I was reading an article that Marianne had written for Chicago Parent about a tour she took while in London - - the Jack the Ripper Murder Tour! Right up my alley! And it reminded me of a tour I took a few years ago in Las Vegas. My tour wasn't a serial killer murder tour, although murders played a part. Let me explain.
Most people go to Las Vegas to gamble or see The Blue Man Group or Celine Dion. Not me. No way. The blue guys kind of creep me out. So does Celine Dion. Nope, none of that stuff for me. For me? The Haunted Vegas Tour, baby. That's my kind of Vegas vacation. So, while my husband, son and brother-in-law went off to the Excalibur to enjoy a show, eat meat with their hands, and wipe their mouths with their sleeves, my daughter, sister and I boarded a bus, dowsing rods in hand, ready to meet and greet the departed celebrity souls of Las Vegas.
We took our seats on the bus and were already looking out the windows to see if we could "see anything." We hadn't even left the hotel parking lot yet! But, we were excited to see what we could see. As we pulled out, the tour guide told us stories of the haunted places that we would visit, and we got more and more excited. The bus driver took us by Liberace's house and restaurant, our guide regaling us with stories of its haunted history. We drove by the murder site of a rapper - - I want to say CPAC, but I know that's wrong (I've been watching too much politic junk). We went to the Flamingo and toured the garden where Bugsy Siegel's spirit continues to be seen, snapping pictures all the while hoping against hope that we would catch something. We stopped at a park in Henderson said to be the home of several spirits who had been murdered. We all got our cameras out, again hoping to catch something. Personally, I think it was too loud for the spirits because some of the tourists were very irreverent. Amateurs. Not surprisingly, no ghostly apparitions made their presence known at the park. We drove by a few other places - - I don't remember where. I didn't see any ghosts during the tour, the hair on the back of my neck never stood on end, I didn't feel any cold spots, and I never once was scared. Honestly, I was hoping for a little more "haunt" in my haunted tour. But, the tour guides were amusing and the tour was fun, thanks mostly to my sister and daughter.
On The Haunted Vegas Tours website FAQs there is a question: "Is the Haunted Vegas Tour hokey?" The answer on the website: No, of course. My answer: Yeah, it was pretty hokey. It wasn't the Jack the Ripper Murder Tour, but it was fun - - hokey fun. And I got a really cool set of dowsing rods. The guys? Well, they just got heartburn.
Fingers poised on the keyboard . . . waiting for the thoughts to trickle from my brain, down my arm and into those waiting fingers.
* I used to compare my life with others. You know, the grass is always greener kind of thing. So stupid. It took me awhile, but I realized that nobody has a perfect life, we all struggle with something. So glad I realized that - I now look at my own life and see how blessed I am. Do I have a huge house? No. Do I have a huge bank account? No. Do I have a loving husband? Yes. Do I have three terrific children? Yes. And the love we have grows with each addition to our family. SO much better than the huge house and huge bank account. Lesson learned.
* I really, really like Halloween and the season, and I love things paranormal, but I don't think I can write an entire month of blog posts about it! Is it too early to change my blog template to something Christmasy??? Lesson learned.
* Chocolate goes with anything. Lesson learned (fortunately I learned that one early!!).
* Giving really IS better than receiving. I've really know this for a long time, but this lesson is reinforced everytime I hand a dollar to someone holding a sign on a corner (thank you Shelby). Lesson learned.
Life offers many lessons. We all need to be students and pay attention to the teacher! Lesson learned.
But seriously, guys - - is it too early to do the Christmas background??!!
Have you ever seen something out of the corner of your eye and dismissed it, thinking it was your imagination? Hoping it was your imagination?? Most of the time it is your imagination. Most of the time. I've seen those little shadows in my peripheral vision - - a split second snippet of dark movement and then it's gone. And I think no more about it. Certainly it was my imagination or something in my eye. Of course it was. Wasn't it?
My husband is not a lover of things paranormal like I am. We both believe in life after death, but I'm the one who loves to watch paranormal shows and has an EMF detector on my phone - because, well, you just never know. But his idea of a dream vacation is not staying in room 217 at the Stanley Hotel, hoping to be visited by spirits from the beyond. Nope, not him. He'd prefer Hawaii or something. My husband, however, is the one who had a "real" experience. Yes, a REAL one. Hardly seems fair, huh?
When we (my husband) was in graduate school many years ago, he worked full-time at night for the University doing janitorial work. He worked in the maintenance building, which was huge. And he was the only one there at night. Well, maybe I should say he was the only one ALIVE there. I and our children would visit him sometimes to break the monotony of pushing a vacuum all night. It was an old building which had been remodeled, but it was creepy when you were alone at night. It was big with lots of hallways and doors and stairs and machines making strange noises.
My husband worked there for five years, and during that five years he would see things out of the corner of his eye - - he could see shapes, a man and a boy. He could make out blue jeans and a white shirt. But, then, POOF! It was gone. And he thought it was probably his imagination.
On one particular night, however, he was vacuuming a long hallway, with open offices on either side, as he had done many many times before. This time it was different. Above the sound of the vacuum he thought he could hear someone running down the hallway, which was weird since he was supposed to be the only one in the building. He could hear the sounds of feet or shoes hitting the ground, and it was getting louder and closer. He turned off the vacuum and looked toward the direction of the sound, wondering who would be there so late, and why were they running? That's when he saw it. It. It was a gray, transparent shape, not quite a person . . . running down the hall and getting closer to him. The sound was getting louder and he was getting a little freaked out. He stood there, frozen, watching as the shape flew past him, not noticing or not caring that my husband was standing there. The sound dissipated as the figure got further down the hall, and then the sound and the figure were gone. Needless to say, my husband was stunned. He knew it wasn't his imagination. He had seen it. He had heard it. He looked down at his arms and they were void of color and the hairs on his arms were standing on end. That was enough for him. He came home for the night.
Nowadays, when I watch Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, The Dead Files, Paranormal Witness and all the other shows like that on TV, my boys laugh and mock me.
But my husband? He just looks at me and doesn't say a word. Because he knows.
Okay, so most of you know about my love for all things paranormal. Whether it's the inexplicable way my dog keeps getting on the dining room table in the middle of the night, or the haunted bathroom in my husband's elementary school, or watching paranoramal shows on TV, or playing with my own EMF detector on my iPhone (yes, I downloaded an app for that), it's all fascinating to me. So, needless to say I was kind of excited about a new show, "Haunted Highway," on Syfy last night. I hunkered down on the couch next to my convalescing, appendix-less daughter, and waited with great anticipation for the start of the show. I hadn't read about it beforehand, but to me the title spoke for itself. This must be a show about haunted highways. Right? Oooh, creepy and spine tingly - yes? Not exactly. Not even remotely.
Without going into boring detail, it was NOT a show about haunted highways (which I would have loved, by the way). It was a show about "investigating" places that are "purported" to be "haunted" - - places that you can get to from . . . you guessed it . . . a highway. Well, I'm sorry. I can get to my grocery store from the highway. I can get to just about any place from the highway. And most of those places are probably not haunted. The "investigations" were less than investigatory, and to make matters worse - - one of the "investigators" was Jack Osbourne. Yes. THAT Jack Osbourne. I really have nothing against Jack Osbourne. But honestly, all I could think about while watching him was wacky Ozzy, America's Got Talent (with their British judge Sharon), and his chubby sister who is now not so chubby.
I was disappointed. I was looking forward to being scared and creeped out and feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand up straight. Instead, all I felt was gypped.
I shall not watch Haunted Highway again - - - instead, I think I would rather watch Pawn Stars or a rerun of Cupcake Wars. Sigh.
Okay, time to get back to normal. PARAnormal, that is. I was reading about a hotel in Oklahoma City . . . the Skirvin Hilton (formerly Skirvin Hotel). It first opened in 1911. It's haunted. For real. Honest. A spirit told me so. The Chicago Bulls stayed there and reported doors slamming shut on their own and strange sounds outside their rooms. The New York Knicks stayed there, too. In January of 2010 they even blamed a loss to the Thunder on the haunted hotel. Yes, indeed, they did. They weren't outplayed by the Thunder, they were freaked out . . . by the ghosts. A couple of their key players were so freaked by the stories they had heard about the haunted hotel that they couldn't even sleep. One of the big guys stayed in his teammate's room curled up in a corner on the floor, shaking in fear . . . all night long. So the story goes. Just because you're big doesn't mean you're brave. So, of course, the Knicks didn't play their best game the next day. Hard to play, I guess, when you've been up all night quivering like a baby.
The story goes like this . . .
The original owner had an affair with a maid (Effie) and she got pregnant. The dirtbag owner wanted to protect his reputation so he locked her up on the 10th floor. Her entire pregnancy. See, I told you he was a dirtbag. Needless to say, Effie got a little depressed. DB owner still kept her locked up even after she had her baby. Effie couldn't handle it anymore and jumped out the window - with her baby - killing them both. In some versions of the same story, the maid is described as "loose" and some men who have stayed in the hotel have reported being propositioned by a female voice. Others have claimed to have seen a naked woman with them while taking a shower (yeah, they wish). Another man even claimed that he was sexually assaulted by an invisible entity while staying at the hotel. Hmmm. Wonder exactly how that works?
Anyway, Effie is said to hang out at the hotel. And hotel workers say they see objects moving by themselves and have heard weird noises at night.
Next time I'm in OKC, I think I may stay at the Skirvin :) I may not be as big as a NY Knick, but I think I may be a little braver. We shall see.
After 30 years, I have reconnected with a friend through facebook. We shared an awesome spiritual experience many years ago, and it's been fun to get to know her a little . . . now that we're all grown up!
And . . . she blogs AND shares my interest in the paranormal (or at least doesn't think I'm a total weirdo!). She lives in Pennsylvania and told me recently that there is a haunted old state mental hospital near her hometown. Hmmmm. So, I did a little googling and found that there is more than one haunted state mental hospital in the great state of PA. Old Torrance State Mental Hospital, Polk Mental Hopsital, Byberry Mental Hospital . . . and the infamous Pennhurst State Hospital. PLUS . . . Eastern State Penitentiary, which I really really really want to visit someday. I kind of wanted to go with Zac and the guys from Ghost Adventures, but they did their investigation without me. Oh well. Their loss.
But maybe when we're done with Olalla, we'll have to hit Pennsylvania! Do some ghost hunting and some catching up!
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