I do believe in spooks... I do believe in spooks...

Sorry about some of the photo formatting in that Halloween post- Blogger/Firefox were not co-operating last night, and I finally just got frustrated and posted even though it didn't look how I wanted it to look. Ah well.


Last night, in the spirit of Halloween, I watched "Ghost Hunters" live from the Stanley Hotel. The Stanley is the hotel used as the basis for the Stephen King novel, "The Shining". He actually stayed there before he wrote the book and I think for a little while when he was writing it too. The Stanley is used for the exterior shots of the hotel in the movie (but they used a different interior). When they re-made the movie for TV a couple of years ago, they used both the interior and the exterior of the hotel. The hotel is supposed to be haunted by a lot of different people. Workers, guests, staff, even Stanley family members.
Now apparently the last time the TAPS team was in the Stanley they had quite a lot of paranormal activity to report. Windows breaking, music playing, things moving, etc. But last night, they only had a handful of "cold spots" and around 11:15, the phone rang in 2 rooms and there was no one on the other end. But like one of the investigators said, "Someone is just screwing around, Ghosts don't use the phone!" They may have seen something later on, but I had to go to bed. They are going to run the highlights next Wednesday, I should have just waited for that.

Bullinger and I stayed in the Stanley Hotel when were coming back from the Grand Canyon, it was the final night of our trip. While it is a beautiful hotel and it was really cool to see it in person rather than just on TV, I didn't feel particularly creeped out while we were there, and I didn't see any ghosts, though both of us were really wishing that we would! (ok...at least in theory we were hoping. If I ever really saw a ghost, I am sure I would be kicking myself for wishing it would happen.)
I've really only had one experience where I have been scared enough to really truly believe that a ghost was near. It was when Dude and I went to Mineral Point, WI and stayed at the Jones Mansion, which was being run as a B&B, (it looks like it's a little different now) I think the story was that the man had built the house for his family, and they were supposed to move out from Chicago, but he died just before the house was finished, and his widow and children never lived in the house. If I remember right, I think there was also a rumor that she was having an affair in Chicago. Anyway, we were staying in a nice room with an attached bath that had a huge claw foot tub. I had taken a bath earlier in the evening and then we settled down and went to sleep. Around 2am, I woke up and I thought I heard water running in the tub, but when I listened, then I heard nothing. Dude was still sleeping and my mind was racing. Finally I just started to drift off to sleep again and I heard splashing noises coming from the bathroom. (it creeps me out even to think about it!) The kind of splashing that happens when someone is moving in the water, or washing with a washcloth, not big splashing that little kids do. At that point I was fully freaked out and woke Dude up and made him go look in the bathroom. Nothing. I got brave and went and looked too- still nothing. Never heard any other noises- I know, because I was awake the rest of the night.