I, for one, absolutely love Halloween and always have. But I especially love being scared. Ever since I was a little girl I loved going to haunted houses and hayrides with my family and friends.
As you get older, though, it becomes harder and harder to get scared. You start to realize that the monsters that used to have you on the verge of peeing your pants really aren’t that terrifying. Or you end up spending $30 to $50 dollars on a haunted attraction that really doesn’t have you on the edge of your seat at all.
Being a college student and without a car on campus adds an extra obstacle too. Last year, my friends and I didn’t go to any haunted houses or hayrides at all; they all seemed too far away being a thirty to forty-minute drive, which is a very expensive uber ride or more geared towards little kids than our age group.
This year, I came across an ad for “Harvest After Dark” offered by Pilot House, a haunted hayride and castle walkthrough located at 1230 Merwins Lane, right in Fairfield, Conn.! Tickets are only $15 for the two attractions together, which I consider being a very good price. Also, it is close to our university so an uber ride is not nearly as expensive as it would be for alternative options.
Taking a risk, I convinced my friends to go with me this past Saturday night. We weren’t really sure if it was for little kids or not and we couldn’t find too much information online. We really wanted to go to a haunted attraction though, so we decided to give it a shot.
Arriving there at around 7:00 p.m. when it opened, we saw a huge cardboard Buzz Lightyear Cutout and sparkly lights. The parking lot was not that full and disney cutouts along the walkway made me a little nervous that this was going to be for little kids. We bought our tickets, got our wristbands, and got in line for the haunted hayride, nonetheless.
As we were waiting in line, we walked by miniature horses and saw a mother kitten with her babies; it was so cute! There was also one drink stand selling hot apple cider, hot chocolate, beer, and fall cocktails; A couple of my friends tried the apple cider, which they both found to be absolutely delicious!
We waited in line for about thirty minutes, which was a long time for being as close to the front as we were. We soon realized that this wait was because each individual group or family was taken on their own hayride. Some of us grew a little impatient and became worried that we were waiting too long for something that most likely would not scare us, but having each other’s company made it not too bad. Eventually, the time came soon enough for us to hop on our hayride.
The hayride was very tiny, which I had never seen before, but I actually really enjoyed it; It made the whole experience a lot more intimate with our group. The hayride took us through several different stops with monsters ranging from clowns to chainsaw guys, dolls, werewolves, butchers, and more. Some hopped on the ride with us and they were allowed to touch you.
All of us were scared at one point, with a couple of my friends actually sitting on the ground in between the bushels of hay hiding! Even my most doubtful friends going in ended with smiles on their faces and we all agreed to get off the ride that it was actually really good. The castle walkthrough that followed impressed us just the same, with the actors being very good at jumpscares and scaring us. The scariest part for me was seeing one of the actors crawling at us in a bridge position as if she was possessed!
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