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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Spooky Time!


Jack o' Lanterns at Colorado's Stanley Hotel

Now I ask you to put down your Halloween nog and ask yourself, what's October week without me carrying on, & posting any spooky shite of the past year? Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

The only truly, very nearly spooky shite I've personally experienced this past year took place in my home. I was crawling into bed one night and suddenly I could detect the strong aroma of a flower. Now, there were no flowers in my bedroom, the windows were closed, and even if the window was open, there were no flowers outside. I have a spray bottle of lavender by my bed, but that wasn't it... What I smelled was super fresh, and not lavender. I couldn't quite recall the fragrance. What the...? I dismissed the incidence from my mind.

Some weeks later, I was again in bed, and I suddenly got a strong whiff of a fresh flower. This time the scent rang the right bell in my noggin; plumeria, my mother's favorite fragrance. Where did it come from? It was so fresh, like a bouquet at my nose and it completely disappeared after about 30 seconds or so. Ma? I swear, I wonder if that scent was just my mother saying hello. Yeah, you're right. I'm nuts.

In other spooky shite this year I visited loads of spooky places the most renowned of which was the Stanley Hotel.

Come on, nothing spooky looking about the Stanley, right?

The Stanley Hotel is mostly famous for spooking the king of the horror genre, Stephan King and inspiring him to write his horror classic; The Shining. Without admitting their hotel contains any spooks, the Stanley hotel tips its hat to its spirits by playing The Shining on its televisions, all day, every day.


The telly in our room, played The Shining, 24/7 - really!

Can't say we didn't stay there solely because it is reportedly haunted. The place is also a beautiful facility that is steeped in local and American history. Who wouldn't want to stay at a hotel that once hosted the Unsinkable Molly Brown, the Emperor of Japan and the fore mentioned Stephan King?


Room 217, was Stephan King's room, where he
ultimately wrote about Jack, the mad boy


The elegant Georgian style hotel has an elegant set of stairs.


This beautiful lobby piano is said to surreptitiously play itself


One of Freelan O. Stanley's Steamers

What's spooky about the Stanley Hotel? The forth floor, which has elegant gables, was where servants, nannies and their little charges stayed. People staying on the forth floor are said to sometimes report that children are running up & down the 4th floor halls - and of course, there are never any kids up there at the time.


The gables of the 4th floor haunted by
the sound of romping ghostly children

There are other haunts about, including a maid that is said to approve or disapprove of people in a certain room. If she likes you she might unload your suitcase for you, but meet her disapproval and she will cast your things to the floor.

Barbara and I were booked in the Mansion House, next door to the main hotel. Haunted? We weren't certain, but I hoped we would find out. I could have taken part in an overnight Ghost Hunt at the Stanley but frankly... I didn't have the energy.


The Manor House, where we stayed

Shortly after checking in a did a quick tour of the Manor House, which looks like it'd be a fantastic place to film a horror movie.


A gloomy-ish room in the rejuvenated Manor House

So is the Manor house haunted? I sure didn't think so. I was in a tiny roll away bed and was sleepy enough to not care. Well into the wee hours of the night I woke to an eerie sound.... a long whiney call, that echoed through the halls and into our room. WHAT THE...! I mean, I was prepared for something unusual, but this was so loud, so haunting so... stupid. It was a fire alarm. The damned thing whined on and flashed lights for about an hour before the local fire fighters showed up to turn it off. Ghostly? Uh... no, just incredibly annoying.


Me scared? Heck no. I was just admiring the view

Well, at least someone seems to have
enjoyed her stay at the Stanley...

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