Joined: Jun 09, 2006 Posts: 609 Location: Duluth, GA
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 6:40 pm Post subject: My fall vacation or why I went to prison
As many of you know I spent this past weekend at Alcatraz. Now when I say spent the weekend, I don't mean that I went there on one of the touristy type trips, I actually got the oppertunity to sleep on the island. This came about because of the Nevada Spirit Seekers.
Typically (as I have stated before) I freak out because of trips and do a weird packing ritual, but do to an insane work schedule I was not able to go through my routine. So Thursday night I spent my time doing two loads of laundry and packing. I finally crashed out at around 3am which was about enough time for me to get into a decent dream before my alarm started going off. I made my way to the airport and was pleasantly surprised that there was next to no one there. I made it through security quickly and stopped off to grab some breakfast.
Once on the flight I found myself seated next to a lovely young woman who was reading a book written in Hebrew. It was kind of strange to see as it was a novel. I have seen dozens of religous text written in Hebrew, but for some reason had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that it is used to write everyday books. I shared my thoughts with my neighbor and she laughed.
Once on the ground in San Francisco I ran into a slight issue. The rental car company had given my reservation away because they had thought that I was on an earlier flight. After some haggling I ended up in a 2007 Mustang convertable. I didn't complain much after that.
I made my way directly to the Winchester Mystery House after leaving the airport. The house itself is amazing...and huge. I spent an hour wandering around the garden area before heading in for the mansion tour. The tour number was 13 and I felt pretty good about that since it was Mrs. Winchester's favority number. I am glad that it was a guided tour because I would have gotten lost after the first five minutes. Our guide was a fairly funny guy and kept the tour fair light hearted. I took a ton of photos and recorded the entire tour, but didn't not pick up anything unusual.
Since I had been up for a very long time I decided to find a hotel for the night. I ordered dinner and settled in to watch the Wizard of Oz. I woke extremely early in the morning and had planned on heading down to the dock/beach area near my hotel to take some pictures when I walked outside and discovered that it was 1) cold and 2) raining. So I instead settled on grabbing breakfast. I was one of the few people in the dining area and ended up talking with my waiter and the waitress at length. When I told them what I was going to be doing for the night I got completely opposite reactions. My waiter proclaimed me insane and the waitress thought it was the coolest thing she had ever heard. Always strange to get people's reactions when they discover what it is I do for a hobby.
After I ate breakfast I went back up to the room and got ready to leave. I left the hotel and went to the pier. I ended up being really early so I spent some time wandering around. It was still raining some so I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of the area.
I found the group heading out to Alcatraz and started making some introductions. Once again my name seemed to proceed me as I got a lot of "Oh, you're Eeek!". I also ran into Chad Calek, Justin and Corey. All of whom seemed to be sporting matching zipper hoodies that had a suspiciously place "Rising" on the back and over the heart. I asked Chad about it and was simply told that it was the name of a new show. Could this be the much talked about new paranormal TV show he has mentioned? We also met our ranger for the evening. Mr. Ranger was special.
The ferry ride out was a little chilly. The rain was starting to pick up and a fog was rolling in. I have to say arriving on Alcatraz in those conditions was really cool. The island is seriously imposing when you are coming up to it. By the time we reached the island we could no longer see the city of San Francisco.
We stepped off the boat and were immediately ushered to an area so that Mr. Ranger could give us the rules and regulations for the evening. So after we were assured that if we broke the rules there was some kind of card that would be pulled (or something bad would happen to our dogs...don't ask..and yes I value my tibia) we made our way up to one of the old factories to store our gear while we did a walk around the island.
Now for the next part you have to remember that none of us were dressed for rain. We were told that we would be walking the island and picking up trash as part of the deal for staying on the island. Before we had even made it half way around I was completely soaked to the bone and absolutely misreable. I was so ready to get inside some place and try to dry off. The decision was finally made that we would make our way up to the cell house area and those who wanted to could go through a little bit more of a tour. I chose to stay behind in the bookstore area and chat with a few different people.
Mr. Ranger came back and we all headed back down to the factory for dinner. It was a nice relaxed time that I enjoyed mainly because there was a grill that was warm and that I huddled around as much as possible. Thank you to the kind individuals that fed me while there. The majority of the group took off to do another quick tour while about six of us stayed in the factory. While I wanted to do the tour there was the whole having to leave my new best friend (the grill) behind. While we were there something made a really loud rumbling noise that shook the building. At first we assumed that it was the group on the tour since they were going through some tunnels under the factory. When they returned they all assured us that they did not make any noise resembling it and that they hadn't heard it.
The rest of the group returned and we made our way back up to the cell house and started getting equipment out and choosing our bunks for the evening. I stayed behind and decided to crash out for a little while (and to let my feet dry out). I covered up in my coat and crashed hard. I woke up around 2am and found that the majority of everyone else had fallen asleep. I ran into Chad again and asked (okay begged) for more information concerning whatever "Rising" is. He wouldn't tell me.
One of the things that I noticed while we were sitting there was the fact that you couldn't see anything past the boundary of the railing that lined the edge of the island. Between the darkness and the fog that had settled on the place all of the lights from the city were completely cut off. For the first time I got a slight clue of what it must have been like to be a prisoner on the island. The isolation of the place just settled on you like a blanket.
He wandered back in to crash out and I headed to the infirmary. That place is one freaky place. It is almost dead quiet compared to the rest of the cell house. I walked down towards the isolation ward but stopped short at one of the cells. I walked in and found a sign that told it was Robert Stroud's cell (the bird man of Alcatraz). I did a short EVP session (did not get anything) and continued towards the isolation area. The area around it has a weird calming feeling that I cannot really explain. I thought that it would have been full of emotions, but instead it just felt comfortable to be there.
I turned and started to make my way back to the front of the ward when I heard what sounded like foot steps behind me. I stopped and shined my light back down the hall but didn't see anything. I started walking again, but instead of stopping I simply turned on my DVR to see if I could capture it. Unfortunately I was not able to. The followed me until I hit the steps going down and then the steps stopped. I spent the next couple of hours wandering around the cell house and outside on the island before returning to my cell to get some more sleep. Before dozing off I went ahead and turned on my recorder to let it run through the rest of the night. I am waiting to go through the data on that part, but from a quick listen I think I may captured something.
We woke up the next morning packed up our gear and headed down to the dock to wait for the first ferry. The morning was absolutely fantastic. It was a little chilly, but the sun was out and we were treated to an amazing view of the bridges and the city. Everyone was extremely tired and wore out from the day before, but excited to get home to start going over their evidence.
The ride back was over much too quickly as we were all sad to leave such a great location. Goodbyes and well wishes were said as everyone made their way to their various vehicles and got on the road home.
I put the Mustang's engine to good use in order to get to the airport as quickly as possible. I was lucky enough to get on an earlier flight home which put me back in Atlanta an hour and a half before I was originally scheduled. This was a good thing as I had to be at work at 1am on Monday morning.
All in all my experience at Alcatraz left me in awe of the place. The size of the island (22 acres) just didn't seem big enough when you looked out at the city. _________________ Eeek the Kat (aka Darren)
Orbs Explained
False positives explained
1,2
Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles. -Charlie Chaplin
Last edited by eeek_the_kat on Tue Nov 13, 2007 8:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
Joined: Jun 09, 2006 Posts: 609 Location: Duluth, GA
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 7:12 pm Post subject:
The pictures will be up soon. I haven't been home since getting back long enough to upload them. I will post a link as soon as I get them out there. _________________ Eeek the Kat (aka Darren)
Orbs Explained
False positives explained
1,2
Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles. -Charlie Chaplin
Joined: May 27, 2005 Posts: 108 Location: Lake Geneva, WI
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:28 am Post subject: esp
Eeeek,
Funny you should say the part about expecting to have all sorts of emotions in the cell, but instead feeling comfortable and calm. This is exactly what I experienced at Eastern State....I actually felt safe and happy in most of the cells. Almost like I didn't want to go out to the hall of the cell block.
Joined: Jun 09, 2006 Posts: 609 Location: Duluth, GA
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 12:32 pm Post subject:
Jesse wrote:
Hope you didn't drop the soap. How many people were in prisoned with you? Can't wait to see the photos.
Overnight there were a total of 36 of us on the island (34 guest, 1 ranger, 1 security guard). _________________ Eeek the Kat (aka Darren)
Orbs Explained
False positives explained
1,2
Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles. -Charlie Chaplin
Joined: Jun 09, 2006 Posts: 609 Location: Duluth, GA
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 12:44 pm Post subject: Re: esp
cbreck wrote:
Eeeek,
Funny you should say the part about expecting to have all sorts of emotions in the cell, but instead feeling comfortable and calm. This is exactly what I experienced at Eastern State....I actually felt safe and happy in most of the cells. Almost like I didn't want to go out to the hall of the cell block.
I'm just saying,
Carol B.
I didn't think about it at the time, but if you think about it there are a lot of stories of inmates injuring themselves in order to get out of the general population. That would give a feeling of comfort to a degree at least for a little while. _________________ Eeek the Kat (aka Darren)
Orbs Explained
False positives explained
1,2
Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles. -Charlie Chaplin
Patrick mentioned how calm and peaceful things felt there as well, Eeek, not just in the cells but on the island as a whole--definitely not what he was expecting. I'm sure when he gets back in town next week, he'll share his own thoughts and results on the trip.
Joined: Jun 09, 2006 Posts: 609 Location: Duluth, GA
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 7:36 pm Post subject:
I have listened to the EVP, but I am waiting on confirmation on something before I share it out with everyone (if I decide to do so). _________________ Eeek the Kat (aka Darren)
Orbs Explained
False positives explained
1,2
Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles. -Charlie Chaplin
Joined: Jun 09, 2006 Posts: 609 Location: Duluth, GA
Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:11 am Post subject:
goohsmom wrote:
Patrick mentioned how calm and peaceful things felt there as well, Eeek, not just in the cells but on the island as a whole--definitely not what he was expecting. I'm sure when he gets back in town next week, he'll share his own thoughts and results on the trip.
Pam
I definitely look forward to hearing his impressions on Alcatraz (as well as the other locations). _________________ Eeek the Kat (aka Darren)
Orbs Explained
False positives explained
1,2
Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles. -Charlie Chaplin
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Those are some very nice pictures, I like the IR effect with the island shots, particularly.
