Day 216: My Haunted U.S. Tour

Back in 2009, I believe was the year, I decided to get a woman out of my head by doing something I had threatened for a long time, a driving tour of America. Since I would be going in October, I decided to try and make the theme all about haunted locations. So, I picked a stop in every contiguous state that was supposedly haunted or connected to horror in some way (like Poe's grave in Baltimore).

Over the course of 6 days, I drove from Asheville, NC back to Greenville, SC the long way. I was by myself except for meeting up with some friends in Utah and Massachusetts. About 30% of my attempts to find haunted locations ended in failures because the location was on private property or a cemetery was locked up or I had just shown up at the wrong time (there is a fort in Ohio that is only closed on Tuesdays, what the hell?). Of those places I did get to see, most were in the daylight but I took lots of pictures. Some came out with orbs in them like at Forepaugh's Restaurant in Minnesota or this haunted graveyard in Kentucky where an angel is supposed to assault you if you are there at midnight. The creepiest place I went was an old prison museum in Montana where I could hear footsteps above me despite being totally alone in the building.

I never got to see a ghost or a witch but I did get to see lots of the U.S. I had never seen before. Some places made it feel like I was being watched, like an abandoned train station in California or the Dead Presidents Bar in Delaware. Some places were just perfectly nice. I saw a lot of cool graveyards. I listened to horror books on CD in the car and watched horror movies at night in my hotels. The whole thing was exhausting but worth it. I would do it again with slightly better preparation if I had the time and money.

Go and plan a scary vacation of your own. Go have an adventure. Life is short.