Life List Item No. 90 Completed: Have A Paranormal Experience

Rory and I just got home from a night tour of the abandoned Waverly Hills Sanitarium, reputedly one of the most haunted locations in the U.S.

I'll admit I had high expectations for this life list item. The results were a little disappointing though, as I did not get to see a Sasquatch, aliens, or the Loch Ness monster.


Waverly Hills Sanitarium (for those who don't know) is a former tuberculosis hospital in Louisville, that was abandoned for 40 years. The new owners now run historical and paranormal tours through the place, and as they repeatedly pointed out: 63,000 tuberculosis patients died at Waverly Hills. Hence some people believe there are ghosts there.


Yes I did see some funny shadows in the building, but it seemed a lot more likely that they were natural events and not tuberculosis patient spirits. Another thing that marred my experience is the fact that GHOSTS ARE NOT REAL!!! I guess you engineer once, and approach everything like a scientist for life. So this will probably be the closest I ever get to the paranormal, thus off the list it goes.


Also, the tour was not scary, despite however many incidental stories the tour guide laid on us. Our chances of ghost sightings were also hampered by a gaggle of 14 year old girls who kept repeating "Like, oh my God, I'm like, SOOO scared!". Ghosts, like myself, hate it when people keep repeating information that is obvious to everyone, especially if it is stated in a shrill pre-pubescent octave.



The body chute was pretty neat. It's a roughly 5oo foot tunnel that goes downhill from the building. Corpses were discretely wheeled out of the building using the chute. The chute goes down on about a 45 degree angle, so the walk back up is tough. Back in the day, there was even a cable system in place, for more efficient shunting of bodies down the chute.


There used to be a hospital out building at the end of the chute; today there is only a grassy knoll. This of course led the gaggle to (loudly) repeat, "So, like, they just piled the bodies up out here?!?"


All in all, an interesting experience, but it didn't change my life. So, like, here are some more pictures, like, you know?

P.S. Shout out to Grandma G and Mom who are spending the week in Texas together.