Brain Soup For The Dysfunctional Soul: The Haunting: A Very Very Very Very Long Mostly Pictorial Account of Adventures

The good news for some of you is this: there are many pictures and few words. That way you'll be sure to understand and follow along.
Kidding!
Probably.
Whatever.

I am ashamed to say that I am JUST NOW sharing the events from October!
My partner in ComicCon crime, Nicole, and I decided since the object of our ~~stalking~~ affection - one Mr. Bruce Campbell - had to cancel his Tulsa ComicCon appearance this year, that we would try something new for your (and our) entertainment.
Of course MY boyfriend James Marsters is still scheduled to appear, but WTF NO VIP ACCESS?? That means no special treatment, no first in line for a ~~make out session~~ photo, no first access to his panel where I could sit in the front row...I would've had to push, stab, maim, ~~kill~~, fight my way through the ~~whoreds~~ hordes of women and JUST NOT ONLY NO BUT HELL NO BECAUSE PEOPLE.

Plus we were ready to try something new, as our rare weekend away is sacred to us.

So without further fanfare or ado, I give you...

NICOLE and SHANNON'S HAUNTED ADVENTURE.
HALLOWEEN WEEKEND, 2016

Since it was Halloween weekend, and since we invariably end up in cemeteries even in the midst of conventions, we would visit 'abandoned ghost towns' and 'haunted locations' and graveyards.

As always, it's hard to tear myself away from my precious babies! Thank goodness it only happens once or twice a year.
~~BYE FELICIAS~~
It's okay my darlings, mummy will be back the day after tomorrow! Be strong, my little troopers! (Normally I would insert a picture of my leave-taking here, but I was ~~in such a hurry to leave~~ so sad to leave it was just unbearable, so you'll have to make do with this)

WE SO ORGANIZED! We had an official Binder and everything:

We carefully plotted and planned our route to maximize the experience - with options to change due to time constraints (oversleeping, short fall days, etc):

(OUR ACTUAL ROUTE):

We blame Siri. He rerouted us in some big circle three times through the same three towns, none of which were the towns we were looking for.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.
First stop: The Haunted Circus Ground (Gandini's Circus) in Edmond OK. We drove up & down the same 2 miles of road about eleventy-five times before we saw the "hidden" entrance. We tried to park in an office complex a block away and sneak through the woods, but eventually were thwarted by a ravine. Luckily it only took us 3 hours or so to find our way back through the 100 feet of woods to the parking lot.

It's okay though, we found berries so we wouldn't starve:

This was probably some sort of burial mound, judging by the smell. We did not explore it thoroughly.

Safely back at the car, we decided we'd boldly pull into the driveway which would lead us to the haunted, abandoned circus ground. AND SUCCESS! Except for the No Trespassing signs everywhere and busy offices directly across the street that were prolly WATCHING OUR EVERY MOVE. Yes, I'm afraid we are cowardly ghost hunters and also somewhat paranoid. We went to see what we could see whilst keeping the car in sight, since we din't have bail money for the car if it got towed.
First the crop circle.
And then the partial corner of a Circus barn.

We also found an awesome portal in the woods:

Which was apparently some sort of wormhole because we ended up possibly in London for a minute:

**Let me just take this opportunity to say that we should've called this trip MYTHBUSTERS, because most of the "uninhabited/mostly uninhabited ghost towns" were definitely HABITED. Even the houses that looked as though they should be abandoned, weren't. So if you want to visit ghost towns and you get your info from AbandonedOklahoma...yeah, no. They are way off base.

We didn't fully explore the few truly abandoned houses we found because either the weeds were head-high and hiding padlocked fences or because there were neighbors...who all had Trump/Pence signs in their yards so we decided discretion was the better part of valor. The Dueling Banjos we heard in the background really was the deciding factor.

Like this house in Bridgeport - we stopped for photos and THEN A DOG and MEAN OLD FIST-SHAKING LADY appeared! We hauled.

Some places took at least 4 u-turns because *RIIIIIGHT* where we needed to know where to go...there was NO SIGNAL and we lost Siri in a tiny little dead spot

. And sometimes we didn't even know if we'd made it to our actual destination or just happened upon some other abandoned place with no name.

TRIVIA: Our loud car singing convinced us that we should probably each start a band when we got home, and what we saw In The Wild inspired our band names. Nicole will be in The Exploding Skunks and I will have The Suicidal Butterflies.

We did find some great graffiti here and there - I think that guy thought we were stalking him. MAYBE WE WERE.

Lots of excellent graffiti on this "haunted bridge," where supposedly a spirit roams after she jumped to her death.
1. You *could* kill yourself jumping off this bridge, but I'd bet most people who try it would just end up considerably broken but alive.
2. They definitely have strong opinions and feelings for Harambe
3. Penis

No spirit encounters, unfortunately, although I *DID* try to capture an EVP.
Did not happen. Also, it was cold and windy and 10 miles from a bathroom and I almost peed myself. #TRIVIA

Then we headed down south to the "haunted" Parallel Forest, which was pretty neat - it's a cedar forest and all the trees were originally planted exactly 6 feet apart. It's pretty still inside the forest but you can hear the wind whooshing through the tops of the trees, and they creak and groan as they sway in the wind, so I can imagine it would be pretty creepy around dusk.
There's allegedly a river flowing down in there somewhere with a flat "altar" rock where "satanic rituals have been performed, but we never saw it.
Probably because 10 minutes after we got there it was all PEOPLEY. With teenagers EW. and they were throwing rocks at trees. And by the entrance there was this whole photography setup thingy because some family was having their portraits done.
OMG. GO AWAY.

This guy was all I GROW WHERE I WANT. #MyFavorite

Also we didn't stay long because once again - you guessed it - no bathrooms for MILES.
**TRAVEL TIP: If you've had a couple-few kids and now you're getting old, wear Depends or something because you have to pee ALL THE TIME. #OldBladdersMakeExploringHard

We visited a few more little "abandoned"/not actually abandoned towns and took some quick photos, often under the suspicious gazes of neighbors.

And OF COURSE THERE WERE CEMETERIES!
They're really quite peaceful and lovely - truthfully some of the people we saw in the "ghost" towns were way more frightening than anything you could ever find in a graveyard.

My 18th birthday:

Is MARG STILL ALIVE?? Was she buried in the wrong place? WHERE IS THE FINAL DATE? WHERE IS MARGORIE?? #Mystery

From Sacred Heart Mission - in the segregated cemetery.

"Here lies an old Union Soldier." #RIP

Random abandoned place on some state highway near nowhere and somewhere else:

And they were SO SERIOUS about NO TRESPASSING! They will give you the boot, mister!

Then we went to cotton-pickin' LOVELAND, which was not at all what we thought :(

...except for the actual cotton pickin'. #BreakinTheLaw #rebels #RoadsideCottonPickin #NoBollWeevils

Okay so this right here was a town. No really. I wish I had a better picture but this was it. A big long building with like a diner/general store next to a fenced in "Weekly Auction" place. Apparently this was the place to be on a Saturday evening. It actually looks like a dead end until you notice the state highway shooting off to the side, nearly hidden until you circle the...circle.