Poll: Do You Enjoy Visiting 'haunted' or Spooky Locations?

Above, the grave of Bela "Dracula" Lugosi. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

RV Travel has posted a poll asking, Do You Enjoy Visiting 'haunted' or spooky locations?

Personally, the only place I've been to that may qualify as a spooky location was the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. Other than that, I can't think of any other place.

When I was 15, I worked at a convalescent hospital as a dishwasher when I saw a metal dessert cup move by itself on a counter. But that was at work and not on a trip. 

Above, Cedar Hill Cemetery in Ouray, Colorado. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

I did take a Dearly Departed Tour of cemeteries containing celebrity graves about ten years ago. 

The poll begins with:

During your RV travels, do you enjoy visiting “haunted” or just plain spooky locations? These could be old cemeteries, old, haunted mansions, abandoned mental institutions, old jails/prisons, or anything else along those lines.

If you do enjoy visiting those kinds of places, do you seek them out on your travels, or do you only visit them if you come across them along your route or at your destination?

There are many places around the U.S. (and world!) that claim to be “haunted.” Have you ever visited a haunted location and had a ghostly or creepy experience?

To read more and take part in the poll, go here. 

Graceland...Haunted?

Above, the upstairs office windows of Graceland from the backyard. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The first job I ever had was as a dishwasher at a Hawthorne, California convalescent hospital.

One day, I was talking to the cook, whose back was to me and separated by a stainless steel kitchen counter. A metal dessert cup was face down on the table. The table was dry and there were no vibrations. Suddenly, the dessert cup moved, as if by an unseen hand, about seven inches.

Ever since that experience, I don't doubt stories of hauntings and other paranormal activities.

The latest comes from Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion. 

The Express (U.K.) reported:

Elvis Presley lived and died at Graceland 45 years ago. The King was fascinated by death and once visited a morgue in Memphis with his inner circle. His cousin Billy Smith knew it was time to move out of the mansion when he became hearing the late star calling him from upstairs where he suffered a fatal heart attack in 1977.

Speaking previously on his son Danny’s YouTube Channel Memphis Mafia Kid, Billy said of sensing Elvis’ presence at Graceland: “I did. In fact, I guess that was the biggest reason I left Graceland. Got to a point where I’d go to sleep, it’d be early in the morning and I would hear him calling me. And I even got up and got Jo up too. She used to wake up too sometimes close to the same time.”

Yet it was when Billy was near the front of Graceland and he saw the upstairs windows that he says he felt something.

Billy continued: “I’d get dressed and I’d go out to Graceland and for some reason I always looked up at his office window because I felt like he was calling me and he was looking out the window. Oh boy that…that…got to me. And after they brought Elvis’ casket back into Graceland and they buried it then I felt like I was a little more at ease and it was time for me to get out of there.”

Above, the upstairs windows of Elvis Presley's bedroom. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To read more, go here. 

Hauntings: Old Faithful Inn

Above, the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Since we're now in October, a.k.a. the Halloween month, here's a story of alleged hauntings at America's first national park.

At Yellowstone National Park, one of the most popular attractions is not a natural one, but man-made. It is the Old Faithful Inn that is near the geyser of the same name.

An article was posted by KGAB AM 630 on some spooky happenings at the Old Faithful Inn.

They begin with:

Today on Haunted 307, where we explore a different haunted location in the Cowboy State, we're travelling all the way to the first United States National Park, Yellowstone. Nearby the geyser it's named for, the Old Faithful Inn is a stunning work of architecture, but the 85 ft lobby may be hiding something sinister at the peak of it. 

Built on the same location as the Upper Geyser Basin Hotel that burned down, the "Old House" of Old Faithful Inn was the first structure erected in 1903, with more additions being added to keep up with the increased demand for lodging in Yellowstone National Park. The interior of the structure contains four stories of balconies and a chimney and "crow's nest" centered in the mammoth room. 

The hotel boasts being on the National Register of Historic Places, a National Landmark, and has had many notable guests, including Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt. 

But the hotel also has it's legends, and those who stay in the picturesque tourist lodge claim to see guests that never checked out. One guest woke her husband up in the middle of the night while staying in room #2, claiming to see an apparition of a woman dressed in 1890s attire floating above their bed.

Above, the Crow's News above the main lobby of the Old Faithful Inn. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

That's not the only legend of the Old Faithful Inn. There's another one that involves the Crow's Nest above the hotel's main lobby

But you'll have to go here to read about it!