Haunted Trolley Hijinks

Yesterday we made our trek north to Volo, IL to the Volo Auto Museum (and antique mall) to investigate the new Haunted Trolley Tours at this fun destination. We arrived and were whisked into the Hollywood building that holds many of the well-known cars from movies and TV shows, where a big crowd of visitors had gathered to meet me! It's pretty distracting to be sitting there among cars like the Black Beauty from "Green Hornet" and that all-time favorite, the George Barris Batmobile from the 1960's "Batman" series, but as always, the many Sven fans who came to see us were able to capture my full attention.After our signing and photo-posing were through, we headed out for the first of the Haunted Trolley Tours.Our driver and guide Liz was as adept at manuevring the trolley as she was at relating some of the fascinating tales of odd supernatural occurances on the premises that have been documented- and that are sure to make any visitors to the museum and antique mall look over their shoulder nervously! Strange faces appearing in mirrors? Yep, it's happened. Antiques actually floating? People have seen that- as well as shadowy figures and fast moving...well...somethings. We made our way to the barn that has been the scene of some haunted hijinks- including the sound of running footsteps and laughing children, as well as strange banging noises. We were treated to a visit with Vincent, the groundskeeper, who related the story of a Civil War soldier who may well be the main spirit who, for some reason,will not leave this plane of existence- and has been seen by any number of employees and customers!Could any of this be related to the graveyard that lies right behind the barn- which also coincidentally contains the grave of that soldier? We continued on the trolley tour, passing more landmarks like the original residence on the property where a mysterious knapsack was discovered under the floorboards- after some unexplained incidents brought about its discovery- and the building where one former resident raised chickens (not rubber ones) and was subsequently found hanged! We moved onto a very special, less haunted part of the tour- where we got to see some fabulous cars owned by everybody from Michael Jordan and Oprah, to Tony Curtis and Nelson Rockefeller- to Brittney Spears,Zsa Zsa Gabor, Princess Diana,and- even Dick Clark! After the tour, we made a few more quick stops in various parts of the museum-and took a look at the two famous cars from the Munsters TV show- the Munster Coach and Grandpa's "Drag-u-la"- along with a full-sized Mach 5 from "Speed Racer"!If you ever wanted to sit in a Flintstones Flintmobile- this is the place you can do so! If you want to see a Harrier jet that was destroyed by the Incredible Hulk in "The Avengers"- they have it here!(in fact, they have a whole military collection of real trucks, vehicles, and aircraft!) We recorded some footage that we will be showing in an upcoming program- and it was a lot of fun- I mean, how many other goolies can say that they answered the Batphone on the console of the Batmobile?! We had a tremendous time at the museum- and want to thank all of the nice people we met who came to say hello and joined us on the trolley tours, and, of course, Brian and his staff at the museum who made our visit a real trip to remember. I hope you get a chance to go visit and enjoy all the fun in Volo- for complete information on everything you'll find, ticket information, and more about the Haunted Trolley Tours which will be continuing every weekend- just go to www.volocars.com !