Weâre back with Part 2 of our conversation with Tonja Lesmeister â and youâre in for a wild ride. đ»
If you thought owning a campground was adventurous enough, wait until you hear what Tonja discovered after moving into her 1920s farmhouse at Firefly Hills. (Hint: it involves ghost-hunting gear, a local Facebook group, and some uninvited houseguests.)
But the paranormal isnât the only meaningful story she shares.
In this episode, Tonja also opens up about her nonprofit, Traveling with a Purpose â and how she organizes service-based trips to Jamaica that combine adventure with impact.
đ Key takeaways:
- The surprising discovery Tonja made about her farmhouse (yes, itâs haunted)
- Her journey into running a nonprofit and creating service-based travel experiences
- How she helps people ease into international travel â even if theyâve never left the U.S.
- Why she believes women can blend business, purpose, and adventure in powerful ways
đ Connect with Tonja:
- Website: â www.fireflyhillskentucky.comâ
- Facebook: â www.facebook.com/fireflyhillskentuckyâ
- Instagram: â www.instagram.com/fireflyhills/â
â
đ Join the RV Queens Community â Get 20% off your membership for life with code PODCAST at â rvqueenspodcast.comâ â /communityâ
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Planning your kidsâ fall curriculum? â Hoffman Academyâ is the leading online platform for kids to learn piano. Itâs a complete music education thatâs affordable and packed with fun for kids aged 5+!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, you know, my house is haunted.
He goes, oh, really? So I told him of the story of
what happened the night before. The woman finishes her phone
conversation. We conduct our business.
And then when we were done, she said, OK, Now I, I want to tell
you, this is the name and phone number of my best friend who
grew up in your house. And she has all sorts of stories
of things that happened when shelived there.
(00:22):
She goes. The only one I can remember is
how something would touch her feet at night when she was
trying to go to sleep. No way.
Welcome back to the RV Queens Podcast, where we are all about
women making money on the road. I'm Kate White, and today we're
picking up right where we left off last time with Tanya
Lesmeister, the woman behind Firefly Hills Campground in
(00:44):
Eastern Kentucky. Now, if you haven't listened to
Part 1 yet, press pause right now.
Go back, listen to that episode,and then come back.
You guys trust me, it's worth it.
In this second-half of our conversation, we are going to
get into some truly the unforgettable territory that we
started. In Episode 1, Tanya shares the
surprising discovery she made after moving into her 1920s
(01:08):
farmhouse on the land she boughtto build a campground.
And spoiler alert, it involves afew ghosts, a local Facebook
group and her own ghost hunting equipment.
Yes, really. We also dive into her nonprofit
called Traveling With a Purpose,which leads service based trips
(01:29):
to Jamaica. Plus how she helps.
People ease into international travel while making an impact.
Whether you're curious about starting a nonprofit, traveling
with purpose, or you just love agood ghost story, this episode
has something for you. Grab your coffee and let's roll.
(01:49):
So I I've heard that there is some paranormal activity that
sometimes goes on at Flyer Butterfly Hills.
Have you personally experienced anything unusual?
Yet you have. Oh, tell me.
So here's a little funny story about this.
We did not know we bought a house that has paranormal
(02:11):
activity for a year. Oh.
For a year. So I, you know, when I was
interacting with locals in the community, you know, I, I have a
funny accent. I have really short hair.
It's, you know, not as pink as sometimes it is.
I'm, I'm an outsider, right? So people say, oh, you know, are
(02:33):
you here visiting the gorge? They assume I'm a tourist.
I said, no, actually, I just bought some property here.
And they would ask me what I bought and I told them and all
the locals or most locals know, know this property.
And I always just thought, yes, you know, Kentuckians ask kind
of strange questions because they don't, they didn't come
(02:54):
right out and ask me. They kind of skirted it, right.
So I was with another full time Rving friend in town at a local
business and this happened and somebody said, you know, have
you noticed anything? And I'm like, there's one of
those odd questions again. And I finally just asked and I
(03:15):
said, do you mean ghosts? And Blanche says to Linda,
Linda, that is just a rumor. And I'm like, you do mean
ghosts. I come home, I tell my husband
and my neighbors had come over and I said, do you know anything
about this house having, you know, a, a history of ghosts or
paranormal activity? And they're like, Oh yeah,
there's a whole Facebook page just about the, the, this, the
(03:39):
paranormal activity on your house.
Nobody told me I'd owned it for a year.
My friends back home who've known me a while were they said
of course you would buy a haunted house because we are
amateur ghost hunters. Are you serious?
I have my own equipment. Yes, I have my own equipment.
(03:59):
I got it for Christmas one year from my family because we like
to ghost hunt for fun. You know, we've been to, you
know, Jerome, Jerome, Arizona, we've been to the Alamo.
We've done it in Memphis. We've done it and, you know, in
our RV travels. That's something we seek out.
Either we do it on our own or we, you know, you know, get
(04:20):
tickets for a local ghost hunting company.
And so we accidentally bought a haunted house.
This is so incredible, you're just attracting it to.
So a few of the things that havehappened to me in particular, my
one of my favorite stories is sothe local folklore story is that
(04:43):
there is a woman that can be seen in the, in the window of
the top floor. So this house has a basement and
then three additional floors. So it's a pretty big farmhouse.
And that top floor, we don't rent that top floor out.
We have it set up for when our kids come to visit.
If our RV isn't here and we fly in, we stay on that floor
(05:07):
anyways. So I was here, our RV was in
Arizona. My husband was off working.
My son was sleeping in the bed across the room.
It's kind of like a like a studio apartment without a
kitchen. It's got a bathroom, but it's
it's big and I'm my P JS are on my feet are in the blankets.
I'm sitting there on my laptop working and I feel something
(05:29):
very gently touch like my ankle,right, just like like the sheet
or something is touching. And so I rub, rub my feet, I'm
working and it happens again andit happens again.
And I'm like, Oh my gosh, there's got to be like an Asian
beetle under the blankets. I get up all white sheets, so
there's no print to them, so youcan see everything.
I pull back the sheets, there's nothing under there.
(05:50):
I crawl back in bed. It happens again.
It happens again in the exact same spot on my ankle.
And I finally just acknowledged that it was one of the spirits
that's in the house. And I said, all right, you know,
I, I noticed that you're here, but I'm trying to get some work
done. Can you leave my feet, my ankle?
Look, it happens again. I finally had to tuck my feet
under me to finish what I was doing.
(06:13):
So the next day, my my contractor at the time is not
local to this town. He's he grew up about an hour
away. We had some business to do in
town and the person we needed tospeak to was on the phone.
So I'm just killing time with him making small talk.
And I said, hey, you know, my house is haunted.
He goes, oh, really? So I told him of the story of
(06:34):
what happened the night before. The woman finishes her phone
conversation. We conduct our business.
And then when we were done, she said, OK, now I want to tell you
this is the name and phone number of my best friend who
grew up in your house. And she has all sorts of stories
of things that happened when shelived there.
She goes. The only one I can remember is
(06:54):
how something would touch her feet at night when she was
trying to go to sleep. No way.
Are you kidding? Me.
I turned to look at my contractor and his jaw was just
wide open, I said. What did I just tell you 15
minutes ago? So that that was a fun story.
A few things that happened in that same room.
(07:16):
A friend of ours from Jamaica, two of our kids are Jamaican.
And a good friend of ours came and stayed with us before the
park was open to help us with the, you know, hundreds of tasks
that need to be done. And I said, OK.
I said, Sid, I'm putting you on the third floor of the house.
And it's it's haunted. He's like.
OK, whatever time. Yeah, it doesn't believe me.
(07:36):
I'm like, whatever. And each morning he would come
to my RV, we'd have breakfast, and then he and Troy would go
off and do some projects. He was here about 2 1/2 weeks
in. He comes down for breakfast.
My husband was gone at the time.And he goes, Tanya, I got to
tell you what happened last night.
I'm like, OK, he goes. I was laying in bed.
I was trying to fall asleep and I felt something crawl in bed
(07:59):
with me. So I sat straight.
I sat straight up and some and something just gently pushed me
back down. And it's way funnier if you hear
him say this because in his Jamaican accent, right, he's
Jamaican. He goes, I said, uh, uh, this
isn't happening. I'm not sharing this room and
I'm not leaving. So you're going to have to go.
Oh my gosh. And then he sees something dark
(08:20):
go down the stairs. So he so he leaves.
He, he leaves after being with us for three weeks.
And my daughter and her fiance come and stay with us.
And I put them in that same room, in that same bed, right
under the window where people have seen a woman before.
And I said, OK, you know, that this is haunted.
This is what happened to Sid, you know, a week ago.
(08:43):
And they're like, OK, whatever. So they go to bed one night,
they're chatting about their day, facing each other in bed,
as you know, many of us do with our partners.
And all of a sudden, my son-in-law goes.
Something just touched my butt. Oh, I guess no way.
This is the same bed that I was in when something touched my
(09:05):
feet. So one other story and then I'll
tell you what we've done with this since then.
But so I, we had a guest in the blue room and I was on duty for
chores that day. So I, you know, flipped, we call
it flipping the room. So remake the bed, clean it up,
(09:25):
you know, whatever. Get ready for the next guest.
I step into the hallway and at the time, if the rooms weren't
being used, we closed the doors.And so the door was shut.
And we have 3 three rooms that we rent on that floor.
And one of them, it's like somebody had the door handle and
just was rattling the without turning the knob, just rattling
(09:46):
the door back and forth. So it was hitting the door jamb
like clank, clank, clank, you know, like this.
And I'm standing there in the hallway just staring at it,
listening to the door clank, clank, clank, clank, you know,
back and forth. And I'm like, OK, this is my
imagination. But we also have little signs on
the door so guests know which room is theirs.
And the little sign is going so it's moving back and forth as
(10:08):
well. So I'm like, I'm hearing it and
I'm seeing it. And so I I didn't yell, but in a
loud voice I said, is there anybody in the pink room?
And there was no response. There was nobody on that floor
with me. Oh my gosh.
What? So now we keep the doors open.
Yeah. Because apparently the spirits
(10:29):
don't like the doors closed. So we've had the house
professionally investigated witha paranormal organization and we
at the time we have 4 spirits. Three of them are ancestors of
the people who built the house, all women, nothing sinister,
(10:49):
just, I think they're just, theylove their house and I talk to
them regularly. I, I'm trying to honor them and,
and their space and their family.
And we've, you know, I, I talkedto them about, I bring in
antiques, brought in antiques tofurnish the house and ripped up
the carpet to expose the hardwood floors and trying to,
(11:11):
you know, honor the 1920s house that it is, right?
And honor them and be respectfulto them.
And then there's also a little boy that resides, he's the
trickster. He's the one that tickles
people's feet and things like that.
So, so we've done, so we did that paranormal investigation.
(11:34):
We had another podcast that camethat night to report on it as
well. And that was fun.
It was a a local podcaster. And then we've had different
paranormal investigator, amateurpeople who want to come, they
stay with us and they want to investigate.
So that they've done that. And then what we started last
(11:56):
year in the fall of the year andwe're going to be doing again
this year, is we sell tickets and you can come and we let you
use our paranormal investigationequipment and we take you into
three different rooms in the house.
And you can practice and try to communicate with the spirits
that are in the house. And then we tell some stories.
We tell a little bit about the history of the house and tell
(12:20):
some stories of things that havehappened to other people that
are that have stayed with us or with work campers or with us
ourselves. And so we've got that.
Those tickets will go on sale here in in a couple of months,
but we do that in the fall of the year.
The Haunted Discoveries is a YouTube channel that does
(12:41):
paranormal investigation and historical research and they are
coming in October to investigatethe house.
So they've done, I think they'vedone five seasons.
So we will be part of Season 6. So they have a production crew
of 16 crew members coming in October to investigate, to
(13:03):
investigate the house. And then we'll be in one of the
their episodes that will probably go live this winter
sometime. There's also, you're probably
familiar with the Bourbon Trail,there's also the Moonshine
Trail, but there's also a paranormal trail in Kentucky.
And so we are part of the paranormal trail.
(13:25):
So you get a passport and you get a stamp for each location.
And we are one of two locations here in Lee County that has
paranormal activity that people can come and get their stamp.
I thought I was just going to ask that question and you were
going to give me like A2 sentence answer.
(13:45):
And I love that we just spent somuch time on this.
And the fact that you already had experience with like ghost
hunting and had the equipment. And I just feel like your story
is so inspiring because all these pieces of your life just
like have congealed so well intowhat you've created.
(14:10):
And like all of even the fact that you're like attracting,
inadvertently attracting international guests after being
like international travelers andyou've adopted kids from, you
know, outside the US and all this stuff.
And it's it's so inspiring, Tanya, Like this is I honestly,
(14:31):
I didn't know I would conduct this interview and feel like
have my jaw on the table at the end of this.
This is. Well, and kudos to you for doing
your to doing your research because I don't put the
paranormal stuff out front and center to.
Some people, you have one on thewebsite, right?
And I mean, I'd probably do the same thing.
(14:53):
I mean, you're trying to just talk to the general public and,
but also in my RV queen circles this month, I just happened to
have someone that was just staying at your place and told
me, gave me a little tip so I had some insider information.
OK, OK, You got to help her. I I have I have an idea of one
(15:14):
of two people that would have. Been.
Yeah, yeah, you probably know who it is.
I have to ask this while we're on the topic.
I didn't know there was like professional, I don't know the
right words. Paranormal investigators.
Investigators and you. Said when you hired them, then
you found out about who the people were.
(15:34):
So are these professionals, like, is the right word mediums?
Like, are they able to, like, speak with them and figure out
who they are? Or like, how do they figure out?
Yeah. They could be, but not
necessarily so. There's lots of different tools
you can use to communicate with people on the other side and
(15:56):
they're using those tools. And we've actually, we, we had
that group come and do a professional investigation.
But also, when I sold tickets last year, there were some other
paranormal investigators visiting some friends in town
because there's a second site and they wanted to come and see.
And so then they gave us more information.
(16:18):
But there's, when you use the different paranormal
investigation tools, you can askquestions.
You know, you can ask. Yes.
No questions. You can, you know, there's
different ways to communicate it.
So you don't have to be a mediumto, to, to communicate.
Yeah. With people on the other side.
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(16:39):
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This is so fascinating. I could, yeah, I, I almost want
(17:42):
to just like keep going down this this whole subject, but I'm
going to, I'm going to put a bowon this.
And I and I really want to talk about your nonprofit.
You are clearly a very intentional and purpose LED
individual. Like I can tell that gathering
people and fostering community is really important, which is
(18:04):
obviously so wonderful. Like, the world needs so many
more people like you. So in addition to running this
incredible campground experience, you also run this
nonprofit called Traveling With a Purpose.
Tell us more about this and why Jamaica is so special to you.
Before my husband proposed, I warned him and I said, just so
(18:27):
you know what you're getting into, I really have the desire
to foster or adopt children someday.
And we have done that. We've we've foster children when
we lived in the sticks and bricks and we have two adopted
children from Jamaica. So when we went in 2008, I said,
(18:48):
you know, I'm going to probably fall in love with a child and be
interested in adopting. And we loved the culture.
And there are, there are children that unfortunately have
have adults and parents in theirlife that are not able to parent
(19:09):
them for various reasons, not only in other countries, but in
the US as well. So I just want to acknowledge
that. But we ended up adopting kids
from Jamaica, siblings, my oldest and youngest are from
Jamaica. And we wanted to continue to
support the the staff and the homes that they lived at.
(19:32):
So I brought the best way to do that.
I thought was, yeah, I could go.My husband and I could go and
help and volunteer, but I could do so much more if we brought
other people with us. So we LED several trips several
years apart, and then we broughtthe kids home.
(19:52):
And then I took a long break. We were parenting at the time,
four children. I was still working as a social
worker in the community. I just didn't have time for
that. Time had passed.
You know, the kids got settled and we're we're doing well.
I no longer was working outside of the home.
(20:14):
And some of my friends started calling me and reaching out and
saying, hey, when are you going to lead another trip?
And so I knew it was time. So in 2018 I started planning
another trip for 2019. And when I put it out into the
world, I had 40 people want to come with me.
I can't take 40 people on what? That's way too big.
(20:36):
That was a huge trip. So I said, OK, I don't want to
tell anybody no, you know. So we LED 2 trips back-to-back.
My husband and I were in Jamaicafor three weeks.
It was amazing, but also exhausting at the same time.
And so I LED trips before and people are, you know, checked
(20:59):
that off their bucket list and moved on with their life.
But these 40 people said, OK, sonow what are we going to, how
are we going to continue to support these homes once we come
back to the US? And like, I provided you with
this opportunity, why don't you just check it and move on?
They're like, no, no, we think you need just to start a non
(21:20):
profit. And I had thought about it
before I checked into it. It is a lot of work and it's
expensive to start a non profit.And I said, I, I, I'm not
interested. I've investigated this.
It's it's costly, it's a lot of work.
And they just kept, you know, encouraging.
And they, I finally said, OK, fine, I'll do this, but I'm not
(21:42):
going to do this by myself. I need people to help
financially and I need people tohelp make up the board.
And so we started the process and it took us a year to
complete the process. And in 2020 we got our nonprofit
status. So we have a board.
We have led anywhere between 1:00 and 4:00 trips a year to
(22:04):
Jamaica and we help out the two homes that my children lived at
and then an autism center as well.
So we are different than a lot of mission trip organizations.
So if I, if it's OK with you, I'll just take a minute and
(22:25):
explain how we're different. So a lot of mission trips are
associated with a church and I wanted to make sure that
everybody felt welcome to provide service.
And so we are secular in nature so that it does not matter what
your religion is or if you practice a religion or not, you
(22:47):
are welcome to join us. And then we provide a lot of
training in advance. And I think it's really
important to when you are a guest in another country that
you learn about the local culture so you don't
inadvertently offend locals. And part of that is from our
world schooling experience. You know, there's things that
(23:08):
visitors do that they don't havea clue that is not appropriate
in that country, might be appropriate in the US, but not
in, in a in a country. So we do a lot of training about
culture. We do training about the kids a
little bit, not specific kids, but just general kids who spend
time in institutions. So we do training briefly around
(23:31):
trauma, around attachments and sensory processing disorder,
which a lot of kids who are institutionalized have exposure
to one or all of those things. And we do training just
sometimes this is people's firstexperience leaving the country.
So we do practical training around customs and immigration
(23:53):
and you know that that practicaltraining as well.
And then the other thing that makes us unique with our
nonprofit is we like to leveragepeople's unique skill sets.
So whether it's a hobby or what you did for a career, we want to
make sure that we offer that to our partners in Jamaica and see
(24:17):
if they have a need that matchesthat skill set.
Because I don't want to go thereand hand everybody a paintbrush
and say we're painting a fence when you might be a teacher or
you might, you'd be really good at sewing or you might be good
at construction. We want to make sure or IT or,
(24:38):
or an occupational therapist or whatever, a nurse.
We want to make sure that we're leveraging your unique skill set
and and trying to use that with a need that our partners have in
Jamaica. That is brilliant and I wish
there was more models like that where, you know, let's be
intentional about what people need, where we're visiting and
(25:03):
who what the makeup of the the people in the the party visiting
and how can we work together. That is so brilliant.
Tanya our last trip we had in January, I had one too.
Besides my family, I had three other full time.
Our viewers join us and so if you are considering dabbling and
(25:24):
world schooling or internationaltravel, this is a great
opportunity to to dip your toes into that because I plan the
itinerary so you don't have to worry about that.
But you get to practice, you know, visiting another country
and going through customs and immigration and learning what
you should know about what kind of information you should seek
(25:46):
out before visiting other countries.
So I do advertise in the full time RV community about our
service trips and we will be probably in about a month be
launching our next registration for our next trip in January.
So if we have any viewers that are interested in an
(26:07):
international travel, this mightbe a good opportunity for them
to to try that. This conversation has blown my
mind, Tanya. Seriously, it's been so
interesting, so inspiring. Go ahead and share with everyone
how they can book a stay at fireFirefly Hills, how can they
support your nonprofit and even just connect with you online.
And then I will ask you my finalquestions.
(26:29):
So you can find us, our website for Firefly Hills is Firefly
Hills, kentucky.com. You can find us on Facebook and
Instagram. And our nonprofit, Traveling
with a Purpose is Traveling witha purpose.org.
And you can find us also on Instagram and Facebook as well.
(26:51):
Today I'm going to end with a fun lightning round of questions
to help the audience get to knowthe other side to you.
OK, don't prepare. I know you.
I know you do this, so I'm prepared.
Awesome, so I've got 4 questionstoday.
I'm going to say it. You just say the first thing
that pops in your head. Here we go #1 Imagine you are
(27:13):
hosting a campground karaoke night.
What song are you belting out? Oh my gosh, I don't know.
The only one that comes to mind is the is the one that my
husband wants. He's done and it's another one
bites the dust. Oh really?
But I don't. Know why?
Classic. That's all right, let's roll
(27:34):
with it. All right.
Number 2, when you guys are traveling on the road, are you
more of a let's plan out the whole trip type person or let's
just wing it type person? Both, so I like to plan the the
big things and then leave space in between for more organic stay
(27:57):
it since yeah, excursions. All right #3 what is your go to
road trip snack? And there's no judgement here.
Yes, so it's the peel apart Twizzlers.
Oh really? Yeah, it's it's tasty and fun to
play with. It's the only time that you have
permission to play with your food, right?
It's because you have to peel them apart.
That's a good point. OK, cool.
(28:19):
Last question, if you could havedinner with anyone, living or
dead, who's at your table? She's a writer, Maya Angelou.
I think that's how you pronounceher last name.
She is an African American womanwho is just written some really
inspiring things. And I can't remember how long
ago she passed, but maybe five years ago or something like
(28:42):
that. So I think it would be her.
I would love to meet her. I had a feeling you were going
to pick someone dead because of our conversation.
Maybe she'll come to visit. Maybe she will.
Oh my goodness. All righty, that is a wrap.
Thank you so much for being on the show today, Tanya.
(29:02):
I have really enjoyed this conversation and getting to know
you so much better than I thought I would.
Yeah, thanks, Kate. I appreciate the opportunity and
hopefully, we'll see more of your viewers staying with us
here at Firefly Hills. I've had three RV Queens in the
past awesome 2 weeks. So I love it.
All righty, Tanya, I will see you on the road.
(29:23):
Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode and for being
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All right, guys, I'll see you next week or hopefully I will
see you on the road. So amazing.
Hey, you know, my house is haunted.
He goes, oh, really? So I told him of the story of
what happened the night before. The woman finishes her phone
conversation. We conduct our business.
And then when we were done, she said, OK, Now I, I want to tell
you, this is the name and phone number of my best friend who
grew up in your house. And she has all sorts of stories
of things that happened when shelived there.
(00:22):
She goes. The only one I can remember is
how something would touch her feet at night when she was
trying to go to sleep. No way.
Welcome back to the RV Queens Podcast, where we are all about
women making money on the road. I'm Kate White, and today we're
picking up right where we left off last time with Tanya
Lesmeister, the woman behind Firefly Hills Campground in
(00:44):
Eastern Kentucky. Now, if you haven't listened to
Part 1 yet, press pause right now.
Go back, listen to that episode,and then come back.
You guys trust me, it's worth it.
In this second-half of our conversation, we are going to
get into some truly the unforgettable territory that we
started. In Episode 1, Tanya shares the
surprising discovery she made after moving into her 1920s
(01:08):
farmhouse on the land she boughtto build a campground.
And spoiler alert, it involves afew ghosts, a local Facebook
group and her own ghost hunting equipment.
Yes, really. We also dive into her nonprofit
called Traveling With a Purpose,which leads service based trips
(01:29):
to Jamaica. Plus how she helps.
People ease into international travel while making an impact.
Whether you're curious about starting a nonprofit, traveling
with purpose, or you just love agood ghost story, this episode
has something for you. Grab your coffee and let's roll.
(01:49):
So I I've heard that there is some paranormal activity that
sometimes goes on at Flyer Butterfly Hills.
Have you personally experienced anything unusual?
Yet you have. Oh, tell me.
So here's a little funny story about this.
We did not know we bought a house that has paranormal
(02:11):
activity for a year. Oh.
For a year. So I, you know, when I was
interacting with locals in the community, you know, I, I have a
funny accent. I have really short hair.
It's, you know, not as pink as sometimes it is.
I'm, I'm an outsider, right? So people say, oh, you know, are
(02:33):
you here visiting the gorge? They assume I'm a tourist.
I said, no, actually, I just bought some property here.
And they would ask me what I bought and I told them and all
the locals or most locals know, know this property.
And I always just thought, yes, you know, Kentuckians ask kind
of strange questions because they don't, they didn't come
(02:54):
right out and ask me. They kind of skirted it, right.
So I was with another full time Rving friend in town at a local
business and this happened and somebody said, you know, have
you noticed anything? And I'm like, there's one of
those odd questions again. And I finally just asked and I
(03:15):
said, do you mean ghosts? And Blanche says to Linda,
Linda, that is just a rumor. And I'm like, you do mean
ghosts. I come home, I tell my husband
and my neighbors had come over and I said, do you know anything
about this house having, you know, a, a history of ghosts or
paranormal activity? And they're like, Oh yeah,
there's a whole Facebook page just about the, the, this, the
(03:39):
paranormal activity on your house.
Nobody told me I'd owned it for a year.
My friends back home who've known me a while were they said
of course you would buy a haunted house because we are
amateur ghost hunters. Are you serious?
I have my own equipment. Yes, I have my own equipment.
(03:59):
I got it for Christmas one year from my family because we like
to ghost hunt for fun. You know, we've been to, you
know, Jerome, Jerome, Arizona, we've been to the Alamo.
We've done it in Memphis. We've done it and, you know, in
our RV travels. That's something we seek out.
Either we do it on our own or we, you know, you know, get
(04:20):
tickets for a local ghost hunting company.
And so we accidentally bought a haunted house.
This is so incredible, you're just attracting it to.
So a few of the things that havehappened to me in particular, my
one of my favorite stories is sothe local folklore story is that
(04:43):
there is a woman that can be seen in the, in the window of
the top floor. So this house has a basement and
then three additional floors. So it's a pretty big farmhouse.
And that top floor, we don't rent that top floor out.
We have it set up for when our kids come to visit.
If our RV isn't here and we fly in, we stay on that floor
(05:07):
anyways. So I was here, our RV was in
Arizona. My husband was off working.
My son was sleeping in the bed across the room.
It's kind of like a like a studio apartment without a
kitchen. It's got a bathroom, but it's
it's big and I'm my P JS are on my feet are in the blankets.
I'm sitting there on my laptop working and I feel something
(05:29):
very gently touch like my ankle,right, just like like the sheet
or something is touching. And so I rub, rub my feet, I'm
working and it happens again andit happens again.
And I'm like, Oh my gosh, there's got to be like an Asian
beetle under the blankets. I get up all white sheets, so
there's no print to them, so youcan see everything.
I pull back the sheets, there's nothing under there.
(05:50):
I crawl back in bed. It happens again.
It happens again in the exact same spot on my ankle.
And I finally just acknowledged that it was one of the spirits
that's in the house. And I said, all right, you know,
I, I noticed that you're here, but I'm trying to get some work
done. Can you leave my feet, my ankle?
Look, it happens again. I finally had to tuck my feet
under me to finish what I was doing.
(06:13):
So the next day, my my contractor at the time is not
local to this town. He's he grew up about an hour
away. We had some business to do in
town and the person we needed tospeak to was on the phone.
So I'm just killing time with him making small talk.
And I said, hey, you know, my house is haunted.
He goes, oh, really? So I told him of the story of
(06:34):
what happened the night before. The woman finishes her phone
conversation. We conduct our business.
And then when we were done, she said, OK, now I want to tell you
this is the name and phone number of my best friend who
grew up in your house. And she has all sorts of stories
of things that happened when shelived there.
She goes. The only one I can remember is
(06:54):
how something would touch her feet at night when she was
trying to go to sleep. No way.
Are you kidding? Me.
I turned to look at my contractor and his jaw was just
wide open, I said. What did I just tell you 15
minutes ago? So that that was a fun story.
A few things that happened in that same room.
(07:16):
A friend of ours from Jamaica, two of our kids are Jamaican.
And a good friend of ours came and stayed with us before the
park was open to help us with the, you know, hundreds of tasks
that need to be done. And I said, OK.
I said, Sid, I'm putting you on the third floor of the house.
And it's it's haunted. He's like.
OK, whatever time. Yeah, it doesn't believe me.
(07:36):
I'm like, whatever. And each morning he would come
to my RV, we'd have breakfast, and then he and Troy would go
off and do some projects. He was here about 2 1/2 weeks
in. He comes down for breakfast.
My husband was gone at the time.And he goes, Tanya, I got to
tell you what happened last night.
I'm like, OK, he goes. I was laying in bed.
I was trying to fall asleep and I felt something crawl in bed
(07:59):
with me. So I sat straight.
I sat straight up and some and something just gently pushed me
back down. And it's way funnier if you hear
him say this because in his Jamaican accent, right, he's
Jamaican. He goes, I said, uh, uh, this
isn't happening. I'm not sharing this room and
I'm not leaving. So you're going to have to go.
Oh my gosh. And then he sees something dark
(08:20):
go down the stairs. So he so he leaves.
He, he leaves after being with us for three weeks.
And my daughter and her fiance come and stay with us.
And I put them in that same room, in that same bed, right
under the window where people have seen a woman before.
And I said, OK, you know, that this is haunted.
This is what happened to Sid, you know, a week ago.
(08:43):
And they're like, OK, whatever. So they go to bed one night,
they're chatting about their day, facing each other in bed,
as you know, many of us do with our partners.
And all of a sudden, my son-in-law goes.
Something just touched my butt. Oh, I guess no way.
This is the same bed that I was in when something touched my
(09:05):
feet. So one other story and then I'll
tell you what we've done with this since then.
But so I, we had a guest in the blue room and I was on duty for
chores that day. So I, you know, flipped, we call
it flipping the room. So remake the bed, clean it up,
(09:25):
you know, whatever. Get ready for the next guest.
I step into the hallway and at the time, if the rooms weren't
being used, we closed the doors.And so the door was shut.
And we have 3 three rooms that we rent on that floor.
And one of them, it's like somebody had the door handle and
just was rattling the without turning the knob, just rattling
(09:46):
the door back and forth. So it was hitting the door jamb
like clank, clank, clank, you know, like this.
And I'm standing there in the hallway just staring at it,
listening to the door clank, clank, clank, clank, you know,
back and forth. And I'm like, OK, this is my
imagination. But we also have little signs on
the door so guests know which room is theirs.
And the little sign is going so it's moving back and forth as
(10:08):
well. So I'm like, I'm hearing it and
I'm seeing it. And so I I didn't yell, but in a
loud voice I said, is there anybody in the pink room?
And there was no response. There was nobody on that floor
with me. Oh my gosh.
What? So now we keep the doors open.
Yeah. Because apparently the spirits
(10:29):
don't like the doors closed. So we've had the house
professionally investigated witha paranormal organization and we
at the time we have 4 spirits. Three of them are ancestors of
the people who built the house, all women, nothing sinister,
(10:49):
just, I think they're just, theylove their house and I talk to
them regularly. I, I'm trying to honor them and,
and their space and their family.
And we've, you know, I, I talkedto them about, I bring in
antiques, brought in antiques tofurnish the house and ripped up
the carpet to expose the hardwood floors and trying to,
(11:11):
you know, honor the 1920s house that it is, right?
And honor them and be respectfulto them.
And then there's also a little boy that resides, he's the
trickster. He's the one that tickles
people's feet and things like that.
So, so we've done, so we did that paranormal investigation.
(11:34):
We had another podcast that camethat night to report on it as
well. And that was fun.
It was a a local podcaster. And then we've had different
paranormal investigator, amateurpeople who want to come, they
stay with us and they want to investigate.
So that they've done that. And then what we started last
(11:56):
year in the fall of the year andwe're going to be doing again
this year, is we sell tickets and you can come and we let you
use our paranormal investigationequipment and we take you into
three different rooms in the house.
And you can practice and try to communicate with the spirits
that are in the house. And then we tell some stories.
We tell a little bit about the history of the house and tell
(12:20):
some stories of things that havehappened to other people that
are that have stayed with us or with work campers or with us
ourselves. And so we've got that.
Those tickets will go on sale here in in a couple of months,
but we do that in the fall of the year.
The Haunted Discoveries is a YouTube channel that does
(12:41):
paranormal investigation and historical research and they are
coming in October to investigatethe house.
So they've done, I think they'vedone five seasons.
So we will be part of Season 6. So they have a production crew
of 16 crew members coming in October to investigate, to
(13:03):
investigate the house. And then we'll be in one of the
their episodes that will probably go live this winter
sometime. There's also, you're probably
familiar with the Bourbon Trail,there's also the Moonshine
Trail, but there's also a paranormal trail in Kentucky.
And so we are part of the paranormal trail.
(13:25):
So you get a passport and you get a stamp for each location.
And we are one of two locations here in Lee County that has
paranormal activity that people can come and get their stamp.
I thought I was just going to ask that question and you were
going to give me like A2 sentence answer.
(13:45):
And I love that we just spent somuch time on this.
And the fact that you already had experience with like ghost
hunting and had the equipment. And I just feel like your story
is so inspiring because all these pieces of your life just
like have congealed so well intowhat you've created.
(14:10):
And like all of even the fact that you're like attracting,
inadvertently attracting international guests after being
like international travelers andyou've adopted kids from, you
know, outside the US and all this stuff.
And it's it's so inspiring, Tanya, Like this is I honestly,
(14:31):
I didn't know I would conduct this interview and feel like
have my jaw on the table at the end of this.
This is. Well, and kudos to you for doing
your to doing your research because I don't put the
paranormal stuff out front and center to.
Some people, you have one on thewebsite, right?
And I mean, I'd probably do the same thing.
(14:53):
I mean, you're trying to just talk to the general public and,
but also in my RV queen circles this month, I just happened to
have someone that was just staying at your place and told
me, gave me a little tip so I had some insider information.
OK, OK, You got to help her. I I have I have an idea of one
(15:14):
of two people that would have. Been.
Yeah, yeah, you probably know who it is.
I have to ask this while we're on the topic.
I didn't know there was like professional, I don't know the
right words. Paranormal investigators.
Investigators and you. Said when you hired them, then
you found out about who the people were.
(15:34):
So are these professionals, like, is the right word mediums?
Like, are they able to, like, speak with them and figure out
who they are? Or like, how do they figure out?
Yeah. They could be, but not
necessarily so. There's lots of different tools
you can use to communicate with people on the other side and
(15:56):
they're using those tools. And we've actually, we, we had
that group come and do a professional investigation.
But also, when I sold tickets last year, there were some other
paranormal investigators visiting some friends in town
because there's a second site and they wanted to come and see.
And so then they gave us more information.
(16:18):
But there's, when you use the different paranormal
investigation tools, you can askquestions.
You know, you can ask. Yes.
No questions. You can, you know, there's
different ways to communicate it.
So you don't have to be a mediumto, to, to communicate.
Yeah. With people on the other side.
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This is so fascinating. I could, yeah, I, I almost want
(17:42):
to just like keep going down this this whole subject, but I'm
going to, I'm going to put a bowon this.
And I and I really want to talk about your nonprofit.
You are clearly a very intentional and purpose LED
individual. Like I can tell that gathering
people and fostering community is really important, which is
(18:04):
obviously so wonderful. Like, the world needs so many
more people like you. So in addition to running this
incredible campground experience, you also run this
nonprofit called Traveling With a Purpose.
Tell us more about this and why Jamaica is so special to you.
Before my husband proposed, I warned him and I said, just so
(18:27):
you know what you're getting into, I really have the desire
to foster or adopt children someday.
And we have done that. We've we've foster children when
we lived in the sticks and bricks and we have two adopted
children from Jamaica. So when we went in 2008, I said,
(18:48):
you know, I'm going to probably fall in love with a child and be
interested in adopting. And we loved the culture.
And there are, there are children that unfortunately have
have adults and parents in theirlife that are not able to parent
(19:09):
them for various reasons, not only in other countries, but in
the US as well. So I just want to acknowledge
that. But we ended up adopting kids
from Jamaica, siblings, my oldest and youngest are from
Jamaica. And we wanted to continue to
support the the staff and the homes that they lived at.
(19:32):
So I brought the best way to do that.
I thought was, yeah, I could go.My husband and I could go and
help and volunteer, but I could do so much more if we brought
other people with us. So we LED several trips several
years apart, and then we broughtthe kids home.
(19:52):
And then I took a long break. We were parenting at the time,
four children. I was still working as a social
worker in the community. I just didn't have time for
that. Time had passed.
You know, the kids got settled and we're we're doing well.
I no longer was working outside of the home.
(20:14):
And some of my friends started calling me and reaching out and
saying, hey, when are you going to lead another trip?
And so I knew it was time. So in 2018 I started planning
another trip for 2019. And when I put it out into the
world, I had 40 people want to come with me.
I can't take 40 people on what? That's way too big.
(20:36):
That was a huge trip. So I said, OK, I don't want to
tell anybody no, you know. So we LED 2 trips back-to-back.
My husband and I were in Jamaicafor three weeks.
It was amazing, but also exhausting at the same time.
And so I LED trips before and people are, you know, checked
(20:59):
that off their bucket list and moved on with their life.
But these 40 people said, OK, sonow what are we going to, how
are we going to continue to support these homes once we come
back to the US? And like, I provided you with
this opportunity, why don't you just check it and move on?
They're like, no, no, we think you need just to start a non
(21:20):
profit. And I had thought about it
before I checked into it. It is a lot of work and it's
expensive to start a non profit.And I said, I, I, I'm not
interested. I've investigated this.
It's it's costly, it's a lot of work.
And they just kept, you know, encouraging.
And they, I finally said, OK, fine, I'll do this, but I'm not
(21:42):
going to do this by myself. I need people to help
financially and I need people tohelp make up the board.
And so we started the process and it took us a year to
complete the process. And in 2020 we got our nonprofit
status. So we have a board.
We have led anywhere between 1:00 and 4:00 trips a year to
(22:04):
Jamaica and we help out the two homes that my children lived at
and then an autism center as well.
So we are different than a lot of mission trip organizations.
So if I, if it's OK with you, I'll just take a minute and
(22:25):
explain how we're different. So a lot of mission trips are
associated with a church and I wanted to make sure that
everybody felt welcome to provide service.
And so we are secular in nature so that it does not matter what
your religion is or if you practice a religion or not, you
(22:47):
are welcome to join us. And then we provide a lot of
training in advance. And I think it's really
important to when you are a guest in another country that
you learn about the local culture so you don't
inadvertently offend locals. And part of that is from our
world schooling experience. You know, there's things that
(23:08):
visitors do that they don't havea clue that is not appropriate
in that country, might be appropriate in the US, but not
in, in a in a country. So we do a lot of training about
culture. We do training about the kids a
little bit, not specific kids, but just general kids who spend
time in institutions. So we do training briefly around
(23:31):
trauma, around attachments and sensory processing disorder,
which a lot of kids who are institutionalized have exposure
to one or all of those things. And we do training just
sometimes this is people's firstexperience leaving the country.
So we do practical training around customs and immigration
(23:53):
and you know that that practicaltraining as well.
And then the other thing that makes us unique with our
nonprofit is we like to leveragepeople's unique skill sets.
So whether it's a hobby or what you did for a career, we want to
make sure that we offer that to our partners in Jamaica and see
(24:17):
if they have a need that matchesthat skill set.
Because I don't want to go thereand hand everybody a paintbrush
and say we're painting a fence when you might be a teacher or
you might, you'd be really good at sewing or you might be good
at construction. We want to make sure or IT or,
(24:38):
or an occupational therapist or whatever, a nurse.
We want to make sure that we're leveraging your unique skill set
and and trying to use that with a need that our partners have in
Jamaica. That is brilliant and I wish
there was more models like that where, you know, let's be
intentional about what people need, where we're visiting and
(25:03):
who what the makeup of the the people in the the party visiting
and how can we work together. That is so brilliant.
Tanya our last trip we had in January, I had one too.
Besides my family, I had three other full time.
Our viewers join us and so if you are considering dabbling and
(25:24):
world schooling or internationaltravel, this is a great
opportunity to to dip your toes into that because I plan the
itinerary so you don't have to worry about that.
But you get to practice, you know, visiting another country
and going through customs and immigration and learning what
you should know about what kind of information you should seek
(25:46):
out before visiting other countries.
So I do advertise in the full time RV community about our
service trips and we will be probably in about a month be
launching our next registration for our next trip in January.
So if we have any viewers that are interested in an
(26:07):
international travel, this mightbe a good opportunity for them
to to try that. This conversation has blown my
mind, Tanya. Seriously, it's been so
interesting, so inspiring. Go ahead and share with everyone
how they can book a stay at fireFirefly Hills, how can they
support your nonprofit and even just connect with you online.
And then I will ask you my finalquestions.
(26:29):
So you can find us, our website for Firefly Hills is Firefly
Hills, kentucky.com. You can find us on Facebook and
Instagram. And our nonprofit, Traveling
with a Purpose is Traveling witha purpose.org.
And you can find us also on Instagram and Facebook as well.
(26:51):
Today I'm going to end with a fun lightning round of questions
to help the audience get to knowthe other side to you.
OK, don't prepare. I know you.
I know you do this, so I'm prepared.
Awesome, so I've got 4 questionstoday.
I'm going to say it. You just say the first thing
that pops in your head. Here we go #1 Imagine you are
(27:13):
hosting a campground karaoke night.
What song are you belting out? Oh my gosh, I don't know.
The only one that comes to mind is the is the one that my
husband wants. He's done and it's another one
bites the dust. Oh really?
But I don't. Know why?
Classic. That's all right, let's roll
(27:34):
with it. All right.
Number 2, when you guys are traveling on the road, are you
more of a let's plan out the whole trip type person or let's
just wing it type person? Both, so I like to plan the the
big things and then leave space in between for more organic stay
(27:57):
it since yeah, excursions. All right #3 what is your go to
road trip snack? And there's no judgement here.
Yes, so it's the peel apart Twizzlers.
Oh really? Yeah, it's it's tasty and fun to
play with. It's the only time that you have
permission to play with your food, right?
It's because you have to peel them apart.
That's a good point. OK, cool.
(28:19):
Last question, if you could havedinner with anyone, living or
dead, who's at your table? She's a writer, Maya Angelou.
I think that's how you pronounceher last name.
She is an African American womanwho is just written some really
inspiring things. And I can't remember how long
ago she passed, but maybe five years ago or something like
(28:42):
that. So I think it would be her.
I would love to meet her. I had a feeling you were going
to pick someone dead because of our conversation.
Maybe she'll come to visit. Maybe she will.
Oh my goodness. All righty, that is a wrap.
Thank you so much for being on the show today, Tanya.
(29:02):
I have really enjoyed this conversation and getting to know
you so much better than I thought I would.
Yeah, thanks, Kate. I appreciate the opportunity and
hopefully, we'll see more of your viewers staying with us
here at Firefly Hills. I've had three RV Queens in the
past awesome 2 weeks. So I love it.
All righty, Tanya, I will see you on the road.
(29:23):
Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode and for being
part of the RV Queens community.Remember to hit subscribe on
whatever platform you're listening on.
And guess what? You can have conversations like
I had on this episode with your fellow RV women who are living
intentionally and making money on the road.
Head to rvqueenspodcast.com/community to
(29:46):
join RV Queens circles today. It's a totally unique online
space with a shared prosperity model that's all about community
over competition. I'd love to have you be a part.
All right, guys, I'll see you next week or hopefully I will
see you on the road. So amazing.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Iâm Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and Iâm so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood youâre able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and lifeâs ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them weâve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I donât take it for granted â click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I canât wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you wonât hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, youâve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.