Our haunted vacations

On our next haunted vacation we will be going back to the place that started it all. The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs. http://www.crescent-hotel.com/ It is widely considered the most haunted hotel in the United States.

Built in 1886 the former rehabilitation hospital turned women's university turned mountain resort hotel was made famous more recently by the SCIFI channel's hit show Ghosthunters when the TAPS investigators captured a full body apparition of a civil war era soldier. Here is the clip.

Along for the trip this time will be our friends Caitlin and Dana. Conner has invited one of his buddy's from our 2010 Jaguars, Cole.

Since we have had quite a few personal experiences at the Crescent in the past(see this blogs first three posts), there is a good chance Caitlin and Dana will be able to have some fun interacting with the 140 year old hotel's original guests. I coached Cole so I know he is a tough kid and can handle himself on the gridiron but he may find it a little different when you can't see the opponent. We will see if everyone is up for it.

To Be Continued...

St. Louis, MO

April 20-23 2010

We went to St Louis to attend a Mark Knopfler concert and stayed at the Lemp Mansion. Built in the mid 1800's and reportedly one of the most haunted locations in the USA. We stayed in the Elsa Lemp suite while my mother and father-in-law stayed in the Louis Lemp suite and our kids, Conner and Chloe stayed in the Frederick Lemp suite. All three suite's were on the third(top) floor of the mansion. There were no other guests at the mansion during our stay so we had the place to ourselves after the restaurant shut down around 3:00 PM everyday. A brief history of the mansion can be found athttp://www.lempmansion.com/history.html Also worthy of mention is the outstanding service we received from the staff and owners. They overwhelmed us with their hospitality.

The first night we checked in around 2:00 PM and got settled in. The staff was gone by 4:00 leaving us alone with the run of the house. The owners left all the doors to the rooms open and all lights off when they left. Right off the bat it is a spooky feeling wandering around in an unfamiliar home looking for light switches. Especially the huge Lemp Mansion. Not to mention it is said to be one of the top haunted locations in the USA.

The most common strange experiences we had occurred in our suites. We each had times when we had keys, phones, and other items completely disappear from the location we left them in, only to appear later after a thorough search in the strangest locations (bathroom shelves, closet shelves, and inside never opened dresser drawers). This happened everyday, several times a day, the whole time we were there.

Every night we would wander the halls of the 30+ room mansion ghost hunting.

We used digital camcorders, digital cameras, audio recorders, k2 and EMF meters, and we even tried a few IPhone apps.

On the first night Conner and I decided to investigate the whole house room by room. We started at the bottom and went throughout the house to make sure no one else was there at about 9:30. We found many high readings with the EMF detector and it seemed there was too much wiring electrical issues to depend on the EMF detectors for paranormal hits.

We also took video and audio recordings most of the time. While at the bottom of the enclosed 4 flight staircase, I told Conner to go to the top and I would take a photo with my IPhone of him videoing me at the bottom. As he got to the top he was looking down at me as I was aiming the camera-phone at him and I felt something moving in my front right pocket of my shorts. A few seconds later I heard a rattle to my left at the maid's station trash/laundry box 6-7 feet away. We both looked over in time to see the EMF detector (from my front left pants pocket) slide into the hole in the top of box. It seemed to teeter for a second or two on the edge then fall in.

It had moved out of my pocket, across the room and into the box completely unaided by either of us and we both witnessed it from different locations. Unfortunately Conner was not yet filming when it happened so we were not able to document it other than a personal experience. We experimented a little and determined there was no way it could have fallen out of my pocket into the laundry box.

On the second night we heard footsteps and voices on the second floor around 11:00 PM and I was able to catch some of it on video. I heard some footsteps and began filming as I was headed down the stairs.

As I neared the 2nd floor landing you can hear a woman and a man's voice clearly arguing or discussing something but I was unable to determine what was being said. At the time there was no-one else in the mansion. Later in the night I heard a woman's voice, whisper in my ear my name. It was clear and unmistakable.

Around 02:00 AM, I went alone through the whole mansion room by room and around the outside of the building taking pictures and filming. Unfortunately, I didn't have any experiences other than being spooked while walking around a 150 year old dark mansion in the middle of the night alone.

We only captured a little video evidence, a couple of photos with some unusual objects in them, and a digital audio recording of some footsteps in the hallway out side our room. We did, however, have quite a few strange personal experiences.

3 pics shot in from same spot in hallway of 3rd floor on 2nd night

The third night we attended the Mark Knopfler concert with front row seats.

We sat next to and met Isaac (famous among MK fans for attending every show and his daily tour diary.) He blogged about us that night. see: http://gl.isaac.shabtay.com/2010/04/concert-day-fox-theatre-saint-louis-mo.html

We even got a mention in the official MK tour diary written by producer and keyboard player Guy Fletcher. (down toward the bottom of the page) http://www.guyfletcher.co.uk/index.php/getluckytour2010/22nd_April_-_Saint_Louis_-_Fox_Theatre

We had a great time and got back around 12:15 AM. Everyone sat on the porch for a while and I went up with Chloe to put her in bed with her clutching her new drums sticks (Thanks to Danny Cummings MK's drummer).

I had the keys to one of the Lemp brothers suites as well as my keys. I tried to open the door on the Fredrick then the Louis suite but couldn't get either unlocked with Chloe in tow. I went back to my opened suite and laid her on the bed and used the rest room. When I came back out I found Conner had come up with no key and walked right in his door to his suite and was laying on the bed. I am sure it was locked when I was trying 5 minutes earlier and I know Conner did not have a key. Some how the door was unlocked with no key. A little later Kim, her parents, and Conner were coming up the stairs and saw the light in the 3rd floor hallway switch on by itself lighting up the 3rd floor landing. Conner and Kim could see it turn on, but everyone heard the loud snap as it switched on. It happened a little later in the same fashion and I was able to catch it on video. I also captured a couple of light anomalies on dig camera a little later when I took three quick pics in succession. With everyone asleep I turned in when my IPhone battery suddenly drained about 3:30 AM.