I love a good ghost story. I want so badly to believe in ghosts, too, but I’m such a skeptic when it comes to that kind of thing. I think a ghost could come up, tap me on the shoulder, and have a conversation with me, and I’d still try to justify it somehow. We’ve lived in a few weird houses that had things happen that were truly unexplainable. Multiple people, and even people who lived there before and after us reported weird things. But still, I always try to find a logical reason for those happenings. My life partner, (he hates when I call him that) Curtis says he doesn’t believe in ghosts, which makes it really funny when I plan a trip, like the one to the Story Inn, and reserve a reportedly haunted room, and don’t tell him until we’re there. I’ve done this a few timesand it’s always funny. He’s usually not very amused – the big chicken. Although, in the middle of the night, I tend to second guess my bright ideas, too.

Over Easter weekend a couple of years ago, we decided to go down to Brown County, Indiana, to look for morel mushrooms. We had zero luck find any morels, but I did find a really nice big fossil rock and a geode, so win-win! We planned on camping for two nights, then staying in the historic Story Inn, in Story, Indiana. The entire town is the Inn; they have the hotel with an upscale restaurant, really cool cellar bar, and several cottages on the property. It is located at the edge of Brown County State Park and technically, in Nashville, which is surprisingly hilly for Indiana. It’s gorgeous down there every single season, but it is especially well known for autumn with B&B’s renting out a year in advance. The spring is really nice too, except the weekend we went there were torrential downpours and tornadoes. Needless to say, we didn’t camp. We stayed in a hotel the first two nights and then headed to the Story Inn for our Easter Sunday check-in.

What I *forgot* to tell Curtis was that this is one of the top haunted locations in the state, and especially haunted, happens to be the Blue Lady Room. I had first heard of the Story Inn and the Blue Lady from a podcast that I like, Lore with Aaron Mahnke, which is available on all podcast platforms and covers all kinds of ghost stories, legends and odd things. Weirdly enough, though, I have been unable to find this episode again.

Well guess what? I actually was able to reserve the Blue Lady Room and it sure did live up to the hype!

We took a beautiful scenic drive through the hills to Story, got checked in, and Curtis decided to jump in the shower before we went down to have dinner. While he was in the shower, I took some pictures of our room because it was really cute, and I wanted to get photos before we made a mess, we’re good at that in hotels! We get comfy. I took a shot of the room, then went out on our private balcony to get some shots of the back property – it’s got very pretty grounds behind it with bad barn for events, and gardens. I sat down out there and looked at my photos and noticed that the room shot with the really old photo of the Blue Lady looked like it was overexposed, even though none of the others were, so I went back in and took another one. This was about eight minutes after I took the first one, according to the metadata on the photos when I looked later.

After his shower, we went and had some food and drinks, and then came back up to lie down for a bit before we went and sat at a fire with the only other guests on the property for the night. They were staying in a cottage for their anniversary, we were the only guests in the Inn, which only has a handful of rooms. I was just dozing off when Curtis whacked me on the arm and frantically asked me, “Why did you do that?” I looked over, and he was pointing at the old photo, in a really old, heavy wooden frame, that was currently upside-down on the wall. Now, I knew that it wasn’t upside-down when we first got to the room because I specifically looked at it and the framed magazine story right next to it.

I told him I didn’t do it, and he shouldn’t touch stuff that old – he is kind of a bull in a China shop sometimes, and I’m not any better, so I definitely didn’t touch it. Then, I remembered my photos, pulled them up, and sure enough, while he was in the shower and I was on the balcony, that picture somehow managed to get flipped. There was no way anyone came into our room without me seeing them, and it was on a wire, with the whole frame flipped. Needless to say, neither of us got up to use the bathroom in the night, and we may have slept with a light on.

So, if you’re planning a trip to Brown County, stop into the Story Inn. They have a cool bar in the cellar and a great restaurant with excellent food. You can see the menus here. The bar has a separate menu from the restaurant, and you can eat there at any time, but the restaurant is reservations only with a special menu. And if you’re brave enough- stay in the Blue Lady Room. Be sure to let me know if anything supernatural happens!

If you enjoyed this little ghost story, please subscribe, and share. Next week, we’re going to Louisville to bet on the horses and learn about Muhammad Ali. And don’t forget the barbeque.