The premise of In Search Of, was a mystery of the week. UFOs, Big Foot, the Bermuda Triangle, Amelia Earhart and of course, Ghosts. Little wonder then that I am fascinated by such mysteries as an adult.
I was on vacation this past week, kinda one of those stay-cations I've heard about. I accomplished absolutely nothing. Well, part of that was a stomach bug that hit me mid-week, but really the only thing I did was laundry and watch an entire season of Pretty Little Liars. I'm sure I'll have more to say about PLL another time.
So Friday and Saturday Dear Husband and I drove north to the thriving metropolis of Monticello IN, home of the local amusement park Indiana Beach, Lakes Shafer and Freeman, and the Shafer Queen. Side note, the Indiana Beach slogan is "There Is More Than Corn In Indiana." Yep. I live here, and I while I can tell you that is true, it's not by much in this part of the state. Unless you want to drive a bit, then Lafayette and Indy have some attractions.
Despite the endless cornfields of the area, they managed to put together a Paranormal Convention, held at the Brandywine Hotel and Conference Center. Its main focus was to bring awareness to a charity called Lost Limbs Foundation, great organization dedicated to providing financial assistance to families of children who need medical and prosthetic assistance.
This event was first brought to my attention by a Facebook and Twitter post from Jim Beaver, one of my favorite human beings on the planet. Yes, I met him and I still feel that way. He's a great guy. Not only did he play Bobby Singer on my favorite TV show on the planet Supernatural, but he is an author, film critic and historian, and expert on Superman.
Jim kindly posted a link to the convention info and much to my delight, this was nearly in my backyard. Monticello is only about an hour away from my house. Yay!
Then I noticed Steve Gonsalves from Ghost Hunters was going to be there. Be still my beating heart. I've been a fan of Ghost Hunters since the first episode nine seasons ago. I love the fact that they are less "woo woo" and more about trying to find logical explanations for things. What can't be explained is then investigated as a possible paranormal event.
As an added bonus, there was a ghost hunt. At Indiana Beach. At night. Nope, nothing creepy about that.
So this is how it went.
Friday night was the VIP party. DearHusband and I headed that way as soon as he returned home from work. My sister watched the dogs, so we were good to go.
First bonus - front row parking at the hotel. Woo Hoo!
The convention was held in a gymnasium. In the summer. In Indiana. So basically it was hot and humid even indoors. Good times. I'm hoping I lost a few pounds along the way. I had dehydration cramps only once.
VIP party. For those of you who have never been to one, they are the best way to meet famous people without fighting your way through hundreds if not thousands of other fans. If you have the chance and the money, DO IT. It's fun in a totally fangirl kinda way.
Honestly, this was my first one. I had no idea what to expect, how to dress, or if we were getting fed. So of course I tried to wear something middle of the road. A summer sweater was NOT the way to go. And I made my husband wear long pants vs. the shorts he wanted to wear. I'm still hearing about that one.
We enter the gym and promptly meet Mike Couch, founder of the Lost Limbs Foundation. Very nice guy. He immediately made me feel better about not having any idea of what I was doing or where I was going. And I got to meet his mom, who was helping out at the desk. I love when families help out together.
And so we go in and sit. We say hi to our fellow VIPers and exchange pleasantries. I notice most are dressed cooler than I am. Then they start to arrive.
Eep.
Honestly, I do not remember who arrived first. I was in full-blown fangirl mode by this time. I was hanging onto my folding chair like a small child spying on Santa Claus.
There was a lady standing behind me that was speaking to her friends. When she turned around and saw Jim, I believe her words were, "Oh My God, It's Jim Beaver. I ... Can't ... Aaahh...!" I was so glad I wasn't the only one.
Then we were mingling.
We said hello to Jim Beaver first. After all, he was main reason I wanted to go and it was his post that told me about the event being in my area. Super great guy to talk to. We spoke for about 10 minutes. I have no idea what we talked about. And yet it was still awesome.
Then people started getting photos taken. My husband and I both got pictures with Jim.
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| DH and Jim |
(Sorry for the blurriness.)
Next we cornered Steve Gonsalves and Josh Gates.
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| Steve, me and Josh |
I remember that they had the longest line :)
At this point, I had to go to the car. I left my good camera and a bag with two books for autographs in the back seat. Because I just didn't know. When I returned, it was time for the official part to begin. Dorothy Salvo Davis was the Event Coordinator and introduced Mike, followed by each of the special guests.
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| Josh and Steve |
Now since no good party is complete without cake, we celebrated Jim and Josh's birthdays. The cakes were really cool. Jim's Beatle's cake even tasted amazing. If anyone knows how to contact the baker of these cakes, please let me know. I need to thank him/her personally.
Since I wasn't done stalking Jim yet, I had him sign my copy of his book, Life's That Way. 
It is an amazing book. Read it, if you can. My sister was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma last year, and I read it when I was looking for anything I could get my hands on to try and get a handle on things. Jim asked how she is doing. When I told him she kicked it in the butt and is on the verge of an all clear, he gave a little jump of celebration. It meant a lot to me.
Through the rest of the night, we met the rest of the special guests, including members of the ghost hunting team going on the hunt Saturday night. The group is the Wabash Paranormal Research Society, lead by James Holsclaw. I could not wait to go there.
We met Cassidy Rae, who I instantly adored. We spoke with her several minutes before I know two things. 1. She is young. Like younger than my kid young. And 2. She is a medium.
I've never met a medium before. I've been curious, but never either made the effort or found the time. I tend to be a little less on the "woo woo" side of things, but I do believe some people have that talent. No crystal balls, dramatic voice inflections or chicken feet. To my relief, she appeared to be every bit your average teenager. Who just happened to see dead people. I would love to see her again.
As an added bonus, the Mystery Machine was there. A real, live van done up just like the one in the Scooby Doo cartoon and actually used for promotional gigs by Hanna Barbera. I have to admit, that was a fun addition.
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The whole gang. Josh Gates, Jim Beaver, Cassidy Rae, Mike Couch,
Phil Summers and Steve Gonsalves.
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| Here's Josh with his designated driver, Scooby. |
Then it was time to rest up because Saturday was going to be a long day. How long, I had no idea. But I'll get to it.
Here's a tip. Even if it's local, spring for the hotel. I live an hour away and that was too far.
Saturday.
After falling into bed about 1 AM (our fault - we were wired from the VIP party), we were back up at the convention center at 10 AM. There were raffles for door prizes, of which I promptly won one. Turns out I won an item that I sell at the store where I work. DH and I got a good laugh out of it.
There was a vendor area and concessions. There were ghost hunter groups, authors, autographs for the special guests and a few others. Fun find: The Crawfordsville Jail had a group there and the jail is notorious for not only being haunted but the fact that John Dillinger escaped from there. Yeah, I'm going to have to go on the tour.
Next were the special guest presentations. First up, Lost Limbs founder Mike Couch.
You can not help but admire anyone that finds something to be passionate about and then does something with it. Having a prosthetic himself, he is only too aware of the emotional and financial burden that comes with the process. The fund's mission "is to provide financial assistance to the families of amputee children who are in need of medical and prosthetic assistance." For an adult, a prosthetic leg can cost around $60,000. Rarely is it a one time event. With children, they are still growing and there are often medical issues to deal with on an ongoing basis.
So yeah. A good cause to become involved in. Especially with Boston still lingering in everyone's hearts and minds and bringing it all home.
The panels were a lot of fun, despite the heat and the acoustics of the racketball court. Most were a lot of personal anecdotes from their experiences and it was well balanced with Q&A from the audience. It was small, intimate and I sincerely hope everyone felt it was a great way to get up close and personal with these great guests. I've been to a few conventions now and this just doesn't happen. Yeah, I'm talking to you, Supernatural Chicago Con. I love you, but I could never have had a conversation about Chicago style pizza with Jensen Ackles like I did with Jim. Ok, I'd still like to give it a shot, but I won't hold my breath.
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| Josh Gates |
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| Cassidy Rae |
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| Jim Beaver |
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| Steve Gonsalves |
Ok, time for a ghost hunt.
After grabbing a bit to eat of real food (sorry, but the concession stand of hot dogs, nachos and popcorn wasn't cutting it), those of us going on the hunt assembled in the parking lot of the hotel and caravanned our way over to Indiana Beach. The idea was to break our semi-large group into three smaller, more manageable group and visit four different locations, three at the park and a fourth off site.
First, let me clarify something. The hunt itself does not mean Indiana Beach is haunted. It simply means that there have been some reports of some unexplained events. Any place that has been around for some time is going to have a history. For Pete's sake, there is nothing demonic going on (that I know of). It's a family place. Honestly, I was surprised that the hunt was going to take place on the grounds. I did a little (ok, very little) amateur sleuthing online and did not see anything that jumped out saying, "Oooo. This place is haunted." There are a lot of other locations in the area that are a whole lot better known for paranormal activity. In fact, I had joked with my boss that the only thing I could imagine finding was the ghost of all the money parents lost to their kids playing games in the arcade, or the giant carp in the lake big enough to swallow a small child whole.
I admit it. I made a crack about Carpnado. It was timely. Seriously, after years of scarfing down popcorn, some of those fish are freakishly large.
Site #1: The Hotel/Rooms/Dormatory Area
First thing I learned: I need parental supervision. Sure, you watch eight, nine seasons of people ghost hunting and you think you know what you are doing. In my case, nothing could be further from the truth. So there we, armed with our mini LED flashlights and me with my TAPS app on my phone and I was completely clueless. I stomped around dark hallways, peering curiously at mounds of debris, looking for cold spots, checking for EMF spikes, thinking I was so glad I was never one of the summer interns that lived in these rooms. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure once they were cleaned up, they were quite serviceable.
Luckily we were able to latch onto to some great folks who actually have done this a few times and were eager to do all the stuff we see on TV, letting us observe. There were people conducting EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) sessions where they were asking questions aloud to try and identify any spirits in the area. The fun part is when you play back the recording and someone has answered back. I had the chance to observe my favorite, what I call the Flashlight Game. Basically, you set out a flashlight that twists on and off. The flashlight is set to were it is almost turned on but not quite, and it is set down. Questions are asked aloud and the spirit is invited to indicate their answer by turning the flashlight on and off. Cassidy was along for this location and it was interesting to observe her and hear her take on the location.
The main drawback was that the park was still open. I found it challenging to accept any finding as "paranormal" when dozens of screaming children were playing Whack-A-Mole nearby downstairs and running amok, causing vibrations on the floors where we were working.
Site #2: The Ballroom
Since my sister asked, no, Slimer wasn't there, circling the chandelier. This spot had shadow activity reported. At this point, I was getting really tired. So I sat and observed. The park was just closing. As an added bonus, there were fireworks. Also, the ballroom was situated near the lake, and boats cast lights and shadows into the area. I was getting punchy at this point and asked DH if he thought ghosts could see fireworks and if so, if they liked them. At some point we were supposed to switch off to other areas of the ballroom with other little groups, but that never happened. Again, I need parental supervision because I sat this one out.
Site #3: The Cabin
The park has a number of buildings for people to rent while they stay at the park, an alternative to the handful of motels in the area. It makes it nice when entire extended families go to the park together. There is one cabin in particular that used to be the home of one of the park workers. I believe this was Harold's cabin (if I have this wrong, someone please let me know). The story goes that Harold was a long time employee of the park and still hangs out there. Since this was a working cabin, complete with beds, chairs and sofas, this was the most comfortable location to observe.
Two notable events occurred here. First, I lost my husband. Sigh, I know. The building was barely 500 square feet, but it did form an interior circle. And it was dark. At some point, he found a chair and sat down. So there I was, fumbling around in the dark, apologizing to everyone's session I was stomping through. Trust me, it's difficult to be observant when some idiot is tripping through, saying, "Pardon me. Excuse me. Oof. Sorry about your foot. Coming through ..." It wasn't terribly long before I found him. Just long enough to start getting that uncomfortable feeling. And thinking I watch entirely too much tv. I found him sitting in the chair. "Hi." He had a big cheesy smile, waving like a little kid at me. To which I replied, "You're such a dork." At this point, the poor guy sitting behind me at the opposite end of hall, who had front row seats to the whole thing, burst out laughing.
I avoided the creepy basement.
The second thing wasn't paranormal at all, but it was one of my favorite things. Steve joined our group and we all ended up in the living room area, talking. People were sharing their experiences both that night and previously. Some asked questions. Others told stories. A few had worked at the park as a teenager and had legends to share. I had the chance to ask about something I'd been curious about for years - whether the area by the old Belle Gunness home was considered haunted or if anyone had investigated the area. Turns out there is a new(er) home on the property and the current owners do not want people ghost hunting on their property. For those of you who don't know, in LaPorte County, a woman by the name of Belle Gunness moved here, married several times and when each groom outlived his usefulness, she killed them, chopping them up, burying them in the back yard. A relative of one of the husbands grew suspicious and started nosing around. Next thing, the house burned down and allegedly Belle perished in the fire, except the body found might not have been hers. Quite a few additional bodies were recovered buried in the yard as well. I don't know if the museum still has the same exhibit from my childhood, but there used to be an entire display dedicated to the ghoulish tale of one of first noted female serial killers, complete with an axe and a piece of wood splashed with red paint. Great school field trip for the kiddies.
Here's where I wimped out. Next up was the farmhouse, off-site. It was around midnight, 12:30ish. We had just a handful of hours of sleep the night before. The heat during the convention was draining. To top it all off, I did not make the best food choices throughout the day. I am diabetic and at this point I was hot, tired and my blood sugar levels were all to crap. I made the call to call it a night. There was no way I could do one more location with any sense of consciousness and still drive home safely (again, should have booked a hotel room). I can't do Monsters or Redbull and caffeine has a limited effect on me. So with great disappointment, I let Dorothy know we would not be going on with the group to the farmhouse and said goodbye. She was very sweet and gave us both hugs goodbye.
Here is what I learned. I went into this thinking I have an overactive imagination (hello, writer). What I found out is that I am a skeptic. While I did not experience the heebie jeebies, I probably would if I came across something leaning towards the unexplained. The topic of ghosts and the paranormal is endlessly fascinating to me and I would do it again in heart beat. There may be a few ghost hunts in my future.
A huge thank you to all who attended, participated, and organized the convention. A part of me wishes more had taken part in the event to make it a huge success in the eyes of the organizers. The selfish part of me is glad it was exactly the way it was, allowing me the thrill of getting to close and actually speaking with a number of people I think so highly of.
As always, if I got something wrong, please let me know so facts can be corrected.
