The Mineral Wells Hotel

My boyfriend recently broke up with me. I was having an extremely hard time with it. I loved him and I was willing to give him everything I had to offer as a person. He said he loved me too, and he lied. When it came down to it, he didn't care about me at all. He said he felt nothing. It was devastating but life goes on, doesn't it?

I had plans with my best friend and her fiancé in place a few days after the break up. The plan was to see a movie with them and go see another with some of their friends. They know I'm a huge introvert and I was anxious about meeting these people before my ex decided to cut ties with me. I didn't think I could handle it after the fact. Instead of making me go through with it, they changed the plans. I really have the best friends in the world.

They decided to hang out with me all day, which was a godsend. We went to eat, watched the first movie we intended to see, got frozen yogurt and after that, we had to wing it. We were coming up blank because there isn't much to do around here at night if you don't drink. We talked about going to a walk and how it was too cloudy to go stargazing.

It was then that it occurred to us that we could drive out into the country, as far from the light pollution as we could manage, and try to catch glimpses of the stars between the passing clouds. It was an adventure because it was dark and we would have to drive for at least an hour in any direction to get anything close to what we wanted.

We picked a couple directions, but noticed that there was lightning flashing in the distance. Instead of dampening our enthusiasm, we changed our plans again. We were just going to drive and enjoy the experience. It was nice. We were talking, laughing, and listening to music.

Eventually we found ourselves in Mineral Wells. We ended up stopping at their Walmart to use the restroom and get some water. While we were there, my best friend found a Jolteon stuffed animal for sale. Jolteon has been my favorite Pokemon since I was a little girl. My ex knew and he sometimes said he was going to get me a plushie one because he knew I would like it. I wrote it off because I didn't need him to buy my things, but seeing this stuffed animal brought up a whole slew of emotions. It was cute, it was my favorite, we found it on adventure while I was trying to deal with my grief, and I just had to have her. As soon as I bought her, I decided that she would be my Travel Jolteon. I would take her on trips and adventures, take pictures of her in fun places.

We kept driving until we got into the more historic district of Mineral Wells. That's when we spotted the hotel, the Baker Hotel. We all recognized it but none of us could remember what it was called. We just kept calling it The Mineral Wells Hotel. It's an enormous and beautiful building. The details in the architecture are awe inspiring. I wanted this to be the first place to get a Travel Jolteon picture.

My friends humored me. We turned around and parked in the Whites Funeral Home parking lot. I was worried that we would get in trouble for parking there and for walking up to the building but we were only going long enough to snap a couple pictures. It's a haunted place with a lot of stories. I'm sure lots of people trespass and make trouble. We weren't trying to do that.

We walked over the Baker Hotel and took a couple pictures on the way. We got a couple pictures of my best friend and myself. We got some of the building, the courtyard fountain next to the building, and the building across the street.

I could tell my friends were feeling apprehensive, particularly my best friend's fiancé. He didn't seem as enthusiastic as I felt. I was just so happy to see this gorgeous place and to take a picture of my new Jolteon in front of it. The camera on my phone needs a lot of light, but his could take pictures in the lighting we had, so he was the one taking pictures.

I found a place to set my Jolteon and we got a few really cool pictures of it in front of the Baker Hotel. After I picked it up, we spent a moment looking up at the building. It is huge. I mean, I knew it was a tall building from the pictures I had seen of it in the past. It's big, but I didn't realize how much it towers over the town around it. It's like an ominous eye watching over everything. Even if it wasn't haunted, I could see why people would think it would be.

I didn't think I would see anything. We were just there for a couple minutes. We didn't poke around. We joked that we were going to break in (because we pretty much make that joke everywhere we go at night) but that was just a joke. None of us were the least bit serious.

After glancing at the windows and into the courtyard, the places that I figured I would see something if I was going to see anything on this trip, I was satisfied that it was quiet. I was perfectly happy to look at the place for the marvel that it was on its own. We started turning back towards the sidewalk that would take us back to the car when I saw something. I didn't think I would that night just because we were there a short period of time and it just didn't seem likely, but I did.

If I was going to guess on a gender, I would say that it looked like a man. He was hunched over and draped in something kind of bulky cloth. It was just a shadow-like outline of a person, not a full apparition, but it reminding me of a rain slicker and a rain hat. The shape moved along the side of the dark building and out towards the courtyard. It was close enough that if it was just a regular person, I would have seen details. I would have heard him. I also don't think he would have disappeared so quickly.

I didn't say anything about it at the time. My friends live in a place with a lot of activity and we're all fairly sensitive. Shadowed silhouettes are so normal that we don't even point it out anymore. While I was happy I saw this guy, I didn't think it was such a big thing that I should mention it.

The rest of the night was pretty interesting. We drove just passed Palo Pinto and hit a storm. The rain got really heavy and my best friend didn't think her car could handle a flash flood. We turned back and we were actually really nervous by the time we got back to Mineral Wells. We were looking for a place to park, and discussed watching the Baker Hotel in the rain. We didn't take the proper turns for that though and we ended up back in the Walmart.

We're lucky we did that because as soon as we pulled up, we were rushed inside by the manager. He said that a tornado touched down nearby (literally down the street) and he had us go to the break room to wait it out. We could hear the rain buffeting against the roof and the tornado sirens going off. While we were there, we joked that we brought the storm and the tornado. It helped us pass the time.

We also talked to this lady that lives in the area. She told us that Mineral Wells basically gets all the tornadoes. She saw the one from the year prior from a window at her job not far from the Walmart. She was really annoyed that she was asked to stay in the break room while the storm passed. She just wanted to go home. She was really nonchalant about the tornado.

Eventually we got back home. We followed the storm after it passed. It was a really fun, exciting night. We intend to go to Possum Kingdom next week. We were supposed to go somewhere else, but my best friend got me excited about going to Possum Kingdom by telling me that we might be able to stop at the Baker Hotel again. I feel fairly drawn to this building. It's really beautiful. I definitely want to see it again.

Later that night, my friend's fiancé sent me all the pictures he took. There was one of the area that I saw the figure. It made me curious about whether or not they saw him too. He said that he had, which is why he took the picture. He didn't catch anything in the frame, but it was nice to find out that I wasn't the only one that saw the shadowed guy in his rain slicker.

The picture doesn't have anything remarkable in it. It's kind of dark and fairly pixel-y when it's full sized. There's nothing in frame to suggest there was even a ghost there so I'm not going to try to post it. It's a really nice shot of the area though. I'm definitely going to keep it for story-sake.