The Bates Motel

Michelle found a quaint little hotel for her and Rob to stay in on their first night in Adirondack Park. Straight out of an Alfred Hitchock film, they were the only guests in the dark, old building. Rob barely slept, he was waiting for someone to break into the room and brutally murder them. Here's a description of the terrifying place:

Zeiser's Restaurant & Hotel
Route 30, Speculator, NY 12164
Phone: 518-548-7021
Description: This "friendly little hotel", located in the heart of the village, is listed in America's Wonderful Little Hotels & Inns. Zeiser's has 5 rooms with a restaurant on premise, Restaurant hours 11:30am-8:00pm.

Banquets/weddings, Credit cards accepted. Open year round.

Friendly little hotel! False advertising! The soft spoken old lady manning the front desk had a homicidal gleam in her one good eye, anyone could see it.

Here's an old grainy picture of it:






Additional internet research revealed this sordid history of death and betrayal:

Sturges House- In 1858 Dave Sturges built his Inn on Newton’s Corners. He had planned on this ever since he lived with a man named Clark Satterlee, who he worked for. Acting as a guide for the guests at Clark’s Hostelry, he dreamed of having an inn of his own.

He then found a job at the Burnham’s Mills until he had enough money to buy lumber to build his inn. In 1858 Dave married Matilda Holmes and started to build his inn. Matilda and Dave happily ran the inn until Matilda passed away on December 11, 1868. After Dave’s tragedy, he had to search for a new partner. His sister in law, Mahala Fountain quickly stepped in her place. They ran it together from then on the building was located near the sight of the current Speculator Post Office and HSBC bank. The Annex of this building, Zeiser's, still stands today.

Who wants to bet that Dave and Mahala plotted to murder Matilda so they could be together and run the hotel, but that Matilda's ghost now haunts the place, and in fact the seemingly kind old lady who was manning the counter is actually the ghost of Matilda?

(Interesting aside: This joint was in the town of Speculator, which Michelle incorrectly pronounced in no less than two dozen ways. Just a few examples would be Spectacular, Spectator, Spectacle, Expaculator, Spinculcated, and Flabberdegook.)

Fortunately, Rob and Michelle's next night in the park was much better, probably because they camped. Isn't everything always better in the woods? They got a campsite right on Indian Lake, complete with private beach. The rain even let up for several hours in the late afternoon so they could comfortably enjoy their site. Rob used this time to drink a sampler pack of the local microbrew, Saranac. He decided he likes the pale ale.