Last week we took a trip up to Jerome….again. It is such a fun small town and so far up in the mountain. Now we can see the J for Jerome from our driveway, which makes the drive up there a little more special.
Not only is the drive up to Jerome always exciting, especially in a dully truck. And then the parking once you get up there is a whole new adventure. There is a place, behind the firehouse, where there is a great deal of parking available. And there is a sign that indicates there is a free shuttle available, so I told David that would be a good place to park since we could take the shuttle back.
But there was a small mistake on my part when it came to the shuttle schedule. I realized later that it only ran on Saturday/Sunday/Holidays…..a small section of print that I completely missed and didn’t realize it until we were waiting at one of the stops and no shuttle was in sight. Then I saw those 3 words and knew we would have to walk back up the hill to the parking area.
I like to blame my miss on words like this that it is because of the speed reading course I took a long, long time ago. That speed reading has caused me issues when questions on tests during classes and I had to learn to read the question more than once. Speed reading was based on reading down the middle of the page of text with the belief that you would get most of the context from just that middle section. That is true in many cases, but you can also miss some important words by just looking through the middle. At least that is what I like to blame my miss on something like in this case where I missed those 3 important words — since we were there on a week day.
Jerome is a quirky kind of city. Lots of interesting restaurants, great shops and fun people watching. The downtown area is small but filled with lots of surprises.
We decided to try the Haunted Hamburger for a late lunch. Good thing we did park at the firehouse since the restaurant had only 3 parking spaces right at the restaurant…and certainly no room for dullys. We sat by the window and had a great view of the area below Jerome.
According to the HH website, here is the story behind the “haunted” theme:
It all started years ago when Michelle and Eric Jurisin acquired the restaurant. The building, old and abandoned, was in need of great repair before it could be opened for your dining pleasure. This is when the funny business began. As with all old buildings, when inhabitants take initial occupation, from its walls come the spirits to observe, and sometimes greet the newcomers. The Haunted Hamburger spirits were no different. Not only were these spirits curious but possibly frustrated tradesmen from long ago as it was tools that these spirits liked to take. More specifically, hammers. Yes, hammers. One hammer, then two, then three hammers had disappeared. Was this a case of memory loss? At first it was thought so until a prior owner asked the Jurisins if they had met the ghosts yet and to beware…they liked hammers! Shortly after this confirmation the hammers began to reappear showing up in the most conspicuous places.
What followed next was literally too ‘in your face’ to ignore, says Eric. One day, in the middle of repairs, he remembered he needed to go upstairs to finish a project. Just as he reached the top floor a door that he was standing next to slammed, nearly smashing him in the face. You could argue a cross breeze is strong enough to slam a door, and that would be true. Except, Eric had just sealed up all of the building’s windows with thick plastic and tape to keep the cold winter air out. He knew there was no air current in the house.
What other odd occurrences frightened staff, owners and guests alike in the Haunted Hamburger? Cans flying off shelves, the hot water being turned on in the middle of the night. Distinct smells in the stair well and even photographs guests have taken capturing the vague image of a woman. Is the Haunted Hamburger truly haunted? Hang out for a while and see for yourself.
Although we did not experience anything haunting while we were there, it was fun to read the story behind the building and enjoy the atmosphere. We had a great server, with a fantastic t-shirt for the restaurant. She told us a story about 2 old guys that paid her $20 just to take a picture with her and the shirt…servers are the best!!
The food was pretty good and we will definitely go back there especially when we have visitors that want to brave the drive up the hill to Jerome.
TIFN
A picture…why is it that every little kid has to have their socks in their mouth??
Dandy Ventures 