Feb 16-18 2007
“We’re on the highway to hell…” AC/DC
Like every trip that starts with the good intentions of getting up early, having everything packed and arriving at your destination way ahead of schedule, something always gets in the way and you end up ill-prepared, stuck in traffic and a nice touch at the end, car sick.
Such was the case on our way to the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Our trip started with the alarm clock going of at 4 am, getting out of bed at 4:20 am and leaving out the door at 5:10 am. Our grand plan was to arrive in Philly at 3 pm. Instead, the Demons of Travel decided it would be better if we arrived at 8 pm instead.
We should have known the sign at the Pennsylvania Turnpike that read, “Tolls Waived: State of Emergency” was a bad omen. A piece of ice off of the roof of a semi-truck flung off and hit the windshield of another semi, breaking it and causing the guy to roll his truck. Make that a rolled truck carrying a toxic chemical to add to the magic. And that wasn’t even the “state of emergency.” The declaration was for other highways closed due to the bad snowy weather.
Needless to say, we moved an amazing two miles in two hours. We were led off the highway to a “back hills” road that wasn’t even plowed and proceeded to sit in one place even more. By this point, we had been in traffic for over two hours. After almost four hours, we learned that the highway was open and moving once more. We pulled a u-turn and got out of the line from hell on the backwoods road from hell and backtracked to the highway, (passing people who were peeing on the side of the road), once more putting us in motion again until we hit the highway going into Philly.
Thanks to the earlier traffic backup and the closed highways, everything was congested, therefore making us break constantly, making me car sick and about ready to propel myself from the car after being in it for 13 hours and offer myself to anyone who had ever wondered what its like to hit a human with a car.
We arrived at the hotel only to be greeted by an unmotivated staff, a room with loose shower faucets and a heating system that sounded like a jet taking off. What was really intriguing was the heater mounted on the wall programmed to be used only during April/May & September/October, the four months out of year no one would hardly even use the stupid thing.
At 10 pm, we headed over to the Eastern State Penitentiary. At first sight, the place looks like a fortress from the past. The temperature that night was somewhere around 18 degrees or less and even colder within the prison. Ghost hunting isn’t exactly the most exhausting of hobbies and the cold set in quickly. We ventured up to cell block 12 where the show “Ghost Hunters” caught their famous running apparition and Brian ran away. (We were actually there with Brian, who was putting on the event, and as far as I know, he didn’t run away from anything that night.) Nothing happened while we were there. The only thing scaring me was the girl that got scared at every corner and screamed all the time. It’s true. The living are more scary than the dead.
We headed back to our crappy hotel, where we smelled marijuana in the hallway. We entered our room, turned on the TV and warmed up. We ordered a pizza to be sent to the room. Shortly after that, a knock on our door sounded. Scott opened the door to a hotel employee who told us we had a complaint our TV was too loud. There’s a party down the hallway, with smoke pouring out from under the doors and loud screaming, but our TV was too loud. Never stay at the Best Western in Philadelphia and visit Eastern State Penitentiary during the warm months.
Learn more about Eastern State Penitentiary with these links.
Eastern State Penitentiary Website
History and Hauntings of the ESP
Written by Amberrose Hammond