Ione Hotel, Ione, CA - August 16, 2008

We have booked rooms 13 and 7 for Friday night, arrive quite late, park in the back, wander through the back patios and finally weave our way into the lobby past the first of two bar fights that night. Larry has waited up for us and cheerfully checked us into rooms as we joke about the extra fees for entertainment, be it the drunks in the bar or the ghosts in the rooms.

The hotel is truly rich in history and polished wood. The main staircase is right out of a Hitchcock movie, and ancient secrets float quietly from the transoms that line the long dark hallways. (It was a dark, dreary night.....listen my children and you shall hear...) Ok, ok. Back to the rooms. Room 13 is reportedly one of the most active. We are two doors away from the back, almost at the end of one of two long hallways. While David is making final room arrangements, Anne scampers up to the room, stand in front of the room, mentally say hello, and put a hand out within the door frame, close to but not touching the door. Energy. Almost static electricity. David and Julie join her, but do not feel the same energy. The room is clean, neat, but the air is heavy, uncomfortable, makes your chest tight. Julie is in room 7 at the front of the hotel with windows opening to the front veranda, directly over the attached saloon downstairs. Equally small but quite bright and cheerful.

Anne is preparing to join Julie to go snooping. The room door is open, Anne's hand is in the doorway as  she turns to talk to David relaxing with his book on the high, huge, storybook bed. Julie tugs a gently, "C'mon" on her hand in the doorway. Anne listens to David as it dawns on Anne that he is not looking past her as he would had Julie walked up behind her.  Anne turns to the hallway. No Julie.

Two verandas offer different moods: the back is dark, soothing and yet spooky, while the front overlooks the other bar in town, Tillie's. The girls wander freely within the hotel, fascinated by that stairway, amused by the drunks, feeling different areas and slowly tiring. One upstairs sitting area is where they play with a new EMF, and demonstrated how it reacts to Anne's magnetic bracelet, as it had maxed out and alarmed the night before. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. What was it reacting to at home? Why wasn't it reacting now?

David joins the girls on the front veranda, then returns to the room to sleep. Julie retires as Anne spot two of Ione's finest in the lobby, chatting with the barkeep. She asked for a minute, inquired as to any activity in either the castle or the hotel and got a great story. Officer Jeffrey Arnold doubles as a tour guide at the castle, and was recently in the basement with several others. When they distinctly heard, "Help me!" he immediately searched for the person calling, to no avail. He offers no explanation for the voice, but will admit he is not as devoted a skeptic as he was before that day.

On the cooling back veranda for with a quiet moment to absorb the spirit of the hotel. Normal, soothing night sounds are interrupted by a brightening of the entire hotel. Very difficult to describe. It wasn't an actual light, it was more like a smile, a perking up, a brightening. Anne sat for a minute or two trying to place the 'aura' into words, has an idea and walks back to the room. The clock read 12:03. The haunting hour?

After a surprising good night's sleep with not one iota of disturbance, Anne heads to the back veranda with coffee, leaving the door to the room closed but not latched to keep from waking David. The hotel is perfectly still and silent. The locked veranda door is unlocked, opened and also left unlatched as Anne sits down. The veranda door opens. Fully. She look over, and it closes. She gets up, approaches the door, and asks, "What's up?" Silence. Anne heads back to her table and coffee cup, then back to the room for more coffee. Going through that door is like walking past someone intentionally ignoring you.

The door to room 13 is wide open, and there is David on the bed, fast asleep. The bedroom window is not open, but if it had been, and if there had been a breeze, it would have only served to shut the door, not open it. A fresh cup and back outside to sit, again, leaving both the room and vernada doors unlatched again. The veranda door creaks and opens a few inches. AnneI looks back and it freezes. Repeat. It reminds you of a sneaky, playful child who stops their bad behaviour once you pay attention to them. David has got to see this. Back to the room, and the room is wide open. Again, there is David in full view, sound asleep.

Julie finally awakens and shares her story. At five in the morning, she is woken by a band practising in the saloon. Distinct trumpet. Putting on a robe, she leaves her room, peers down the stairs, over the railing,  to see a man in a tank top sitting in the lobby on the couch. "Do they always do this at this hour?" she asks. He replies, "They will be wrapping it up soon." Julie returns to her room, back to bed, thankful when they stop playing and focuses on returning to sleep.

Alas, at seven o'clock, music blares out again. A song she knows and likes, but not at this hour. Julie again dones her robe, but there is no one in the lobby. She heads downstairs, pounds on the locked saloon doors, windows, even stomps on the floor of her room to no avail. Suddenly, at the end of the song, the music ceases. Tired and headachy, she returns once more to bed.

It is now morning and standing on the top landing, we talk to the clerk on duty, Jennifer, who is sweeping the stairs. The manager appears down in the lobby, apologizes repeatedly to Julie and assures her he will talk to the saloon manager. He insists there is no band in the saloon, but Julie is clear about what she heard. Julie describes the man in the lobby at five o'clock but Jennifer, who knows all the locals, is stymied, but suggests it was Tank Top Tom. Both Anne and Julie remember Tank Top Tom from the night before, Julie is sure that was not him. Anne remembers how the veranda doors were all locked up tight that morning as she went out for coffee. Julie walks to her room as Anne remained at the top of the stairs to hear the manager whisper under his breath, "Here we go again."

Before we left, we had a chance to talk to Jennifer again, who had several interesting, hair raising stories to share. She was truly confused about who Julie could have seen. Jennifer was on duty all night, in her room quite close to Julie's and never heard a sound. When Anne asked about door problems, she assured us room 13 is famous for doors opening and closing.