Mysterious power outages, ghostly apparitions, and dogs going crazy are some of the manifestations reported to us by guests of Room 305 at the South of the Border Motor Inn (a.k.a. "Pedro's Pleasure Dome") in Dillon, South Carolina.

We asked general manager Gerald Moody, who's managed the Motel since it opened in 1984, about Room 305. He confirmed what we already knew: that the hauntings didn't start until a few years ago -- we received our first report in 1999 -- which pours cold ectoplasm on the theory that the Motel was built on an old cemetery with angry cadavers. Moody dismissed as fiction a report that we had received that two people had died in the room, on two different occasions -- either becoming the ghosts or BECAUSE OF the ghosts.

We visited the room, one of dozens of identical cinderblock-and-bleached-wood bungalows, set in a back courtyard that isn't even used in the off-season. Our photographs revealed no glowing orbs or spectral beings; our senses sensed nothing otherworldly -- although this place probably would be spooky at night, especially if you're out here all alone.

Moody told us that he's never received a complaint about the room, and that the only people who've mentioned it are people who want to rent it. South of the Border should advertise Room 305 as a Haunted Hideaway, a special destination for those wishing to stay in places that others would flee. How can you beat a real haunted motel room only a few hundred feet from a restaurant shaped like a Mexican hat?

[11/11/2007]