One Year!
A wrap up of year one . . .
6/23/20263 min read
One year ago, I started Death Kissed Traveler with one simple idea:
What if travel stories were not just about the beautiful places we go — but the eerie, tragic, strange, haunted, and forgotten stories hiding behind them?
I have always loved the spooky, the unnatural, and the mysterious. But as I started diving deeper, I realized something: some of the darkest stories are not hidden in abandoned houses or old graveyards.
Sometimes, they are hiding under roller coaster tracks.
Sometimes, they are buried beneath boardwalks.
Sometimes, they are whispered about in hotels, amusement parks, fairgrounds, circuses, and places that were supposed to be full of joy.
That is really where Death Kissed Traveler began.
Over this first year, this podcast has taken me into some of the strangest corners of travel history. I have covered haunted theme parks, tragic ride accidents, creepy carnival stories, ghostly hotels, forgotten amusement parks, circus legends, and the dark events that still seem to linger long after the lights go out.
Some episodes were heartbreaking.
Some were disturbing.
Some were surprisingly beautiful.
And some made me look at places I thought I knew in a completely different way.
One of my favorite parts of this first year has been discovering how often joy and darkness exist in the same place. Amusement parks are built for laughter, nostalgia, family memories, and magic — but behind that magic, there are sometimes stories of loss, mystery, greed, disaster, and ghosts that refuse to leave.
From Disneyland’s PeopleMover and the abandoned tracks still sitting above Tomorrowland, to the rise and fall of Saltair on the Great Salt Lake, to ghost stories along the Jersey Shore, to tragic accidents from theme park history, this podcast has become more than just dark tourism.
It has become a way to ask:
What happened here?
Who was forgotten?
Why do these places still haunt us?
And why are we so drawn to the places where happiness and tragedy collide?
This year also taught me that dark history is not just about fear. It is about memory. It is about telling the stories that are sometimes left out of the shiny brochures and travel guides. It is about looking at a beautiful destination and realizing there is always more underneath the surface.
And honestly, I have learned so much.
I have learned that research can take you down the strangest rabbit holes.
I have learned that almost every amusement park has a story it would rather forget.
I have learned that ghost stories are often less about the dead — and more about the living still trying to make sense of what happened.
I have learned that listeners love the weird, creepy, tragic, and mysterious just as much as I do.
And I have learned that this little podcast has grown into something I am really proud of.
Death Kissed Traveler started as an idea, but over the past year it has become a place for haunted history lovers, theme park fans, true crime listeners, spooky travelers, and curious people who like their vacations with a little darkness.
To everyone who has listened, followed, shared, commented, rated, or sent me a story — thank you.
Every download, every message, every comment, and every five-star review has helped this podcast grow. It means more than you know.
This first year has taken us from ghost clowns and abandoned rides to haunted hotels, cursed coastlines, deadly decades, forgotten fairgrounds, and amusement parks that still feel alive long after they closed.
And we are just getting started.
Year two is going to be even darker, weirder, deeper, and more haunted.
So here is to one year of Death Kissed Traveler.
One year of spooky stories.
One year of theme parks with secrets.
One year of digging up the past.
One year of finding the ghosts hiding in the places people go to escape.
And as always — travel carefully.
Because some places remember everything.
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