It is that time of year to get your scare on! Yep, October is the month for spooks and goblins to be wandering the streets in hopes of administering a whole lot of fear in us mere humans.

Well, for those that believe.

According to a United States government survey conducted in 2021, 41% of Americans believe in ghosts, the other 59% are too afraid to say either way.

“What if I’m wrong and Casper shows up in my bedroom floating around angrily?” one participant may have asked.

So, with October here, I thought I’d check in with my buddy, Cody Dare, of The New Reality, to learn what haunts I needed to check out.

“Dude, you gotta go to the All Saints Lunatic Asylum in Apple Valley,” Cody said. “There’s a lot of paranormal action going on there.”

Halls you may not want to enter

It has also been a professional Haunted House in the High Desert for the past eight years. Of course it is haunted - it is supposed to be.

Can’t be a lunatic asylum if all the patients are sitting around in Lazy-boys watching sit-coms and telling each other they are fine.

Nope, a lunatic asylum has to be a place of horror, torture, grief, terror, and all the other things that make people afraid to enter. No one is afraid to enter a lunatic asylum that resembles something like Friends.

“Oh, Rachel,” Monica may say. “You look just horrible with that leather mask strapped to your face while bound to a shopping cart.”

Rachel will only snarl and drool, but we all know it will work out for the best by the end of the episode.

Never saw this in 'Friends'

I drove to Apple Valley to check out this lunatic asylum, making sure I took my get out of asylum free card with me - just in case.

Christy and Richard Cerreto, the owners of the All Saints Lunatic Asylum met me at the double glass doors of their haunting business.

They were normal looking people. Not sure what I was expecting, but a couple who enjoy scaring the bejesus out of people may have looked like they had just exited a wild rage of Alice Cooper enthusiasts.

Nope, and to boot, they are college professors. Perhaps the place is haunted - making demons appear like well-educated humans.

How dastardly!

Actually, the couple were a lovely duo who just like to be surrounded by ghoulish and bloody exhibits.

“It started at our home,” Christy explained. “We love Halloween and would sit on our front porch handing out candy and scaring the trick-or-treaters.”

“Then it branched out to a maze of fear in our backyard for the neighbor children,” Richard chimed in.

I was wondering if this was my cue that it was time to leave. I’ve seen too many films where this could go wrong - I was just hoping there wasn’t a shed I’d hide in and learn it was full of chainsaws.

“We don’t use chainsaws here,” Christy reassured me.

Huh? I thought I had just said that quietly inside my own head.

No chain saws, but ....

Prior to showing up for my personal tour of the fear factory, I had contacted Cody Dare and Shawn Warren from The New Reality - the paranormal investigative group.

“All Saints Lunatic Asylum has always given me an uneasiness, a feeling of darkness, and never feeling alone,” Cody shared with me. Now, Shawn is pretty amazing when it comes to the paranormal stuff - him being a psychic medium and all - not sure what that means, but he is good at it.

He continued. “You can feel the oppression as soon as you walk into the door, always making me feel disoriented.”

Nervous? Just talk to the nurse at the asylum

Richard, Christy and I were in the lobby, where visitors to their macabre realm check in, and I did not feel any of the things Cody or Shawn had shared with me.

Then again, I generally state when someone insults me, “You hurt my feeling.” Perhaps I left that feeling by the glass entry doors.

“The New Reality has been here,” Christy commented. “It was awesome to see how professional they are.”

Richard nodded. “They always try to find a logical reason for any strange occurrences, then they can rule them out.”

And that is the case for legitimate paranormal investigators. At least 95% of weird stuff can be put down as wind, clouds, imagination, or other issues which may be nothing. It is the remaining 5% that cannot be explained that intrigues these investigators of the unknown.

It is much like when my beautiful wife, Laureen, shops and tells me she is saving money by buying a whole lot of stuff we don’t need because it is on sale.

Cody takes more of an intuitive empath approach - again, no idea what that means.

“The place is off the charts with paranormal activity. There is something very dark in the chapel room.”

The asylum is broken up into many rooms. There is the administrative room, the morgue, the children's room, the hospital room, the dentist office, the chapel, the Sasquatch cage, and so much more to entertain and delight.

Welcome to the Asylum

“When the crew was here,” Christy started, “They were conducting an EVP and clearly a doll was directing one of the female members to choose a certain doll in the room. When she chose the wrong doll, the voice told her ‘no’ and directed her to the correct one.”

For the neophytes, an EVP is in reference to an electronic voice phenomena which are sounds found on electronic recordings that are interpreted as spirit voices.

Though I have been on an investigation with Cody and Shawn, I still have no idea what that means except in layman terms it may be when Betelgeuse insults us and we can hear him.

“Sorry, Betelgeuse, but I left my feeling at the door,” I may return.

I asked both Richard and Christy if the building in which the asylum is located in Apple Valley was built on some sort of sacred Native American land. Perhaps an old western cemetery? Perhaps a devil worshiping pond?

“Nope,” Richard replied. “A stripmall built in the 1970s. I think there was a butcher shop here, a church and who knows.”

A butcher shop. Hmm.

“Cody got struck by a screw, right into his chest,” Christy told me. 

Haunted casket?

“I’ve stepped on nails, right through my foot when I was picking up dog poop in the backyard,” I replied.

She stared at me. “No, when they were filming by the casket, Cody was conducting a sensory deprivation when suddenly a screw flew at him from the casket, right into his chest.”

I nodded as if I understood.

“They caught it on tape,” Richard shared.

At that point the tour through all the rooms was conducted by my guests and it was enlightening, thrilling, and terrifying. But, I am not going into detail since I would not want to ruin the surprise for any potential visitors.

Besides, I had my eyes closed most of the time. When I saw Granny rocking in her wheelchair with a face that would terrify Jeffrey Dahmer, I knew this place was the real thing.

And here's Granny

As I learned during the tour, pretty much everything within the walls of the asylum are antiques acquired from actual places where folks may have not been treated as well as they should have been while alive, or even after death.

Could it be that it is not the actual building where the asylum is located that is haunted but the artifacts contained there? Does the very existence of these items conjure up dark energy that then releases itself on unsuspecting humans? Does the culmination of all these objects together in one place open the portal to the underworld? Is this where the beginning meets the end?

I don’t know - but it is very cool.

Just before I left, Richard pointed out a slew, or should I say a slaying of awards earned by his and Christy’s haunted enterprise. It was quite impressive: best live theater, best innovative business, best place to work, best place to have a birthday party, and my favorite - best place to wet your pants in public.

Lots of spooky awards

Did I feel any paranormal activities while at the asylum?

Nope, but that does not mean there isn’t. I know this though, wandering those dark halls and viewing actual pieces obtained from real asylums, mortuaries, hospitals, morgues, and who knows where else, there could be very well stuff happening there no one can explain.

Perhaps there is some sort of energy present at this asylum. Perhaps there is not - but, the only way to find out personally is to visit.

And no, I am not a paid spokesperson for the All Saints Lunatic Asylum. In fact, both Richard and Christy asked me to come back when it was open for guests for free. I turned them down.

I like my pants dry.

For more information: http://www.allsaintsasylum.com/

Catch Cody and Shawn on their Youtube channel - The New Reality Paranormal 

 

Don Laughlin's Car Museum

 In 1980, a man purchased a new 1,100 cc Honda Gold Wing with a desire to ride the

open roads.

The Bike!

Over the following four years he managed to put over 30,000 miles on that sturdy Honda

and when he put the kickstand down, he may have said, “That is not enough miles for me.

I want to see the world.”

The Honda’s owner, Emilio Scotto, may have been guffawed at by his friends and family,

since the man had never even left his native country of Argentina.

“You barely rolled out of Buenos Aires,” it is rumored a neighbor may have sneered.

“Now, you want to roam the world?”

Scotto shook his head. “I don’t want to roam but fly on my Gold Wing through the

heavens touching down in as many lands as I am able.”

The neighbor looked at Scotto, believing he may have had one or two Aloja de Chauchas

too many.

Scotto quit his job in 1984, and with 300 bucks in his pocket, he took off on his

motorcycle for the trip of a lifetime.

Over the next decade, the intrepid motorcycle rider covered 485,000 miles, visited 232

countries - including islands, colonies, atolls, and other not-really-recognized countries. It

is estimated that Scotto touched down, his words not mine, on nearly 99 percent of the

landmasses on earth.

Scotto holds the Guinness World Record for the longest journey conducted by an

individual on a motorcycle.

He finally arrived back home in Argentina on April 2, 1995 and promptly received a

traffic ticket, possibly from a jealous traffic cop.

When he met up with family and friends, it is rumored he said, “My rear end hurts -

really hurts from sitting down for ten years on bumpy roads.”

It should be noted that even though Scotto left Argentina in 1985 with few pesos, he did

pick up numerous sponsors for his around-the-world journey as his story was shared

campfire to campfire, which made eating and putting gas in his motorcycle a bit more

affordable.

Now, what does one man following his passion of traveling around the world have to do

with this column?

It isn’t about Emilio Scotto or his motorcycle, but about a person’s desire to see more of

the world than they had ever hoped for before.

Traveling is a way to do that - to venture out and visit strange new lands, see strange new

people, experience strange new experiences, and sometimes just to be strange.

Then again, Scotto’s motorcycle is on display with his complete adventurous story at Don

Laughlin’s Car Museum, located within the Riverside Resort Hotel and Casino, in

Laughlin, Nevada.

The Riverside Resort Hotel and Casino

I’ve written about Laughlin in the past - the small gambling and entertainment mecca

which sits on the west side of the cooling blue waters of the Colorado River. A great

place for family and for those folks who don’t have a family.

John R Beyer next to a statue of Don Laughlin

The town works for both categories.

It had been a long time since I had visited the car museum located at the Riverside. In

fact, as I get older, my perspective of that long time may have been longer.

If recollection serves me well, the last time I visited, it was called the Don Laughlin’s

Horse and Buggy Museum.

This is no horse and buggy museum

Laureen, my lovely wife, couldn’t make the trip to Laughlin so my buddy, Paul, ventured

out with me.

Men love auto museums, and I am not being sexist, but generally I see men being guided

by their girlfriends or wives through the museums on a leash. This is because the men are

wearing drool buckets attached to their ears and terrible and ugly spillage could occur if

they stop suddenly in front of a bright shiny gorgeous automobile.

“It’s just a silly old Lamborghini Veneno,” the wife or girlfriend may say, while giving a

little tug on the leash attached to the drool bucket.

“But, it was created to celebrate Lamborghini’s fiftieth anniversary back in 2013.”

A snap on the leash. “And when is our anniversary?”

“I understand the museum has a gift shop.”

Who wouldn't drool?

According to the car museum’s website, ‘The exhibit is a rotating collection of antique,

classic, and unique autos assembled from private collections from all over the world.

Included among these are several owned by Don Laughlin himself, an avid auto

enthusiast and collector. Don Laughlin’s Classic Car Collection has something for

Everyone!’

An exclamation point - must be pretty darn exciting in that car museum, and I was there

to find out if it was true or not.

The actual exhibit is divided into two different floors of the casino. The first floor, along

Casino Drive, is open to the public for free. It’s a tease to tempt car aficionados to head to

the 3rd floor on the south tower to see the majority of the vehicles on display for the

small price of five bucks.

I had to cover Paul’s ticket.

As I entered the ground floor exhibit, I was met by a staff/security gentleman sitting

behind a desk.

“Do you like working here?” I asked.

He simply waved his hand in the direction of a shiny medium blue 1963 Corvette

Stingray sitting stunningly by the large glass front window.

I started shaking a bit.

Wandering along the roped paths leading to this vehicle and the next, it was hard to

explain the pounding in my chest.

A 1949 Harley Davidson, a 1966 Triumph, a 1967 Velocette standing proudly against

one wall.

A 1969 Mini-mini Indian, a 1950 Whizzer Sportsman, a 1981 Honda ATC 110 also

standing proudly against another wall.

Desert vehicles, sports cars, and the like were there. But enough gawking, it was time to

head to the 3rd floor main event.

Stepping off the elevator we found ourselves in a world of wonder.

Thirty-thousand square feet of vehicle viewing area greeted the visitor. Some of that

space is for a small gift shop, and to my relief Paul is frugal - now, if Laureen had been

there?

Car after car was just begging for us to stop, ponder, and wonder how such a mechanical

beast could be so beautiful.

I could feel the horsepower roaring up to the white ceilings - though, in reality none of

the vehicles were running and we learned that most only have a smidgen of fuel just in

case they have to be moved a bit, or started to ensure everything was in working order.

One notable exhibit was the bright red Skylane Hot Road which was rotating on a

pedestal so everyone could see the beauty of this automobile in a full 360 degree

exposure.

There was a 1934 Ford Tow Truck, a 1977 Lincoln convertible, a 1954 Kurtis, a 1932

Buick Coupe, and it went on and on.

Row after row of vintage cars and trucks in immaculate condition. It was almost too

much for a late morning jaunt.

I looked over at Paul, who was receiving a cup of water from another staff member while

being led to a chair.

“Happens all the time,” the staff member said.

Being a friend, I stayed by Paul for a few moments until he waved his right hand. “You

go ahead. I forgot to breathe while looking at the vehicles. I just need a little rest.”

I foraged ahead into another row of vehicles. All meticulously cared for by their owners

to the point of almost worship.

Suddenly my eyes were drawn to a 1937 bright red Cord, built by the Auburn

Automobile Company out of Connersville, Indiana.

It made me stop in my tracks. Curved like an artist created it out of a piece of clay and

then threw away the mold.

In 1937 this car sold for 3,000 dollars. A lot of money for its time, that today would

easily go for 150,000 dollars or more at auction.

Amelia Earhart owned one - and I had always wanted one.

“We’d have to sell one of our daughters,” Laureen would say.

That’s when I would start looking at grades, who picked up the doggie messes the most,

and so-on.

To this day, no Cord in my driveway.

The Don Laughlin Car Museum is a wonderful way to spend a few hours and just relax

amidst some truly awesome vehicles that would stand up to any artist.

If you doubt that, look closely at a work by Salador Dali. Enough said.

For more information: https://automotivemuseumguide.com/don-laughlins-car-museum/

9/11 Never Forgotten

We at J and L Research and Exploration will never forget the horrible and tragic terrorist attack that occurred on September 11, 2001. 

God bless the United States of America!