Saturday, October 9, 2010

Waverly Hills Sanatorium - Part 1

In honor of the Halloween season, I will be sharing the story of my night with the spirits of years past!

Growing up in a "haunted house", I have always been very into the paranormal. So this sequence of events is of no surprise to me. Around Christmas in 2006 I found myself at a table by the fire in a local bar talking with friends. I was telling them about this place called the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Kentucky and how I really wanted to go investigate. Perhaps it was the alcohol, but my friends (who were living in Arizona) thought it was a great idea, and we all just decided to go!  Fast forward to the end of May 2007 .... we hopped flights to meet up in Indianapolis and began THE craziest weekend of my entire life!

Waverly Hills Sanatorium is a former hospital for tuberculosis patients in Louisville, Kentucky. An obscene number of people died there during its operation. It is said to be one of the most haunted places in America. If you've seen Ghost Hunters, Celebrity Paranormal Project ... any of those types of shows, then you've seen Waverly. Things we knew about it: The Death Tunnel, Shadow People, and room 502. All things I was more than ready to investigate.  I've had so many crazy paranormal experiences in my life, but I was ready to experience it on a grand scale. For four hours in the middle of the night my friends and I would be exploring this massive building. Did I mention there is no power? That means no heat, no lights. Just us, cameras, flashlights, and my insane thirst for ghostly adventures!

After working a full day I drove 3 hours north to Portland to catch a red-eye flight to Indianapolis. My dad picked up my friends and I, and we began our trip to Kentucky. The most memorable part of that trip? The truck full of dead pigs in front of us. It was so sad, gross, smelly. I wish I had never seen it. Once in Louisville, we were so anxious to see this massive building that did we a day time drive-by. Even from afar it was massive! The outside was certainly uninviting - we barely had courage to go to the gate for a picture, let alone any desire to cross beyond that barrier!

We checked into our hotel and decided to head down to Fourth Street Live for dinner. Oh how much fun it was! I think I was too excited to eat, but not too excited to drink.  At the Hard Rock we all sampled different concoctions, then moved over to Howl at the Moon. I have been a long time fan of piano bars, so I was in heaven. The 84 ounce margarita didn't hurt the fun, either!  For the record, we split the margarita... I did NOT down all 84 ounces myself.  The fun could only last so long. We had to be at Waverly around 11pm or so.


Back to the hotel to freshen up and grab our gear. Layers to wear if it was cold, EMF meter, cameras, batteries, directions.  The margarita was still flowing through me, which made my new Hard Rock Cafe pajama tank top seem like the perfect thing to wear for this adventure??? Lucky for me it ended up being pretty warm and humid, so I was very happy with my inebriated decision!


The guards opened the gate for us, showed us where to park, and ushered us into a small brick building off to the side. We checked in, looked at old artifacts, watched a video, and were split into two big groups. I had befriended our tour guide on myspace, so our group ended up getting a pretty good tour and extra info. Go me!

So it was finally time for the tour ... up first?

The Death Tunnel

.....stay tuned for Part 2!

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad you are finally posting about it! PS---I doubt I'm your only reader that is dying to know about how things went with the boy last night!!

    ReplyDelete

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