The Ghoul of the Mad Monk #2 of 2 (Halloween Haunts 2010)

(GPS: N33° 13.930 W117° 19.155)

Nightmare #6 (concluded)

Alright, in this blog I will conclude the final "nightmare." Again, these last two are not really that spooky, but it is all in good fun.

The Ghoul of the Mad Monk (Vimeo)

In one of the previous blogs I showed the front entrance to the cemetery. To avoid overloading this entry with pictures I am going to refer you to that rather than post it again here. That is where this part of the episode starts. Sgt. Garcia and one of the other soldiers are out in front talking about the legend about the ghost. They hear moaning in the cemetery and then go inside.

They do not show very much of the cemetery in the episode and what you do see seems like a lot of overgrowth compared to the nicely kept area today:

Sure enough they see the ghost walking around with chains. They run back out and the comandante confronts them. He does not believe in the ghost and demands they show him what they saw.
The ghost they see runs across to the other side of the cemetery. At the time I took the video I was not sure if it was this simple. I do think now they just showed them run straight across to the other side. The cemetery is a lot bigger than what you see in the pictures I show. Most of what takes place appears to be right next to the church.
The Sgt. and the comandante track the ghost to the front of the mission.
We were here earlier in one of the previous blogs.
Finally, they end back at the old pepper tree. The ghost cuts down a pot knocking out the comandante and Sgt. Garcia is convinced he was killed by the ghost. He runs off.
We then find out that the "ghost" was none other than Zorro all along. Zorro checks to see that the comandante is okay and then sets the local native free who was locked up.
Another shot of the pepper tree. One thing to note is that the ghost story about a monk who haunts the mission did not originate here, but is one that is commonly told at the San Juan Capistrano mission. I will have something about that mission soon, but it will not have anything to do with ghost stories. In a week or two, I will put up a follow up at this San Luis Rey mission from a total different tv series.

As for my Halloween Haunts series, this is it. I had hoped to have all this end on October, 31st, but it looks like I may not have a full internet connection next weekend. So, rather than me take chances on this or wait until November, I thought I would just post it all now.

I do not think I will have anything like this next year. Most of the entries this month took many years of thinking through to finally get them done. They represent the best I could think of. If you missed anything then go here for the playlist:

The Silence of Halloween Locations (Youtube Version)

The Silence of Halloween Locations (Vimeo Version)

Happy Halloween!!!

The Ghoul of the Mad Monk #1 of 2 (Halloween Haunts 2010)

(GPS: N33° 13.930 W117° 19.155)

Nightmare #6

I did not say this in the last two blogs, but this episode of Zorro was a Halloween episode. I believe the actual title of the episode was, "The Ghost of the Mission." Of course, I put my own spin on the title in what they refer to as "The Ghost of the Mad Monk" as I like to do. In the previous parts I showed dealt with the first half of the episode. Now you get to see why it was a Halloween episode.

The Ghoul of the Mad Monk (Vimeo)

The day after Zorro escaped he came back as Don Diego.

This is nearby out in front of the mission.The video will probably make more sense here, but Don Diego visits Sgt. Garcia in order to visit the Padre at the mission. In order to do that, Don Diego had to make up a story about giving the Padre an old manuscript. Sgt. Garcia wanted to know what manuscript contained. Diego tells him it is the story of the "Ghost of the Mad Monk." Long story short, a monk was tortured and killed right by this three they are at. At midnight on a moonless night the ghost appears at the mission. It is a fun scene.Originally, I thought I might be able to visit this tree. It looked like a very simple thing to do and I did see Huell Howser visit it on his tv series. I was very disappointed to see that the area is fenced off and that the gate to get to it is private. So, the video ended up being a bit anti-climatic in what I had originally hoped to do. I had to video the tree from the distance.
That tree is supposed to be the first pepper tree in California. It was planted here in 1830.

One more blog...

The Fox Drops Into The Cemetery #2 of 2 (Halloween Haunts 2010)

(GPS: N33° 13.930 W117° 19.155)

Nightmare #5 (concluded)

The Fox Drops Into The Cemetery (Youtube Version)

The Fox Drops Into The Cemetery (Vimeo Version)

I am continuing the Zorro television episode that took place at Mission San Luis Rey. After Zorro reaches the top of the bell tower with the soldiers chasing him he decides to rapel his way down.

I tried to mimic the camera shot by tilting the camera here.
The comandante cuts down the rope so Zorro then falls into the cemetery. This is where he would have come down. He then moves just to the left of that tree along the wall.
As the soldiers run pass him into the cemetery he sits with the rope right next to the cemetery entrance doors.
Just to the right of the door.
As they all go by, Zorro rigs the door so they all trip over the rope when they come back through the door and onto each other as he rides off with his horse.
Here is the entrance to the cemetery.
At the time I did this I was under the impression the skull and crossbones you see over the door was a Disney artist invention for the television series. I had read this a number of times, but now I am not so sure. According to the official San Luis Rey Mission website this was commonly done at Franciscan cemeteries. However, they say on that site that the Disney studio did change the cemetery gates for the episodes filmed here. In any case, the entrance has changed throughout the years as you can see in comparing my pictures to the Zorro episode.

The Fox Drops Into The Cemetery #1 of 2 (Halloween Haunts 2010)

(GPS: N33° 13.930 W117° 19.155)

Nightmare #5

The Fox Drops Into The Cemetery (Youtube Version)

The Fox Drops Into The Cemetery (Vimeo Version)

I would hardly call this a nightmare, but I think you will see why I wanted to include this as part of my Halloween series. This is another one of the missions I visited this past year. San Luis Rey is supposed to be the King of the Missions. I do not know about that, but from the outside it looks really impressive:

In the above picture you can see the entrance to the church, although the public does not enter the mission through it, and then just to the left you can see an entrance to the hallway. That just happens to be where Sgt. Garcia is napping on duty.
Just as he was getting some sleep the comandante catches him and warns him about the consequences. Meanwhile, Zorro sneaks into the mission behind him.
The piller foundation to the left is where Sgt. Garcia would have been, and you can see the entrance to the mission on the right. That is another door that is locked these days. The actual entrance to the mission that the pubic enters is further down the hallway.
Zorro then goes into the church to deliver the food and water to the one using the mission as sanctuary from the troops. The comandante and the troops realize Zorro is there so they chase him out of the church.
Almost everything is the same. It is hard to tell in these pictures, but easier to see in the video, that the bottom two statues next to the cross have been reversed since the tv episode was made.
From the above picture, Zorro runs by the camera and then turns to our right to the door that leads to the bell tower.
This would be the doorway. It is now gated shut, but you can look through it.
I will continue this one in the next blog entry to show you how Zorro had his thrilling escape.