(25) Days of Summer: Number 17

This has been a pretty good week so far! I have already crossed off two tasks. Ok, so let me fill you in on my ghost hunting adventure.

Soooo Monday night I was at Barnes and Noble helping a friend of mine study for an exam when I got the brilliant idea to go ahead and try to knock this one off the list. I texted my friend Marie and she said she was game and then we decided to invite our other friend Isley. We decided we would leave around 10ish.

I went back to my house and did some preparatory work. I only knew of two places I had heard of that were haunted at all. The first was acid park. I looked it up on the internet, found the legend and directions, and then we set off! We made a rule that no music could be on during the car ride there (it is in wilson if anyone wanted to know) and that we would tell scary stories the whole way.

After about 30 minutes into the drive, I ways already freaked out because we were driving and no one was around and it was going on 11. We had told a million scary stories so then I figured it would be time to fill the girls on "the legend" (I had previously withheld the information until we were close enough to get really freaked out). I'm going to use my handy dandy copy and paste to show everyone the summary of the legend...

On prom night, Carol Simpson and boyfriend decide to enjoy the night tripping on acid. Driving home, they approach the five-way intersection on Wiggins Mill Road. With the boyfriend driving at high speeds, the car turns the tricky corner, spins off the road and hits a nearby tree. The daughter dies instantly, but somehow the boyfriend survives and tells the father what happened and what he saw. Windmills now encompass the site of the accident, and were built for CarolSimpson posthumously. While Vollis Simpson's true inspiration of his creation is debated, the legend has it that Mr. Simpson created Acid Park, a collage of unique and unusual windmills and whirligigs, from the description of the boyfriend in his high state of mind. The park is filled with tiny little reflectors that give off an eerie glow when passed by car at night. Also, the car that was crashed that night still remains lodged in its place where it took a turn for the worst.

Soo we read this and I began telling them about all the different things I had heard about going there...Apparently, some people had the dad of the daughter chase after them with a shotgun. Another person claims that the girl was by the car and telling them to "save her."

Needless to say when we finally turn down the road around 11:15 we are terrified (I only remember the time because it was 11:11 and Marie said "make a wish" and I said "don't let us die"...slightly melodramatic, I know!) You travel down this old country road for like five minutes. It is pitch black and we are the only cars around. We finally come around a turn and start seeing all the mirrors and reflectors. As we get close we saw the tall windmills and mirrors covering everything. The headlights of the car bounce off them and everything is at once illuminated. It looked like a creepy run down carnival.

I began slowing down as we were passing to see if I could see the car that was crashed. I then remember reading that you had to go down a dirt path to find the car, so as I am slowing I see a dark opening and realize it has to be where the path is...of course at this point we are all shaking and so freaked out. Just as I am about to turn down the path, I think I see something moving and I slam on the accelerator and start screaming. Keep in mind that I am the man in the car so as soon as I lose my composure, it is all over. For probably about 10 seconds we all just screamed at the top of our lungs. It may or may not have been the most intense moment of my life.

I'm realizing that this is getting rambly so I'll try to speed it up. We passed back and forth like 3 times before we actually got the courage to turn down the dirt path. At first, we didn't see the car but on the way back...there it was, smashed into a tree.

We freaked out kind of a lot. Isley and I wanted to get out and take a picture with it but at this point Marie was really scared and just kept saying "I want to go guys." We decided to just keep driving and pulled out on the main road and just took pics in front of the reflectors instead.

We were shaken and Isley was about to wet herself so we made a pit stop at some rundown gas station complete with a scary homeless man and a huge 18 wheeler (we were freaked out ok...ever seen the movie joyride?). Amidst our break we decided that we weren't going to give up on our ghost hunting yet and wanted to go to Pactolus Lights.

To cut down on length i'll just say that it took us almost two hours to finally get where we were going. We got lost...a lot. Highway 30 is a tricky one to find. At this point it was about 1:30? We are crazy, I know. Here is "the legend" of the Pactolus Light for all interested.

The story begins sometime in the early 1900's. A young man rode his horse from Greenville to Pactolus. Pactolus is a small community east of Greenville. At this time, there was a train station in existence in the Pactolus community. The purpose of this trip was to surprise the young man's fiancee by meeting her train. Unfortunately, the train was extremely late this particular evening and the young man was soon alone in the dark. Of course, he really was not alone. His horse was very impressive and caught the attention of three men who were walking along the train tracks. They decided that this was a perfect opportunity to catch a ride rather than walk to their destination. The three men hid in the brush surrounding the train station and as the young man rode by, he was ambushed and killed. The three men hid his body in the thickness of the woods. However, the horse was frightened away and returned to Greenville two days later. The family feared the worse after the horse returned without his rider. They searched the train station and the surrounding area only to find nothing.The young man's ghost is seen walking beside the train tracks. The form he takes is a single light floating beside the tracks. Sometimes the light floats at waist level (as if he is walking beside his horse) and other times the light floats above the head, as if he is riding his horse). The young man uses the light to let his fiancee know that he was there to meet her.

Soo we finally get to the road you are supposed to turn down and it is pitch black. At this point i'm about to have a nervous break down and Isley thankfully says she'll drive for me. So we go down the road and pull into the first dirt road. Park the car and flash the lights three times...nothing. We did this probably about 5 different times and different paths and nothing...the ghosts were not chilling in Pactolus.

The weird things though weren't really the light but a few other strange occurrences. The first was when we first turned down the road, Isley was driving and a HUGE bird flew out and just kept flapping its wings, hovering just facing the car. We screamed...a lot. After that point all three of us were in the front seat. Don't let the happy faces deceive you...we were on the verge of losing it.

Probably the weirdest thing that happened that night though was when we were actually trying to leave. The directions for the path had said that you pass a run down shack and some power lines...we remembered passing them a few times as we had gone back and forth across the road. However, on our last trip back, we couldn't find them. We looked everywhere for this little shack and it wasn't there anymore. Let's not forget that it was around 2 in the morning at this point and we could have been delirious but I promise that I looked at exactly where it was supposed to be and couldn't find it.

I'm marking this off the list because although we may not have found any ghosts...it was definitely a terrifying experience and we had more than a few strange things happen. we got home around 3 healthy and thankfully alive!