sign announcing that you have found the actual Devil's Tramping Ground. There is just two gravel pullouts, located on the side of the road. The second pullout is the correct one.

We knew that we were in the correct spot because teenagers had painted several upside down crosses and pentagrams into the surrounding pines. I am a big nature lover and really wish someone had just posted a sign instead.

The area is no longer forty feet and isn't even really circular. My husband said that it doesn't look that drastically different then other bare places that he's come across while camping in the woods.

Judging from the trash left in ring, the devil likes Krispy Kreme doughnuts, lots of beer and smokes heavily. I overheard Josh comment to Anthony, "Man, since God threw Satan out of heaven, the devil has really went to hell." What can I say, the boy has his father's sense of humor.

We had a very nice picnic in the middle of the not quite circle. Actually, I found the area very peaceful, but I like being in the middle of the woods. By the way, we carried our trash back to the car with us and didn't leave any litter behind.

I will try to post direction to the Devil's Tramping Grounds later.

Man Arrested In Murder Of Pregnant Soldier

My local paper, The Fayetteveille Observer, reported that a man has been arrested in the Megan Lynn Touma murder. The suspect is Sgt. Edgar Patino Lopez who was training at Ft. Bragg in psychological operations tactics at the Special Operations Command school. Touma discovered that Patino was married shortly after she realized that she was carrying his child.

I don't think that any event could compensate the Touma family for the death of two of their members, Megan and her unborn child. But perhaps, knowing that the police might possibly have their loved one's killer will give them some small comfort.

We should remember the Touma family in our prayers so that they continue to have strength to endure this tragedy.