Tony Urban Photography – Senior Photo Art, Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer – Somerset, Johnstown, Greensburg

Day 4 (aka the day that The Acadian canceled our sightseeing cruise)

We started Day 4 by visiting Betts Books in Bangor, ME.  Betts specializes in Stephen King so it was a perfect fit for us!  The owner, Stu, is one of the nicest guys around and it was great chatting with him while we shopped.

When our sightseeing cruise in Bar Harbor was canceled, we took a leisurely drive along Park Loop Road which traverses Acadian National Park and while the leaves weren’t at their peak, it was still awesome in it’s beauty.  The waves were literally crashing against the shore.  I’ve always heard that expression “waves crashing”, but never experienced it before.  It was incredible to hear the thunderous cacophony of the waves as they battered the rocky coast.  The park was so beautiful – I just wish we could have seen some wildlife – especially a moose!  =)

After the drive around Acadia, we headed up to Bangor for our second night at the Fireside Inn, which in all of our travels remains our favorite.  And Eli agrees.

Day 5 was a lot of driving, starting in Bangor and ending in New London, Connecticut.  We kicked off the morning with one last stop by Stephen King’s house and then started moving south.

We stopped by some of the influences from Salem’s Lot including a house that inspired the Marsten house and the cemetery mentioned frequently in that novel.  We also drove through several towns mentioned in King’s books.  I love driving down 1A with the ocean at your side.  Such a relaxing drive and so much more interesting than the interstate.

When we reached New Hampshire we stopped by the graves of Betty and Barney Hill who told their story of being abducted by aliens in “The Interrupted Journey” and that book title is on their grave markers.

In Rhode Island, we dropped by the Sprague Mansion, a huge haunted house which was investigated on Ghost Hunters.

Also in Rhode Island, we had another Vampire themed stop at the grave of Mercy Brown.  Her tombstone was covered with trinkets (and a cigarette – I guess someone thought she might need a drag in the afterlife) which added considerably to the creepiness factor.

We finished off the day by driving down Hell Hollow Road in Connecticut.  I didn’t see anything particularly hellish, but it was still neat.

After checking into the hotel we bought the heaviest pizza I’ve ever seen in my life at Illano’s Pizza.  One slice each and we were stuffed!

Day 6 was the ride home – another 450 miles.   We first stopped at Union Cemetery, which is supposed to be one of the most haunted cemeteries in America.  I took lots of photos, but didn’t see any ghosts.  After that, we stopped by a country market/antique store and Sharon bought 2 really cool old crocks.

Our last stop was Blairstown, NJ where I grabbed a quick shot of the diner from Friday the 13th and then we made the 5 hour drive home.

6 days, 2113 miles, 2 canceled cruises and lots and lots of time in the car.  It had it’s ups and downs but it was well worth it.

Day 1

We hit the road shortly after 5am and began the long, long drive that lay ahead of us.  Our first stop was in Sleepy Hollow where we attempted in vain to find a nice antique shop.  While there, we also stopped at a McDonald’s restaurant which was the only McDonald’s restaurant that I’ve even been too that couldn’t give me a cup of water for our dog.  So I bought a bottle of water then had to ask twice for a cup. 

After Sleepy Hollow we kept driving, on to Connecticut where we stopped by the house of Rob and Sheri Moon Zombie.  While the house is impressive, I must say that I was sorely disappointed that they didn’t have it decorated for Halloween.  I mean, it’s “the Zombie house” and Rob Zombie directed HALLOWEEN.  Is it really too much to ask for some pumpkins and paper skeletons??

After stopping by “the Zombie house”, we went to Willington, Connecticut where (as told on Monster Quest – best show ever!) a local cemetery was the eternal resting place for the Johnson family – a family of VAMPIRES.  Okay, they were probably just TB victims, but it’s so much cooler to think they were really vampires.

Next up was Leicester, Massachusetts to find the elusive “Spider Gates” Cemetery.  I drove up and down the street where it’s supposed to be located 3 times and didn’t see the slightest hint of a cemetery or a road to one.  Maybe it really is a haunted graveyard…

The day ended in Worcester, MA where I went to the Rock and Shock convention and met horror stars like Bill Mosely, Kane Hodder, Adrienne King, Tiffany Shepis and others.  I also met one of the top modern horror authors, Jack Ketchum who is a really, really nice guy – especially considering that his novels are really, really mean. I’ll post some of those photos later.

Day 2

Day two was supposed to be one of the most exciting days of our trip – Whale watching at Gloucester. I won’t get into what a joke that turned out to be and will say just two things: Avoid Yankee Fleet; and: read my post two posts down.

Here are photos from where we were supposed to go whale watching.

After that fiasco, we bought some movies at Best Buy and went back to the hotel to waste the rest of the day. BTW, Sheraton Inn = overrated.

Day 3

After the disappointment in Gloucester, I didn’t have high hopes for Day 3 especially when they were calling for rainy weather, but it ended up being a nice day.  We drove from Mass. through New Hampshire and ended up in Bangor, Maine, a drive of around 400 miles  While it was a long drive, it was a nice one with beautiful scenery and lots of cool small towns.

Our first stop of the day was “Blood Cemetery”, a reportedly haunted cemetery in south east New Hampshire.  I walked around the grounds twice looking for the tombstone of Abel Blood, not realizing that it had been stolen a couple years ago.  There are other Blood’s in the graveyard though and maybe one of them is the real ghost.

After striking out on the ghost hunt, we went further north in New Hampshire to see the childhood home of Herman Mudgett aka H.H. Homes aka one of America’s most notorious serial killers.  The house is actually quite quaint.  No feelings of evil whatsoever.

After that, we continued north through New Hampshire before eventually drifting into eastern Maine.  There we saw various spots mentioned in Stephen King books including Lake Kezar, the market from The Mist and the Fryburg Fairgrounds.