Tag: California

Hunting Calif. Ghosts

Hunting Calif. Ghosts

Or, Ghosts Populate Pleasanton, CA

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Hunting the Ghosts in Haunted Pleasanton

Written by Pale Dale Roberts in July 2014

haunted pleasanton

One of the most haunted hotels in Pleasanton is the Pleasanton Hotel: In 1864, five years before the first railroad arrived in Pleasanton, John W. Kettinger built the 1st hotel in Pleasanton, it was called the Farmer’s Hotel – later it was purchased by Henry Reimers in 1891 and burned to the ground on March 18, 1998 and re-built. At one time the hotel was called The Riverside Hotel and there was a minor fire in 1915. A long time resident of Pleasanton named Dwayne Simmons says that on one particular night he saw a man on fire walking on the back street, he was startled on what he was seeing and was prepared to call the police, then the man on fire vanished before his eyes. The location was very close to the hotel. Could Dwayne have seen a victim of this hotel’s past history with fires?

GHOST IDENTIFIED: MAN ON FIRE.

Many people say that upstairs at the Pleasanton Hotel is extremely haunted, the upstairs is the hotspot. People hear and see things. Doors will shut on their own. A terrified young woman has been seen wandering the hallway and many people believe she was a murdered prostitute.

GHOST IDENTIFIED: THE SLAYED HARLOT.

Every October here in Pleasanton, they have a Ghost Walk. According to Denae, she lived in a building at St. Mary’s – when you leave the closet door open, the activity begins. St. Mary’s was once a brothel. She tells me that a woman was murdered there. She says that the closet gets very cold, you can even hear a woman breathing in the closet. St. Mary’s was built sometime in the 1800s. Denae also tells me that pots and pans would fly out of cabinets. The rocking chair once started rocking and there was an old lady rocking it. As she watched this old lady, she finally just dissipated.

GHOST IDENTIFIED: THE ROCKING CHAIR GRANDMA

Pleasanton-California-ghosts-1OTHER GHOSTLY NOTES:
1. Gay 90s Pizza – is very haunted. A patron who does not want to be identified says that one time he was ordering a pizza and the pizza flew from his hands and landed 5 feet in front of him. He said that incident scared the crap out of him.

GHOST IDENTIFIED: PIZZA SNATCHING PHANTOM

2. Tunnels underneath Main Street, Asian railroad workers worked these tunnels. Detrick Sanders says that when everyone is in bed and Main Street is quiet, you will see the heads of Asian men pop up from the streets where the tunnels are located at. Detrick saw this one time and it reminded him of ground hogs, the heads would pop up and look to the right, to the left, straight ahead and go back into the street. It was the most strangest sight he ever saw and he claims he only drank two beers that night.

GHOSTS IDENTIFIED: ASIAN HEAD POPPERS.

3. Dentist Office – Victorian building – used to be house, very haunted. A man with eyes on fire was seen there, the apparition came out of the window and floated to the ground. A couple walking past the office, looked at the ghost and it looked back at the couple and simply laughed with his blazing red eyes and then vanished.

GHOST IDENTIFIED: FIRE EYES.

4. Union Jack Pub – torn down – haunted. The ghost of a woman wearing a pink nightgown was seen floating over the land where once stood the Union Jack Pub.

GHOST IDENTIFIED: LADY IN PINK

There is a nice bridge walkway that will take you to Del Valle Parkway. Marcus Wilcox says his mother once saw a troll like creature underneath this bridge. The troll like creature was yanking the fur off a live rabbit. When Marcus’ mother saw the creature, he ran off into the thickets and vanished.

CRYPTID IDENTIFIED: PLEASANTON BRIDGE TROLL

6. The Rose Hotel: People that have visited the Rose Hotel say that lights turn off and on, a full body apparition of a male ghost has been seen moving a big dresser. Other heavy items have been moved, but according to Swala Jasine she saw a ghostly muscular man move that dresser.

GHOST IDENTIFIED: ROSE HOTEL FURNITURE MOVER.

I did some EVP work in the Pleasanton Hotel and captured a woman moaning and crying. Inconclusive, because it could have been a real woman in one of the rooms actually crying. I didn’t hear the crying with my own ears, but did capture it on my digital recorder.

Stopped off at the Pleasanton Museum at 603 Main Street and learned from the curator that in the Summer of 1917, the film Rebecca of Sunnybrook was filmed there.

The indigenous Indians that resided in the East Bay were many. Here are just a few: Ompin, Carquin, Huchiun, Saclan,Cholvon, Souyen, Taunan, Tuibun, Chupcan, Volvon, Julpun, Tamcan, Ssaeam, Tatean, Yulien, Luecha and some more! With all of these Indian settlements and all of the history of Pleasanton, you would have to believe that this place is haunted.

<3 Anna

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One Fun Summer (Georgia Edition)

One Fun Summer (Georgia Edition)

Or, A Photo Timeline Of My Summer Trip!

The RWA National Conference was in Atlanta this year, and I was lucky enough to attend. I had so much fun! In between workshops, luncheons, and impromptu chats with fellow writers I tried to absorb the mass of information available. Meta data, back matter, and SEO. I’m still processing.

Before I even left California I met two little cuties at the airport.

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I’m always strangely giddy to find birds living in airports.

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My room on the thirtieth floor was so comfy all I wanted to do was curl up in the bed and order room service. But the best part was the view.

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Fancy dinners in the hotel didn’t exactly fit my budget so I made do with cold cereal, granola bars and hummus.

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Spoon? Who needs a spoon? Rather than hike all the way back downstairs and search for plastic silverware I went all MacGyver on my cereal.
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I’m getting ready to hit a workshop before Kristan Higgins’ speech and luncheon.
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The best part of the conference? Free books by your favorite authors!

Since I’m writing a book about a civilization destroying virus I couldn’t wait to hear the CDC panel on infectious diseases. They did not disappoint!

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There’s nothing like conference week. I look forward to it all year and leave super-charged and inspired to write. Thank you, RWA. See you next year!

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Luckily, the fog over Atlanta on my last day in town didn’t delay my flight home.

 

<3 Anna

One Fun Summer (California Edition)

One Fun Summer (California Edition)

Or, A Photo Timeline Of My Summer Trip!

After leaving Colorado, we jetted to sunny, southern California for some more summer fun. The best part? Fast food I can’t get in North Carolina. El Pollo Loco. Wienerschnitzel. In-N-Out. Mmmm…

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Yummy fast food. I had to make up for lost time!

I didn’t spend a lot of time in Hollywood. Just long enough to pose with a couple costumed knuckleheads and take a pic in front of the Twilight handprints.

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Yes, there are swimming pools and backyard BBQs on the east coast, but they’re just more fun when you’re surrounded by family.

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That leg coming out of my head? My daughter sneaking up on me like am adorable Great White.

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Our BBQ host, bless his heart, soaked the briquettes in lighter fluid before tossing in the match. Let’s just say he’s lucky he still has eyeballs, let alone eyebrows.

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On the menu–beef ribs, turkey burgers, and potato chips.

I had so much fun at Medieval Times. We got to eat like barbarians and watch hot guys swing swords and lances at each other. The best part was catching the green knight’s token. (I’m still heartbroken he didn’t win.)

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The final stop on our whirlwind California adventure was Universal Studios to get a behind the scenes peek at how movies are made and–of course!–catch up with Bumblebee.

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<3 Anna

 

 

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