The Last Hurrah. No beers, no liquor, no wines.

We didn't do much during the daylight of our last full day at the Stanley Hotel. After staying up too darned late the night before, we slept in, ate at the Egg and I ... again and tooled around downtown Estes Park. Including, a quick trip to the local Estes Park Brewery for a little tasting and some purchases.

We only made it to two sessions of the conference. The first one was EVPs 101 with Patrick Burns from Court TV's "Haunting Evidence." No offense to Mr. Burns, but it was kind of a dud. We actually snuck out early. The final session of the weekend was a panel discussion with Grant, Jason, John Zaffis, Chris "I'm too sexy" Fleming, Patrick Burns, Tiffany (the psychic, not the singer), and Rosemary Ellen Guilley. It was a good discussion. I got about an hour of it on film so we're going to try to put together a DVD to share with folks if you all are interested. We got to see a side of Jay and Grant that we don't usually see. They're super funny guys.

So, after the panel, we zipped back to our room and snagged all of our gear: a digital EMF meter, digital recorder, camcorder, headlamps, digital camera, a couple bottles of water and our wits (of course). We zipped down to the Concert Hall to meet up with the other 110 people at the conference we were investigating with. Fortunately they split us into two groups: no experience and pros. Since Vern and I have a little experience and a lot of common sense, we figured we were pros so we went with that group. And, while our equipment wasn't exactly fad-tastic (oh K2), we were able to collect what we needed and seemed at least as experienced as the other folks in our group. It turned out we were two of three people in our group who actually were affiliated with a paranormal organization, ahem WSPIR! "I'm too sexy" Fleming was impressed. (PS, Darren and Jill, you taught us well!)

Our first stop was with "I'm too sexy" Fleming in the Manor House's 1302. I had vivid dreams about this room all night the first night we were at the hotel, so, I was pretty excited to investigate there. Unfortunately, we were packed into the room like sardines and didn't get much action. Vern felt the presence of a few Native American spirits who "I'm too sexy" was trying to get to show their presence. They were "answering" him on his and the other 10 K2 meters in the room. My EMF didn't move once and the one time we heard something, it was the wind moving the flap on the vent in the bathroom. Pretty lame, but "I'm too sexy" seemed pretty satisfied with the blinking lights on his K2. Then, he got frustrated with a guy who kept praying to protect himself and asked him to leave the room because he was affecting the energy. Poor guy.

Next stop, room 217, with the all important Patrick Burns. We only stuck around long enough to hear him say that something was coming over him... Then we made for the tunnels in the basement. They weren't exactly what we expected but it was still pretty cool. There's a couple different passage ways that you almost have to crawl to get into and it's dark in there which makes it extra creepy and really dangerous. John Zaffis wacked his head on Friday night in the tunnels. I got a few phantom smells -- sour milk, cologne, and cigarette smoke -- all of which could be explained by drafts or the guy that was wandering around in the tunnels with me (not Vern) who decided to bathe in Axe before the investigation.

Then we moved up the fourth floor with John Zaffis in Room 401. For those of you who are fans of the show, that was the room that Jason slept in after the first investigation. The glass by his bed broke and his closet door opened and shut of it's own accord. So, needless to say, we were pretty stoked to check this place out. John got us going on an EVP session by letting us know that the spirit in the room was likely that of Lord Someguysnameicantremember who used to own the property before FO Stanely purchased the property to build the hotel. Apparently the spirit didn't like women and responded positively to men. It was kind of interesting. The spirit seemed to be focused on the Christian guy who got kicked out of the first session. He responded to his questions (using the K2) and didn't really seem to care too much about anyone else. We kept trying to get him to move the fan or close the closet door, but as John Zaffis said, "he's a stubborn bastard."

Our final stop was, fortunately, with Jason and Grant in the Concert Hall. We were greeted by Grant who was waiting behind the door. He popped up in the darkness of the window, lit from underneath his chin by Darren's flashlight ... scared the crap out of me. But, I got Darren's flashlight back, so, mission accomplished. Jay and Grant let us have free reign of the Concert Hall for the next hour. Vern and I spent quite a bit of time in the ladies bathroom. Wait ... that sounds wrong. Let me explain. The ladies bathroom had a lot of paranormal activity and was part of the investigation site. When we first opened the door, I was overwhelmed by a feeling to stay away. But, we persevered. The space was heavy with sadness. It's hard to explain. After a few minutes of taking EMF readings we went totally dark and started asking questions. It was pitch black in there. Then, suddenly a blue light danced across the wall of the bathroom and disappeared. Again, crap scared out of me. My first thought was "AWESOME." Then, being good investigators, we tried to debunk it. Sadly, the blue light had come from someone's camera light reflecting off of the tile outside and underneath the bathroom door. BUMMER.

After an hour of investigation, we said goodnight to our hosts with hugs and promises to see them again soon. Jay and Grant wanted to make sure that we passed on hellos to all of the WSPIR folks. So, "HI!" It was a great experience and we can't wait to review the evidence. It was totally worth getting screwed by the car rental company.