Night at the Old Jail, St. Augustine Ghost Hunting Adventure

On July 17th, my family wanted to go to St. Augustine to hunt for paranormal activity at the Old Jail. We have been there before on a tour, but this was something new with a group of guys called “paranormal seekers” who have been featured on the Hispanic network, Telemundo. These guys were nice and professional and we did catch some activity. There were only 2 downfalls: it was a little pricey and a very long introduction. With the latter out of the way, it would have been much better. Towards the end of the night in an old shower cell we started getting spikes on our emfs. Finally, something was happening. I do have photos of mist and a face in a window. They will be posted here shortly. As we asked questions in a different cell towards the end, we began getting lots of spikes. Because of this, an investigator with a more provocative voice asked questions about the “supposed” ghosts and hits were coming after certain questions. Much of the night, I had a digital camera with me. I took very few photos, but I did record a lot. I actually caught 2 evp’s. On “portrait” listen to the last five seconds at the end. To me, it sounds something like, “try and take my portrait.” The word portrait is definitely there. In the second part, to me, it sounds like “play it again.” It is at the 16 sec. mark. Check out both recordings below and tell me what you think. Now, would I do this again? Absolutely. I didn’t want to leave.

Face in window

 For this photo, you will need to click and enlarge. In the window, I saw a face in the left top hand corner, but it was easier to make out on the camera. It just simply may be the way a person’s eye adjusts.

mist

For this photo, a mist appears near the window as we were walking outside. I never showed an investigator this, but right after the photo was taken, the investigator mentioned mist.

Green Streak from EMF

For the following two photos you will see a green streak. The first one looks like a string on a girl’s leg. I asked if she had anything green on her legs as it was dark where we were. What is was is energy coming from her emf detector. We were in the shower cell and her emf was going off. Of course, it could have been something with my camera, but what was interesting is that this was the only time it happened.

Red and Green

This  photo may be nothing, but you can see a red and green streak. The red may be from an outside light. The green I am not sure.

Fourth Of July, Fort Myers Beach, Florida

Regretably, I do not have any photos to show you at this time. I will check around to see if others who were with me have some. Family from Kentucky came down to join me to see a firework display. Fireworks were supposed to start at 8 pm, but it was light then so that wasn’t going to happen. On the way to Fort Myers Beach, it was pouring down rain. Upon arrival, the rain fell to a drizzle and a few of us went in the water. Once in the water, we found sand dollars and other neat shells. Even a few minutes later, I spotted dolphins swimming near the pier. They were only about 50-60 yards away from where we were swimming. The water was warm, but the air was cool and we all headed back to shore around 8 ‘o clock. Many people on the beach were shooting fireworks into the Gulf. Finally, a little after 9 pm, the firework display began. I have seen many fourth of July fireworks displays and I must admit, this was one of the best displays I have ever seen. It was almost like they had 3 finales. At the very end, the pyrotechnicians made it appear that the dock blew up. It was a fantastic experience and the beach gave a thunderous applause. I failed to mention a spectacular sunset as well. Normally, when you see a sunset, the sun fades into a small orange ball. This time it looked like a huge half orange moon that sunk into the ocean. Fort Myers Beach – well done.

Netherlands beats Brazil 2-1 in Quarter Finals World Cup

Although I enjoy watching both of these teams play, I was one of the few who thought Holland or the Netherlands would win this game. Why? The media was underestimating the Dutch team. As I have watched the World Cup since I was 8 years old, The Netherlands have been the most consistent team who have not won. Even Landon Donovan from the US National team believed Brazil would win, which I disagreed with and I was right. Amsterdam, Holland is the central soccer city in Europe which have some of the best coaches and players in the world. I’m guessing Argentina or Spain may join them in the final game, but the winner of Ghana and Uruguay may have other ideas. If you live in the USA and enjoy playing soccer, but have never been to Amsterdam, I suggest you find a way to travel there. You will enhance your skills by 100%. However, if you have the ability to travel to Brazil, your skills will also be enhanced 100%. Holland never beat Brazil in world cup play and it was well deserved. I will say, however, Robin from Holland became to obvious and hogged the ball too much at front. You have a team, use them. I’m guessing Holland vs Argentina for the final.

Ghost Hunters Academy June 30th, 2010

As I have written previously, Ghost Hunters is doing a much better job on this season of Ghost Hunters Academy. The eliminations have been perfect so far. Next week is the final episode and they have to eliminate 2 people. Plus, they didn’t add people like they did last time, which I thought was ridiculous. There is only one thing I do not like about these episodes. They ask each individual who they think should go home. This can hinder an investigation. If Jason, Steve, and Tango are deciding, why even ask. Plus, on the last episode, Jason says, “I don’t care what they think.” If he does not care what they think, there is no need to ask them. I do think that this time the investigators were better selected and have shown desire in wanting to investigate. Last season they gave two people chances to investigate with Ghost Hunters International, which will be on shortly, but they also said others could be in their next academy. Where are/were they? One of my commentors made a good point. Ghost Hunters always ends with Jason and Grant bumping fists after saying they thought it was a good case. There was only one time they thought it was bad, but was obvious within the first hour. This was the one a few years ago with a mechanical laughing woman in the bathroom and they caught it. However, that was not the only bad case. There were plenty others. As far as good investigating with the academy, they should keep both Adam and Eric – both are vocal and much better than the so called “winners” of the previous season.

Marco Island, Florida – Tiger Tail Beach

Recently I went on a field trip to TigerTail Beach on Marco Island. This island sits on the southwest Florida coastline just north of the Everglades. Although I didn’t really have that great of time on the field trip, the beach was quite interesting. There is a lagoon that people can wade it, collect seashells, snorkel (but no coral – just seagrass, fish, crabs, and shells) swim, and ride aqua bikes. This is also a great place to film or take photos of birds such as Black Skimmers, Plovers, Great Egrets, and even Great Reddish Egrets. Sometimes you may even get them in one photo. On the beach side of the island, I tried to snorkel, but there was nothing around. Other people on the trip, cast out nets to see what kind of lagoon and sea creatures we could find. It was a very hot day, which is one reason I didn’t feel like doing anything plus I stayed up most of the night previous. The only bad thing about this area is you have to pay $8.00 to park. Marco Island is also a great place to take your kids. The beach does have facilities and water toys for them to play with. I took a few photos for you to enjoy below.

United States advances in miracle World Cup

As a huge soccer fan, I have seen many impressive victories, but probably none more sweet than for Landon Donovan of the U.S.A. World Cup Team. After a denied goal by a bad referee from Mali in U.S. vs. Slovenia, a win against Algeria was a must. The entire 90 minutes plus 4 minutes in injury time was an edge of your seat fast paced soccer match, which is rare to see. What is odd to me is that Algeria was content with a tie when they could have advanced with a 2-0 win, but USA was not to be denied. Another disallowed goal placed by Dempsey was called offside, which would have made it 1-0 early on. Chance after chance the USA had and pressure was the key. Finally, from start to finish Landon Donovan scored a miracle win in the 92nd minute to win with excellent play from Altidore. This is what happens when you have a never give up attitude. After all the drama and bad calls by referees, the USA paves its way to the round of sixteen. No one on the team played bad today. Coach Bob Bradley tried new things and new tactics, and in the end, the result was a win. Although a few years ago it was thought David Beckham would bring back soccer by playing for the MLS, it would be hard to believe that Landon Donovan would never be forgotton as a US soccer player and bring the popularity back to the US. It was one shot that took out both Algeria and Slovenia in the 92nd miniute. Donovan may prove to be the best American soccer player ever. The best unknown soccer player is yours truly :)

World Cup Soccer 2010 South Africa

The World Cup Soccer 2010 in South Africa has been nothing less than dramatic. Most games have been refereed fairly well, but yes so many are still talking about the United States final would be goal against Slovenia giving them a better chance to advance to the next round. There are so many problems with this decision, the main one being that the referee never said what the call was. As a referee myself, I would tell the players what the call was. There is definitely a difference between a bad call and an unknown call. The U.S. will advance tomorrow (Wed. Jun. 22nd) if they beat Algeria. Lots of things can happen in this group.
Although dramatic and controversial, another team has failed to produce in the World Cup, namely France, for the first time ever. Not only that, they didn’t even win a game. European teams that usually excel are fading fast and oddly enough, Europe is the main hub of soccer (futbol, football). To me, it looks like the South American Teams will prevail. The United States team needs to come out with a bang, they aren’t going to come back against teams like Argentina or Brazil if they even play them. Final round tomorrow so we will see.

Keywadin Island off of Marco Island, Florida

Drifting through the calm waters of the mangroves near Rookery Bay, standing on the shoreline were Great Egrets watching our boat pass as we watched Black Skimmer’s pass. Our destination – Keywadin Island. We anchored on shore and took a trawl from one side of the island to the other.

Trawling through mangroves

I’ve never been so informed about mangroves and plants in my life. Actually, I have never been interested, but it is interesting because it’s amazing how much plants and trees help our environment. After trawling through Mangroves, we were educated about other plants and turtles on dunes, then headed in split directions on the beach. The first thing we all saw were turtle tracks, then a few of us saw a huge crab burrow itself in a hole.

Huge crab borrowed here

Following the fish w clear bottom

I walked inside the water alone and yes it felt good as it was a scorching day. I saw a hermit crab, a few nice shells, and a small sting ray. On the way back, we all saw hundreds of crabs along where a new mangrove path is forming. Our facilitator put one on his ear as an earring. I didn’t get a picture of that, but others did. I will see if I can get one and post it. On our trip back, I saw a small raccoon at the water’s edge. Our next stop is Tigertail Beach on Marco Island.

Florida Championship Wrestling, Fort Myers

On June 18, 2010, Florida Championship Wrestling came to Fort Myers, Florida. It has been over 20 years since I have seen wrestling outside of the WWE. Sebring, Frostproof, and Immokalee used to host NWA wrestling with the likes of Rick Flair, Dusty Rhodes, and Barry Windham. Other cities hosted as well, these were the ones that were close to me. I was impressed with some and not so impressed with others. The tag team matches were a little more fun to watch. I was up close and personal with the wrestlers and realized how amazingly fake it was. Yes, of course, they get hurt from time to time, but from my perspective, the only way I saw anyone get hurt is from being slammed on the mat. I’m sure the ropes hurt as well, but beyond that….ugh. NXT rookies were wrestling such as Jerry Brisco’s son Jerry and Richie and Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat. Ricky Steamboat was one of my favorite wrestlers as a kid, but as I walked by him while he was sitting at this table, he kinda ignored me. That’s ok because Kelly Kelly was at the next table. I did get a few photos and will post them soon. I was by myself so it felt kind of awkward. I don’t think I will be going alone to one of these again unless it is WWE Raw or Smackdown. I did enjoy it and the audience was quite small. Now, I am in the quest for guest hosting raw. Mr. McMahon? You still have yet to have a guest host from off the street. I would love to do it.

Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale is one of Spring Break’s favorite beach destinations. I also enjoy Fort Lauderdale Beach because there is plenty to do for kids and adults alike. I took family there last Saturday because they wanted to watch the dogs race. Pre-dog racing, I took them around the ritsy areas of Fort Lauderdale. I showed them million dollar houses along with multi million dollar yachts.

Yacht

The ironic part of this is that the poor live very close to the rich. The beach has a few miles worth of restaurants and few miles of sandy beach as well. It even had small waves this day as Fort Lauderdale beaches are usually calm unless you have wind. Las Olas Blvd was also driven down as I had to show them the places you could shop if you were loaded with credit and cash. Hallandale is where we watched the dog races. My mother-in-law and her grandchild enjoyed it very much. I promised her grandson we would see an alligator in the short time he was here.

cool house

Their final day here I took him down highway 29 that links Palmdale and Labelle, Florida and I found a little pond where my reptilian friends were. I made some gator noises and 2 began heading toward us. We were on a bridge so all the gator did was wish we would fall.