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explore everywhere

Sometimes I go places, this is where you can read about my adventures. Road trips, cemeteries, abandoned places – they’re all here.

giant roadside animals

by Kaylah Stroup December 3, 2014

I made it one of my new year’s goals to take a series of photos of some sort. I’ve had quite a few idea for a series spinning around in my head for a while now and oddly enough, the one I ended up doing isn’t any of them. Hah.

When I moved to Cleveland I put in a request for all my mail from my old home address, as well as my PO Box, to be forwarded to my new address. The mail from my PO Box never got forwarded though. I decided to stop in there and check since I thought it was a little strange that nothing addressed to that box was coming here. I discovered it was stuffed full of postcards and small packages. Inside on the of the packages was a pack of original Polaroid 600 film. (Thanks again, Chloe!!) This was right before June’s big trip out West, so it worked out perfectly. Had I received the film earlier I probably would have shot it on something else less exciting.*

Despite all the gorgeous scenery out West, I ended up shooting exclusively dinosaurs (with the exception of the giant beetle outside the May Museum) with the Polaroid film. I still had a few shots left when I got back so I decided to continue the theme and only shot giant animals. I ended up with seven dinosaur photos, one beetle, and a woolly mammoth. I really enjoy seeing all the photos together. The colors turned out beautifully. Nothing beats original Polaroid!

Taking a series of photos will definitely be on my goal list again next year since it’s something I want to do more of. Seeing these photos together is just what I needed to get started.
xoxo

*I mean, I don’t know about you but I think giant roadside animals are super exciting! Haha!

Lagoon Deer Park // Instax 210

by Kaylah Stroup November 26, 2014

I shared photos from my trip to Lagoon Deer Park back in October but while I was there I also shot with my instax 210. I hadn’t used it in a while, and honestly had forgotten how much I love the photos it produces. I used to spend a lot of time planning my photos with this camera and ultimately always ended up disappointed. I’ve recently taken to shooting quick, and thinking less about it. I love the results. They have a bit of a disposable camera vibe to them. Shots that would probably be discarded had they been shot with my digital camera always end up being my favorite on film.

It’s so hard to believe this was only just around a month ago. The weather here in Ohio changed SO quickly. It was 70 degrees one day, and then two days later we had a big snow storm. Since then the temperatures have been in the teens and when that wind is whipping it is BRUTAL outside. There was no smooth transition into winter so I’m kind of already feeling antsy about it ending. I would kill to be back in the pen with all these deer, sun shining, in less than the four layers that have become my uniform as of late. Spring can’t come soon enough.
xoxo

Monroe Street Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup November 25, 2014

I love cemeteries but there is just something about cemeteries in the fall that makes them a thousand times more beautiful, and more peaceful. This cemetery is close to a few other places I frequent but somehow I’d never spent much time poking around in there. I finally got around to doing it last week and I couldn’t be more pleased with my photos. I actually spilled tea on my laptop just a few hours after I got done editing these and my first thought was “Nooooo! The cemetery photos!!!” After a few days in a bag of ride my laptop made a full recovery! Hooray! Although I am still finding pieces of rice everywhere…

It was a gorgeous day for checking out the cemetery, albeit pretty cold. The leaves were all different colors, and the sky was overcast which is my favorite to shoot it but for some reason all my shots looked uninspired. I just wasn’t able to capture what I was seeing in person. Right as I was about to leave a headstone off in the distance caught my eye. When I walked over to photograph it I realized there were all kind of tiny little headstones along the fence that had, for the most part, been neglected and forgotten. Ivy had begun to cover most and I even found a few that had been completely buried underneath growth. My fingers were so cold I felt like they might freeze but I had to keep looking for other little hidden treasures.

Monroe Street Cemetery is a historic cemetery on the West side of Cleveland, until the late 1890’s it was actually the only public cemetery on the West side. It is said that burials began in 1818 but the earliest headstone that can be found is 1827. There are currently over 31k people buried on the 13.63 acres, over 500 of which were soldiers. During the civil war, soldiers who died at Army camps near Cleveland were often buried here. There are also two mayors, as well as many notable folks who helped build Cleveland and Ohio City buried here.
xoxo

Bonus fun Monroe Street Cemetery fact : It was fenced during the 19th century to keep out wandering hogs.

Hidden Treasures

by Kaylah Stroup November 20, 2014

Moving to Lakewood was easily the best thing I’ve done for myself in…probably my whole life and that’s not even hyperbole. These past nine months have been amazing. Lakewood is an adorable little area. There are tons of beautiful homes, bars, restaurants, and it’s a very safe area. But the thing is, I feel like it’s kind of missing something. Rather, it’s not my perfect location. It was exactly what I needed as a country girl moving to the city, but I’m ready to move closer to the city now.*

When I first starting biking I did basically all my rides downtown, in Tremont, or in Ohio City. (I’m really sorry if you’re not local and me naming areas means nothing to you!) But since gaining the confidence to bike alone I’ve been cruising around Lakewood by myself. I don’t love it as much as biking in other Cleveland areas because we don’t have a lot of graffiti or murals over here. I’m sure if you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time you’ve noticed I love taking photos of my bike in front of pretty walls. It combines a handful of things I love; graffiti, bikes, and photography, and it gives me an excuse to take a break. I have really poor endurance when I’m biking alone.

Anyway, last week, while I was out enjoying my very first ride in the snow I spotted this wall. I have no idea what it’s all about but I’m overjoyed to have found a little piece of art out in the wild here. The wall was covered in colorful blocks that had little collages of random items. I’m not sure what the significance of each item or collage was. I suppose I could have poked around the building a little more but hey, it was cold!

Here’s to finding more little treasures in my neighborhood!
xoxo

obligatory bike photo

*It’s actually kind of funny to say that. I’m only fifteen minutes away from downtown but I’m anxious to move a bit closer. My lease is up in February and I’m hoping to get within an easy biking distance to downtown.

abandoned apartments

by Kaylah Stroup November 18, 2014

Last week Jeff, Brandon, and I met up early in the morning to do some exploring. I had scoped out a few abandoned buildings while cruising around the East side of Cleveland, things I wouldn’t necessarily snoop around by myself. That day we made our way into and around three abandoned apartment buildings. The first was actually the tallest abandoned structure I’ve ever been in, 10 stories tall! We, of course, hiked up the stairs and to the roof first. The view was incredible but I was more interested in what might be inside. As it turned out, there wasn’t much at all. Most of the apartments had been completely cleaned out. A few had a handful of items left, and then there was one that formerly housed a hoarder. (I’m sure it won’t be hard for you to figure out which photos those are!) Anyway, here’s a mix of photos from all three buildings…

As we were exiting the last building and approaching the car, a cop rolled up to us. Instead of feeling us out on what we were doing, as if it wasn’t painfully obvious, he said “Hope at least of you is packing!” On that note, we were outta there!
xoxo

home, sweet, abandoned home

by Kaylah Stroup November 12, 2014

Last week Jeff and I got out and explored a few abandoned homes. I do believe they were my first real homes. Earlier in the year I was able to explore a handful abandoned trailers in Bombay Beach but being as those were part of the decline of the whole area it’s kind of a different vibe. At Bombay Beach the whole area was in disrepair. The entire town was essentially in ruins. These homes, alone, surrounded by churches, and businesses are easily overlooked, partially due to the growth around them. Trees, brush, and weeds have taken over the areas surrounding both. If you blink while driving by, you’ll miss them. In the first; a spacious kitchen, large living room with gorgeous natural light and a fireplace, a small den, two bedrooms, built in cabinets. All left for mother nature to take back over.

In the second house; two bedrooms, a gorgeous retro kitchen, living room, quaint sun porch, large upstairs loft, and a brightly colored bathroom.

Houses are weird to explore, so many emotions. I like them for the same reasons I like exploring any other place, I like to document. These are places that meant something to someone, a home especially. Clothes in the closet, board games in the living room, food in the pantry. Those belonged to someone, they belonged to a family. It’s hard to convey all the different emotions when you see these things. I’ve seen thousands of photos of abandoned homes online but there’s nothing like actually being in one. I’m sure with every home I find I’ll become a bit more desensitized to it but only time will tell…
xoxo

Abandoned Church – revisited

by Kaylah Stroup November 4, 2014

This church was one of the very first abandoned places I ever shared on the blog. At the time I still only had my 40mm lens which is amazing but not quite wide enough for buildings, and on top of that I wasn’t all that experienced at shooting abandoned buildings. I still hadn’t found my footing. Now with around fifty buildings and hundreds of photos under my belt, I’ve been wanting to re-shoot the church.

It was originally built in 1913, then rebuilt in 1928. The church closed in the 80s but wasn’t completely abandoned until 2002. In those twelve years the building has essentially been gutted. The stained glass is gone, scrappers have long since taken all the metal, and most recently vandals have taken to writing dumb crap on the walls. It just makes my blood boil to see people painting obscenities on walls. STOP IT. In all reality though, for being probably one of the most popular spots to explore in Cleveland, it’s not in that bad of shape. I mean, it still has a roof! Guess they just don’t build ’em like they used to.

My first visit was fairly brief but on this one I took my time and poked around the church a little more. I ventured into the basement, and even up a very old ladder to the top of one of the steeples where I found even more ladders. The wooden one shown below took you to the very top of the steeple on the outside. I passed on that, partly because the floor wasn’t in the best condition and the last thing I want to do is fall through the floor of a big old church while climbing a ladder. But I’m still happy to have seen a view that people who have lived in the neighborhood their whole life have never seen.

xoxo

abandoned factory

by Kaylah Stroup October 23, 2014

A little while back, on my six month in Cleveland anniversary, I visited a new to me abandoned building. I’ve been holding on to these photos while I tried my hardest to research more about the building. I’m finally throwing in the towel. I can’t seem to find much at all. This is an abandoned factory that did metal plating, aside from that I have no dates or history. It was still an interesting building, and I’m rather pleased with my photos so here they are…

All the machinery has been removed since this place closed its doors but the upstairs offices have tons of paperwork, books, and records strewn about. That kind of stuff is always my favorite but I am always curious who was the one to make such a mess in these places. Was it a former employee trying to prove a point before he left the place for the last time? Young kids just having fun making a mess? I mean, you can’t deny it would be fun to just go nuts in place like that, let out a little steam.
xoxo

PS. If you’re as curious as I was when I first saw it, that “hot!!!” file tab literally had nothing exciting in it. I was hoping for juicy office gossip, or maybe some nudie pictures (we found some fairly graphic ones in another part of the building!) but it was just regular old paper work! Booooring.

the abandoned pennsylvania turnpike

by Kaylah Stroup October 9, 2014

Last weekend a group of friends and I took a mini roadtrip to the abandoned Pennsylvania turnpike. It’s a thirteen mile stretch of the PA turnpike that was bypassed when a modern stretch opened in 1968 to ease traffic congestion in the tunnels. It’s now an unofficial bike trail that you can bike at your own risk.

Since the road is rough, I opted not to take my beloved fixed gear bicycle with it’s skinny little tires. Instead I rode my old cruiser (remember her?) which I’m not sure if it was really for the best. I found the ride to be fairly challenging. I would just blame that on me being out of shape but I bike nearly everyday. The hills and not being used to riding a single speed cruiser killed me.

Rough ride aside, it was an awesome trip, and I had a TON of fun. There was lots of graffiti and abandoned maintenance rooms for the tunnels. The buildings were pretty empty except for giant turbines used to pull all the bad air out of the tunnels.

The ride back to the car was cold. The sun was setting quickly and the temperature was dropping rapidly. The tunnel closest to the car, which is also luckily the shortest, had the craziest freezing cold breeze blowing through it the second time through. I just closed my eyes since the wind was just making them water and pedaled as hard as I could (which at the end of the day wasn’t all that hard at all!) Maybe coming this late in the season wasn’t the best idea, or maybe we all just were a bit under-dressed but it sure was beautiful. We could not have picked a more beautiful time to come. The leaves were absolutely gorgeous.

So basically this trip contained three of my favorites things; bikes, abandoned structures, and nature! As hard of a time as I had biking some parts, I’m really looking forward to going back and doing it again next year.
xoxo

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