The Sparkling Ghost
We drove straight to Draculas Grave and left the car sitting in the dirt lane as we walked to the fence surrounding the cemetery. We took some pictures over the fence, then I got back in the car. I was waiting for Dust while he was trying to get his camcorder working. I was staring off into the woods when I noticed a misty cloud with very tiny lights in the center of it sparkling and twinkling on and off. (see picture below for a representation) I immediatley got Dust's attention. He saw it right away. We sat staring in disbelief for several minutes. I took a picture with the digital camera, but it wouldn't penetrate that far into the dark woods. We were mesmerized by its beauty and both agreed that it was one of the most amazing things that we have ever seen. The car had been idling the whole time, Suddenly there was a loud noise. Dust said "what was that?" It had come from the radio. Then the car sputtered and almost stalled. My wife said the car has been acting funny for the last couple days and would make a noise from the stereo and run rough if it sat idling too long. (turned out to be a bad alternator) I had to give it gas to keep it from stalling, then decided to get moving. We left our sparkling ghost behind and started driving. I was almost out of gas, so we headed straight for the gas station. We had planned on visiting Beaver Dam cemetery that night so we went there instead of going back to Dracula's grave. To read about our visit to Beaver Dam, click here. After Beaver Dam, we drove back to Dracula's grave expecting to see the ghost but to our dismay, it was no where to be found. We drove off rather disappointed and decided to cruise some backroads and make the best of the evening. Before long we got turned around and ended up going right past the road that led to Dracula's grave. It was already around 2:00 AM and I was tired. I asked Dust if he wanted to bother driving past the graveyard again. He was all for it. He said that we got turned around for a reason and that we were meant to go back. He also said he had a feeling that if something were to happen, it would be on this final trip back. We drove to the spot where we originally saw the sparkling ghost and searched the woods for any sign of it. We were once again disappointed that there was nothing there. The car had been idling while we searched the dark woods. I realized that the car was acting up again. It then sputtered and as I pushed the accelerator to take off, the car stalled! I was stupid enough to think that if I turned the key, the car might actually start up. No such luck. I thought "this can't be happening" It was about 2:15, there is a cemetery to our right with a reputation for being haunted, woods to our left where we saw a ghost, and our car died. I got out and wiggled the battery terminals hoping we had a bad connection but the battery was dead. We sat there for about 15 minutes, trying the car every so often to see if it would start. We didn't have a phone and we were a couple miles from the house. Since the road sloped downward from the graveyard, we were able to let the car drift to a house that is located next to the cemetery. By now it was 2:30, we didn't want to knock on their door so we decided to walk. We must have lost our minds because this was already beginning to sound like a horror movie. To make matters worse we chose to walk back the same road past the cemetery and the sparkling ghost. Luckily we made it back to the house. The walk back was relatively uneventful except for some footsteps in the woods (maybe a deer), and the smell of Ben Gay. (don't ask). The walk turned out to be 2 1/2 miles. We got back to the house and drove Dust's car back to mine. Wouldn't you know it, my car started without even needing jumped. We went home excited about our adventure and amazed by the sparkling ghost. The next morning it was all I could think about. After breakfast we drove back to Draculas grave so we could look into the woods in daylight to see if we could find a rational explanation for what we saw the previous night. We found our ghost alright. There was a stream that ran through the woods at the exact spot where we saw "sparky". It seems the image was caused by moonlight dancing off the rippling water. There was probably some low lying fog down in the woods that created the misty form. The reflected moonlight was partially filtered by that fog. You may think we had a rotten time. Our car broke down, we got excited about seeing our first ghost but it turned out to be moonlight, and we had to walk 2 1/2 miles between 2:30 and 3:00 in the morning. On the contrary, we had a great time and one we won't soon forget!
