2016 Trip - Day 6 - Do you know the way to San Jose?

Before I relay today’s events, I need to tell one and all….if you thought that politics in Australia to be a shit fight….then that has nothing on the absolute codswallop in the USA.  When the Bear and I came to the USA in 2012 they were in the grips of an election (Barack Obama had been up for re-election) and I thought that was laid on thick….but I tell you what…..what is happening now is an absolute disgrace.  What’s more, we have to listen to this rubbish 24/7.    But it’s the idiocy of this that creates hype that the media is hungry for.  And the more that Donald Trump makes a dickhead of himself….the more the journalists are lapping this up.   The more they lap it up, the more he hams it up.  The truth is he is a baboon who has pulled his arse over this head therefore everything he says is just the baboon-shit flowing from his mouth.   

 

Anyway today we went to San Jose and Santa Cruz.  We were going to go to Carmel to eat in Clint Eastwoods’ restaurant however we just simply didn’t get there.  In San Jose, there is something called the “Winchester Mystery Mansion” which we wanted to have a look at.   This was the home of Sarah Winchester, whose father-in-law founded the Winchester Repeating Arms Company (it made rifles).  Sarah’s husband William had died from tuberculosis and she subsequently inherited 20.5 million dollars and 50% ownership of the company that her father-in-law built.   They unfortunately had no live children.  They had one daughter, Annie, who died at the age of 6 weeks.    It was said that Sarah mourned for the rest of life.  Her new found wealth did nothing to ease her pain.   A friend suggested to her to speak to a psychic medium, which she did.  She was told by the psychic that her husband was present and he said there was a curse on the family. That is what took his life and that of their daughter!  He said the thousands of people who had died at the hands of a Winchester rifle were seeking vengeance.   The medium said that she had to sell her property (currently at New Haven) and head towards the setting sun.  She was to start a new life and build a home for herself and the spirits who have fallen from that “ terrible weapon”.  She was told to NEVER stop building the house, because if she stopped, she would die.

 

Sarah Winchester moved to San Jose and purchased a modest farm house (along with its 162 acres) , after which she employed a team of 22 builders/carpenters.  They started to build onto the farm house, and continued to do so 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, until she died 38 years later.   The modest farm house had grown to 7 storey’s (although the top 3 storey’s collapsed in the earthquake of 1906) and still has 160 room with 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows and 40 stairwells. The house is said to be one of the most haunted in America.

This…..was right up my alley.

Today was dank, cold and wet.  In other words, perfect conditions to be visiting a haunted mansion.  Given that I had been concentrating on visiting my first haunted property, I had not given any thought to how I would move comfortably around somewhere that had stairs.  In fact, it never even occurred to me that a mansion with 160 or more rooms would have stairs. No 40 stairwells.  Bloody hell.   Given my bad back/hip/knee and my poor attitude towards exercise and healthier living, I naturally assumed that this place would have elevators.    Alas…..no it didn’t.

Fortunately for me, Mrs Winchester was less than 5 feet tall.  In her later years she suffered from bad arthritis.  She renovated some of her stairwells to be only 2 inches high.  Excellent.  As the tour began and our tour guide explained the reasons for this, I mentally high-fived Mrs Winchester for this.  I might survive the tour after all.

Mrs Winchester did all of the designing (without any plans being drawn) herself.  This meant the rooms, hallways, doorways and stairways, were made for her size.  Given her short stature and slight build, not only were some of the steps only 2 inches high, the width of the stairwells and doorways were so narrow, most people had to walk through them side ways.  I sympathized with the Bear who was banging his head on the top of the door frame and having to stoop through each door.  I was grateful being vertically challenged (5 feet 3 inches….and shrinking)…until I got jammed….in a doorway….by my hips and ample  derrière.   Unfortunately given that we were with a tour group of about 25 people, I couldn’t really make light of the situation and yell for someone to “PASS THE BUTTER”.  Fortunately due to it being so dark in there, the other tourists generally couldn’t see this happening, and the resounding “pop” that occurred each time a room gave birth to me, could have been passed off as anything.

Mrs Winchester created doors that opened onto a brick wall, stairways that lead to ceilings, windows in the floors and many other seriously strange things.  How the hell anyone could find their way around this place is beyond me….although the tour guide thinks that Mrs Winchester might have been trying to make sure that the spirits couldn’t find her.   The further we went into the bowels of this house, the more the walls seemed to close us in.  Given the poor weather outside and it being so dark inside……it became a little claustrophobic.  We were warned not to break from the group, because if one of us got lost…..well…….you know…..mmmwwuuhhhahahahahaha! *insert scary music here*

(Ok…nothing would have really happened.  Someone would come and get you).

I felt myself getting caught up in the romance, the sadness, and the absolute loneliness and desperation that this poor woman felt.  She was terrified of these spirits even though she really had nothing to do with the rifles that killed people.  She just married into the family.  I had actually forgotten that this was alleged to be a house with several hauntings….until I was out walking towards the front windows of the bedroom that Mrs Winchester was sleeping in at the time of the 1906 earthquake.  (Mrs Winchester was not killed….but trapped until she could be rescued)  The room was significantly damaged, and although the building around her house went on for another 16 years, she shut the door on the room and it remained in that state.  She did not request that the carpenters repair this.  Standing in a room trapped in time, bearing the extraordinary damage from a 9.0 earthquake, it wasn’t hard to imagine how terrifying this must have been.  I was walking towards the windows just to try to figure out why Mrs Winchester hadn’t been rescued via a window (the door that was jimmied open still bears the scars) when a small puff off smoke seemed to shoot up from the floor. I rubbed my eyes but I swear the remnant was there.  Startled, I looked to the lady beside me and was about to ask WTF??  She didn’t appear to notice anything.   I looked the other way…..and no-one else seemed startled or to have noticed either.  At that point, I remembered the house was allegedly haunted, and turned to walk out.  The Bear was already leaving the room so I hurried up to go with him.  I went to mention this to him and then thought better of it. I am a believer….he is not.

I thought I must have been seeing things, so let it go.  When we had been in the “séance room” earlier, I felt nothing which I was sure that I would if there had been anything there.  Mrs Winchester had a séance room that only she was allowed to access, to consult and seek guidance from the spirits.  Given that I believe that the Bear and I have someone who roams the hallway at night, I was searching for that “feeling”.  There had been nothing there so I trusted my instincts.  I might just point out, that I believe that the person who visits us is watching over the Bear.  I think that this totally sucks given that he doesn’t even believe in the supernatural!  I want my own ghost!  I thought my puff of smoke in Mrs Winchesters bedroom may have just been one of the dirty blokes who had been dropping his guts all the way around, might have farted the dust off a piece of furniture.

A couple of moments later, we stopped in another area, where the tour guide was explaining how one of the people that now haunted the mansion was one of Mrs Winchesters carpenters.  He apparently continues to try to repair a fireplace that is situated in the ballroom downstairs.  As she was telling the story, I felt the sensation of ice come over my face.  I will call it a sensation, as it was not a wind or breeze.  The chill went down over my shoulders even though I had several layers of clothes on.  Again I looked to see if anyone noticed anything, but no.  I looked about for an open door or window, but there was none, not that I expected to find one.  This was a cold that I could not describe.  It goes without saying……I considered crapping myself.

Once the tour was over, we head to Santa Cruz which was another town on.  The Bear had wanted to go to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk as this was the location where a “Huey Lewis and the News” video was filmed.  In the film clip it is a bright, sunny day…clearly in summer…where the beach was covered with bikinis and lads.  Today was a significant contrast given that it was grey and wet.  But…we were there…so we had to check it out.   Not really much to tell here but at least we can say “been there, done that”.   The Bear did get to go to a place that he had really wanted to see, and though the weather was atrocious, I am glad he got to do that.

After we got back to Salinas we decided that we would have dinner at “The Outback Steakhouse”.    This is a chain of restaurants that apparently serve good Aussie tucker.  We have eaten at one of these in Las Vegas on a previous trip also, and found that nothing could be further from the truth.  Tonight was no different.   The restaurant was decked out in everything Australian, yet the staff wouldn’t know an Aussie if they were poked in the eye with a prawn.  I would have thought that this should have been a condition of employment.   However if the proprietors have a menu that doesn’t fit, how can the staff be expected to know better?  Let’s explore some items listed on the menu:

Aussie Chicken Taco’s:  Three grilled chicken tacos topped with coleslaw, fresh pico de gallo, melted Monteray Jack cheese, and herbed aioli.    The problem here?  It’s a Mexican food topped with an American Cheese. Kudos to anyone that can eat the Pico de Gallo.  Lord knows I have tried.

New Zealand Lamb:  Lamb finished with a Cabernet wine sauce and served with garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal veggies.  The problem here?  Hello?  New Zealand Lamb?

Aussie Fries:  Potato fries topped with melted cheeses, bacon and spicy ranch dressing.   The problem here?  Self explanatory really.

Alice Springs Chicken Quesadillas:  Stuffed with fresh grilled chicken breast, sautéed mushrooms, bacon, melted Monteray Jack cheese and honey mustard sauce.  The problem here?  A quesadilla is Mexican!

Toowoomba Pasta:  Pasta with prawns and clams.   The problem here?  Toowoomba has nothing to do with pasta, and we don’t live anywhere near the ocean….so prawns and clams?  Pffft!  Not to mention that Toowoomba is not in the “outback” How do I know this?  I have lived there for nearly 30 years!

This is just a couple of examples.  The food isn’t bad however the experience, if you are an Aussie in a foreign country, is terrible.  Staff in the restaurant pick us for being British even if we say G’day.  *sigh*

Tomorrow we are driving up to San Francisco to catch a flight to Seattle.  Eddie Vedder country.  Excited much!!!