Sunday, November 13, 2011

Addendum: Undead From The Mizpah

Morning at the Mizpah in Tonopah, home of the Muckers. I lugged my luggage into the elevator where I met a seemingly normal woman who asked if I had stayed here last night. That struck me as an odd question to ask a stranger in a hotel elevator but what do I know? Maybe it's done in Tonopah. "Yes," I answered.

"Did anything happen?" she asked with arched eyebrows.

"Hmmmmmm," I thought in a cloud shaped word balloon.

"Nothing in particular," I said. "Was something supposed to?"

She told me how her family had seen an ice chest lid open all by itself -- as in with no one else around. It turns out the Mizpah is famously haunted. I owned up to seeing a couple of UFOs last night but no evidence of specters. The conversation continued with the desk clerk Victorina, an exceptionally nice lady who watched my bags while I dashed upstairs for another load.

According to Victorina, the nonpaying spooks of the Mizpah include two ghostly miners, two children, and a lady in red. The Mizpah has been on that tv show about real ghosts -- which explains why the tv at the Mizpah bar shows Ghost Story instead of a football game.

By now I was in uniform so I told her I could dispatch the five wraiths. I've done it before. But I acknowledged that for marketing purposes it might be better to keep them. One thing for sure: on my next visitation schedule I will be at St Mark's, Tonopah for All Saints Day so I can spend Halloween at the Mizpah -- but I have to say I spent one Halloween at the Hotel Nevada in Ely and that was pretty wild!

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