As for me, 2014 was perhaps the best year yet. Started off good and only got better. I want to thank all of the comrades I ran around with even if it was just once. Without all of you, I would not have had nearly as good a time. Thanks to Mindwaave, Panic!, Baghead, Nicotti, Shemp, DR3I and all the rest. I also made friends in other cities and owe them for helping us out on our road trip. Thanks to all involved! To those I haven't met yet, let's get out this year.
In January, I finally got out to see the Chemical Plant. I don't claim to be the first anywhere but I hadn't seen or heard about this place until I randomly google mapped over it. I liked this place so much I think we went there like 3 times that month.
Next we hit up Lever for probably the last time since Ameren owns it now.
I was possibly too excited about this one, but after years of eyeing it up, I finally got inside and it was worth the wait. Damn Evangelical Church, you fine.
I always dreamed of trudging through miles of shit and in March that dream came true. Thank you for the memories, River Des Poop.
Up next was the location I never thought possible. This is still one of my favorite accomplishments of the year. I've always lusted after a mental institution but around here all you have is rumors, every old building was an asylum.
After that, we got a tour of the Goldenrod Showboat. That was different. I attended a play here back in middle school of "A Christmas Carol".
Following that, Shemp and I visited Normandie Hall, a location famously threatened with demolition.
And then came the Convent. This place was pretty unique. Another google maps find.
In June we hit up Saint Elizabeth Hospital. This worked out to be really cool. The hospital itself not so much but we arrived just in time for an intense thunderstorm. And I had left my flashlight in the car.. We just got into the basement as the storm came crashing down. The lightning chaotically illuminated the bowels of the vacant hospital and for the first time in a long time I was genuinely a little creeped out.
Nearby, we managed to get inside the old Federal Building.
July was an awesome month. Still high on the glorious Asylum of months earlier, I had spent the next few months looking for more. Asylum #2 had a bonus that the first one conspicuously lacked.
As if that wasn't enough, we made some friends in a far off city and explored a real Kirkbride. Never thought that would happen.
But July wasn't done yet. Randomly driving around one day, Mindwaave and I caught sight of this and obviously were powerless to resist. How could you drive past a lot full of vintage aircraft and not go climbing around em?
Finally July came to an end with a church I thought was still inhabited. It was still in use the last time I recon'ed it (I set off the alarm there a few years ago) and I was given some obsolete intel to further lead me astray. Once I realized it was now vacant I rushed out to see it.
There was a different brick factory that made the news recently, but it wasn't this one. I wasn't expecting much out of this place but I had it on my radar for a while and decided to finally pay it a visit and I'm glad I did.
In September we finally made it into the Abbey. This was probably the 3rd time I tried this place. The first time ended famously with some snobby douchebag yelling at us from his front porch for parking on his street. His wife huddled up behind him like a scared puppy dog. Fuck you, nosey yuppies. The place was kind of trashed but it was a fun adventure nonetheless. The grounds are active and there were people all over the place the whole time we were there.
In October, I posted an exploring double feature. First up came the underground. There was so much more to this place but all I can tell you about was that there are sewers and brewery cellars pictured.
Part II featured some rooftops. One of these was the scariest thing I've ever done. Afterwards I'm glad I did it but it really sucked at the time.
November brought about a couple new places for me, one of which was a super awesome old Limestone Mine.
The other place was also super awesome. This one had been on my radar for years. I drove by it on several occasions before and there was always a guard in the shack. But a couple years had passed and they demolished some of it and I almost gave up on it. But finally I decided to give it a chance and it paid off! Although, that wasn't without incident. First time, I went to recon it by myself and it was a ghost town. Second time I went with a friend and we were nearly busted twice that day. Unexpected people popped up out of one of the buildings on site and drove around the property. They were driving straight for us and we thought we were goners. We waited casually next to one of the buildings to see if they'd stop for us or keep driving. They passed by within feet of us. A few tense moments of waiting and I saw the truck pass on by down the road. whew, that was close!
And that was all of the stuff I posted about up until the SUPERMEGAFUCKINGPARTYTIME ROAD TRIP 2014.
Hot damn what a roadtrip. 4 days of non-stop action. That was the longest back to back exploring I've ever done. And it was awesome.
First place on the blog was the themepark. This was pretty easy, just walked right in. But it borders an active themepark and we couldn't resist trying our luck there as well. We made it as far as the front gates before we saw a security guard walk around the corner. This is a perfect example of why you need to be able to climb fences quickly. The fence was a good 6-7 feet tall and we all made it over in like 0.5 seconds. If you can't climb, you'd have gotten us or at least yourself busted. Other notable features included the slide. Good times.
The Metal Foundry in Birmingham Alabama was kind of a pain in the ass. It didn't help that it was raining its ass off that day.
At the Youth Detention Center, we ran into some people who were there to clean it up a bit. Luckily, they didn't care that we were there. They told us that they were getting ready to convert the site into a local government/law enforcement urban combat training ground.
Terminus wasn't even on my radar at the beginning of this trip. I'm not big into television, but I do watch the Walking Dead fairly regularly. So when we heard this was en route, we decided to add it to the list. After having re-watched the episode(s), I recognize every singe building. I just wish I had watched it beforehand to better line up the shots with the show..
Sloss Furnaces was fucking awesome. Granted, it's not abandoned but it was still just as fun. They turned it into an historic site and you're not supposed to climb around stuff. But we climbed anyway. What really sucked about this, however, was that it was raining its ass off the whole fucking time. Right up until the last hour or so of daylight. Luckily, I had a plastic rain bag to put over my camera so I kept shooting throughout the rain. That was a major pain in the ass. This shot was taken as the rain was finally letting up and the sun was coming back out. Our last stop in Birmingham.
The Nuclear Power Plant was actually the first stop on the trip. It was also the most stressful. This place is no fucking joke. They will prosecute and tow your car out here. So we hid the car in the woods and covered it up with vegetation. We spent probably at least 20 minutes gathering anything we could find to cover the car with. And that was only the beginning. The entire time, the site was bustling with activity. And that fucking blue truck kept circling. We went into full stealth mode, running from cover to cover, ducking behind trees and laying in the grass as the trucks drove past. There were a couple of times we thought we were goners but luckily we were not. By the end of this one, we were all glad to get the fuck out. And as we were almost out, we thought we were finally busted. There was a white truck aimed directly at our only means of exit. Welp, this is it guys. The adrenaline was through the roof. I drove carefully, used my blinker and turned. The truck was just some random asshole. We made it out alive.
The last location that I posted for 2014 was also the last one of the trip. I absolutely love old buildings like this. And it was an old medical building on top of that, complete with a morgue. There wasn't much left inside but it was still awesome. Just as we were leaving, about to turn the last corner to exit the building, Panic! noticed a guy out in the courtyard just around the corner. We quietly went back inside to the basement to wait it out. We needed to find a way to see this guy and figure out what we're up against. We found a staircase leading out to the courtyard. His truck was parked right next to it. Peeking out, I saw him on a bobcat coming from inside the building where we just were. I ducked as he went by and watched him attempt to attach a door on the very same doorway we walked in a couple hours prior. Carefully, we waited until just the right moment when he was most distracted and we made a run for it. He never looked back at us, otherwise we would have been totally screwed. We made it out of there and ended the road trip without a single injury or arrest.
There is one other location from the road trip I haven't posted. We got a tip on a dead body at an abandoned funeral home. Sure enough, there was a casket with a corpse in it just sitting there. Most of the skin was gone. It was mostly just a skeleton with some really bad smelling brown goo. Maybe eventually I'll post it.
2014 is dead. So here's to an adventurous and prosperous 2015! May all your explorations be injury and arrest free!!
Thanks again to everyone who made my year possible. I couldn't have done it without you.
