I began the first leg of my haunted road trip on an appropriately foggy morning, Tuesday, 20 September. Up until almost ten a.m., I was driving through dense patches of fog, especially as I headed further and further north, up I-75.
My tour is scheduled to take 6 days and cover 8 places… plus one or two more on Mackinac Island. For this part of my haunted road trip, I’m focusing on the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula, starting with Bowers Inn / Mission Table, in Traverse City, and then going up into the Upper Peninsula, where I will travel as far as the Keweenaw Peninsula, and the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, before returning south again, to spend a night at the Mission Inn, on Mackinac Island. Although my first day was a bit harried, due to bazar MapQuest directions (but no one else has ever had that problem, eh? ;-) I am hoping to get the chance to visit and photograph some old cemeteries along the way as well. They may or may not be “haunted”, but they sure are cool!
Day One
Bowers Inn/Mission Table restaurant.
Finding what is actually a secluded little restaurant was fairly easy (despite MapQuest’s best efforts to get me lost). It lies on a main road (Peninsula Drive, which overlooks the harbor.) It was too early for the main restaurant to be early, but there’s a little bar on the side, the Jolly Pumpkin, which was open, and serving food—a bonus, by then I was starving! After ordering, I asked my waitress about the ghosts—I really wasn’t sure what sort of response I was going to get (I mean really, can I have some ketchup for my fries and by the way what’s up with the ghosts? Is hardly a normal question… except in a haunted restaurant, apparently it is!) She told me that she didn’t actually believe in ghosts—but the place was definitely haunted! Then she went to find someone who had more stories than her for me to talk to.
I was invited to poke around upstairs a bit on my own, and then went to talk Terri, a waitress who had been at the Mission Table for several years. She spoke very fondly of Genevieve, the resident spectral inhabitant of the Mission Table, saying that mostly she’s playful, pulling small pranks, switching lights on and off (a phenomenon witnessed by the first gal I spoke to, as well)—the only time Gen gets a little heavy handed is when it comes to nurses. No one has ever been injured, but she does make her dislike of those in the nursing profession known quite clearly from time to time.
I looked around a little more, thanked everybody and it was time to hit the road again… I wish I’d had more time to stay and talk, the folks at the Mission Table were incredibly welcoming, but I really had to get up to my second stop, the Blue Pelican Inn, in Central Lake.
The Blue Pelican Inn
The exterior is somewhere between kitchy-seventies and warm, welcoming costal down B&B. As I was checking in, I told the manager why I’d chosen his particular hotel (although I LOVE B&B’s, so I’m glad to be here—even if the wifi is a little spotty.) At any rate, as soon as I explained that I was writing a book about haunted places in Michigan, for Clerisy’s Haunted Road Trip series, Roy switched me into room number one (The Rose Room, if you look on the Blue Pelican website), because that room as seen a lot of spectral activity.
I have to confess, I was so beat, I slept like the dead myself (after having a glass of Leelanau Cellars Harvest Riesling—one of my faves, it’s sooooo sweet, it’s almost a desert wine) and a cup of amazing corn chowder (hats off to the chef!) It was a busy night, so I only got to chat with Roy a bit before toddling on up to bed (he told me a little bit about the resident specters and showed me a photograph of the former owner, a lovely lady with the absolute sweetest smile, not a ghost anybody could ever be afraid of). I was invited to look around and take some pictures. I seem to be the only corporeal inhabitant of the Inn today.
Like I said, I slept pretty much like the dead myself, although I heard one or two odd noises that couldn’t quite be explained (I believe in that which goes bump in the night, but I always look for “logical” explanations before jumping to conclusions). The ghosts here seem quieter than Gen, at the Mission Table. I simply get the sense that the former owner is hanging around, watching out for people… there are a couple of other ghosts in residents, a little girl who died here and a woman who died on the second floor, apparently tripping and falling to her death while eloping with her sweetheart.
Well, I’m off to breakfast and then hitting the road again for Day Two…
Day Two
Or the day I almost lost my shoes in Lake Michigan!
The Stafford Inn was a dead end... no pun intended! When I got there, the manager said he had no idea what I was talking about, and kept asking me why I was writing an article ("or was it a book?" Yes, I'd said book three times already) about inns... "no, I'm writing about haunted places." (Which is how I introduce myself "Hi, I'm Helen, I'm writing a book about Michigans huanted locations...")
It was a bit of a shame, but other than getting a little lost and touring GORGEIOUS downtown Petosky, I didn't really go out of my way, I was passing that way on my way here.
So it was onwards and upwards (literally) from there; I made the harrowing trip across the Mackinac Bridge (really, I don't like heights very much) and here I am just outside Gulliver, MI., after a) a lovely self guided tour of the Seul Choix Lighthouse (very haunted--and very friendly staff)... and of course almost losing my shoes in Lake Michigan.
Did you know people surf in Lk. Mich.? I'd never heard of it... but the waves were pretty big. (Hence me almost losing my shoes... which, by the way, were not on my feet at the time. Or...never mind. Suffice it to say, I still have my little black slip-ons.)
The lake that tried to eat my shoes.
This was taken from inside HERE...
yes, that's right all the way at the top where the light is.
I mentioned I disliked heights, right???
The Captain (the former lighthouse keeper, who died in residence) is said to be something of a prankster, though he's never hurt anyone--unless second hand ethereal smoke counts! He was apparently quite fond of his stogies in life, and sometimes you can still smell cigar smoke now....
He also moves the silverware around, and sometimes sits on the bed in what the volunteers who staff the lighthouse now believe is his room.
Sometimes, he's been seen standing in the windows, looking out at the lake, or even walking the grounds...
And the staff has a very good sense of humor....
This guy resides... oh wait, if I tell you, you won't be surprised when *you* visit!
And seeing as my Internet connection is PAINFULLY slow, I'm going to ask ya'll to come back in a few days; I'll update with pictures from the Blue Pelican and Mission Table once I get back to civilization....
