Category:

some of my favorite posts

the abandoned Anasazi Inn

by Kaylah Stroup June 27, 2019

Pink abandoned motel on Hwy 89 in Arizona

I’m going to be sharing some of posts from our most recent road trip a bit out of order. This stop was about midway through the trip but it was very very special and I could hardly wait to get home, edit my photos and write it all down.

Making our way through Arizona, I started to recognize some scenery when it occurred to me that we were here with my family last year. Two days before my wedding four carloads full of family made their way to the Grand Canyon. It was so much fun to visit such an incredible place together but honestly, my favorite part of the day was checking out abandoned spots on the way back to Flagstaff.

I don’t know who spotted it first but it ended up that all four carloads of folks slammed on their brakes and quickly turned left into the parking lot of this bright pink motel. Eighteen of us in total poked around the property. At the time it was pretty sealed up. Windows were boarded, not broken, and all the doors still locked. Still, it was a great photo opportunity and a fun experience.

Polaroid OneStep2 & found room key at abandoned motel

We were a couple miles away when I realized that we were heading in the right direction to make another stop at the motel. I wasn’t expecting too much since it was so sealed on our first visit but I was excited just to shoot the exterior again. Who can resist that Wes Anderson pink?!

I was shocked to see how much damage the property had sustained in such a short amount of time. Just over one year had passed and it was pretty well destroyed. Windows were busted. One room was even completely full of trash bags as someone had clearly been dumping on the property. We got to see so much more of the motel this time around because vandals had done such a number on it.

To the right of the main section of the motel is an old gas station and some huge tanks. We were wandering around the tanks that are covered in graffiti, stickers, and tags when Jake pointed out a funny sticker. ‘Fart Bugs’ I don’t know what it means but it made us all laugh. I bent down to take a photo, looked through my viewfinder and that’s when I spotted it…

“Carolyn 2018”

Y’all. That’s my mom. Literally, she wrote that.

I screeched “Jeff! Did you give my mom a marker when we were here?!” Tears streamed down my face. Suddenly it all came rushing back to me. I could see her writing it. A moment nearly completely forgotten but clear as day now. I wasn’t looking for her but she presented herself. I sobbed. Took about four million photos and thanked all my lucky stars no one had covered it up yet.

After this, there wasn’t a single moment that could top it. Anytime Jeff would ask “what’s been your favorite part of the trip so far?” my answer was “finding my mom.”

The motel is in three main chunks. The first time, with my family, we only explored one section. This visit we wandered through an empty lot to the second. It was a lot less damaged. Windows still intact, doors locked. Still, we walked the perimeter searching for photos to take.

The third section has a pool. I didn’t know this until I was lurking the property on Google Earth. Guess I need to go back…

Behind one of the last rows of rooms we walked around I found a crisp five dollar bill sticking out of a pile of trash the wind had whipped up. Thanks, mom.

I hope to get back someday and explore the area a little further. I really wanna see the pool. Who knows, maybe we’ll end up there on accident again in another couple years. xoxo

Polaroid OneStep2 — *photo on the left is a recreation of a* *photo we took in 2018. same spot, same chair, same poses.*

Check out my ‘travel‘ tag for roadtrip posts from the past!

Instant photos taken with the Polaroid Originals OneStep 2. Here’s my review on it from last summer.

ohio to arizona & back

by Kaylah Stroup June 26, 2019

Last week was… epic!

Jeff and I took our annual trip to the desert except this time we did things a bit differently. Instead of flying into the cheapest city, renting a car and then roadtripping around, we drove all the way to Arizona with our friend, Jake!

Our main destination was The Wigwam, the resort in Arizona we had our wedding reception at. (Check out my post about it here. Gosh, it’s just my favorite place!) Jake originally just wanted to fly straight there and relax for a week but Jeff and I ended up convincing him that driving would be more fun.

Our approximate route. Many little detours were taken to check out fun spots.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous. That is a lot of time in the car. The more I thought about it, the more comfortable I felt though. Jeff and I always do lots and lots of driving while we’re on trips. We love to see as much as possible. The drive out there seemed overwhelming until I realized it was the same amount of driving, if not less, as we do every single year. Plus, a lot of the states we’d be going through would be ones I’d never even been before!

Undoubtedly, driving ended up being the most excellent decision. We had so much fun!!!

*Part of The Painted Desert Project. Read more about this particular piece* *here*.

A few of the many highlights...

Wild horses in Wyoming! Honestly, just Wyoming, in general, was gorgeous. I’d love to get back there and explore more.
Exploring ghost towns upon ghost towns. Seriously, just so many stops at abandoned places. We truly hit the jackpot.
Visiting Two Guns again. That’s where we got married!
Finding a tiny reminder of my mom in an unlikely place. Obviously I’ll ya more about this in another post. I burst out crying big time.
Oh my gosh, best avocado toast of my life.
We crashed in Laramie, WY our first night and my goodness, it was precious. Here are a couple of photos from our short visit.
Legit nailing every polaroid I took.
Eating fancy chocolates in a big comfy hotel bed.
Coming home with video to edit! This is the first year I’ve shot vacation footage. I played around with a couple of clips on the long drive home and made this but I’m excited to finally sit down and make a vacation video.
Did I mention all the abandoned places? Because wow.
Uranus, MO!

I have so many photos to share. The task of sorting and editing them all honestly seems overwhelming right now since there are so many. I can’t wait to start sharing more of our week-long adventure though. It was a short period of time but man, oh man, we packed a ton of awesomeness into those seven days! xoxo

Check out my ‘travel‘ tag for roadtrip posts from the past!

Instant photos taken with the Polaroid Originals OneStep 2. LOVE that camera! Here’s my review on it from last summer.

one year anniversary!

by Kaylah Stroup June 10, 2019

*all photos in this post by* *Madeline Barr*

Sunday marked one year since the very best day of my life.

June 9th, 2018 at 9am I was standing on top of a crumbling old structure in a ghost town in Arizona exchanging vows with a real handsome dude.

I am still so embarrassed to call my wedding day ‘the best day of my life‘. I was never that person who dreamed about their wedding day before they were engaged, and I certainly didn’t have any grand ideas about what the day would look like. I don’t think it was the best day of my life simply because I got married and that’s what I think the pinnacle of adult life is…

I truly just cannot think of anything that would top that whole week for me. It was nothing short of magic. That week included all of my favorite things plus things I never could have dreamed would be so darn special.

We were so gosh darn lucky to have that whole week to celebrate with our closest friends and family. Its been a whole year and I still can’t believe we managed to convince everyone to go on an epic family vacation with us. That week was about so much more than our wedding. While our wedding was the big event of the trip, we made so many other special memories it’s unreal.

I spent a lot of time stressing over our wedding plans. I worried that I’d regret not having something a bit more traditional. 365 days later, I can confidently say our wedding was perfect. There couldn’t have been anything more us than what we did.

The absolute only thing I can think of I’d change about our wedding day is that I’d have hired a videographer. I adore our photos by Madeline, the photos I took that week, and everything in the shared album from friends and family but gosh, I’m feeling greedy. I just want more! I want to soak it allllll up.

I’ve known since I met him that Jeff is special. I mean, that is why I married him. He’s there for me, always. He roots me on in all my interests, encourages me, and loves me unconditionally which is good because I can be a real stinker.

I’m someone who loves their alone time yet he’s the only person I’ve ever met that I don’t tire of. Being with him feels like home, no matter where we are. I feel like we just get each other.

The last year has really shown me what a wonderful partner I’ve chosen though. Losing my mom suddenly in April was the absolute worst thing that has ever happened to me. I still feel wrecked. I don’t know where I’d be had Jeff not been such an absolute angel. My mom loved the heck out of Jeff and I really think it was because she could see how good he was at taking care of me.

Jeff, I am so proud to be your wife. I can’t wait to go on a million more adventures with you. Thanks for being my best friend. xoxo

If you need more wedding photos, here’s the post I shared shortly after tying the knot.

old abandoned catholic school

by Kaylah Stroup June 6, 2019

So, forget all the other abandoned buildings I’ve ever posted about here. This has to be my new favorite. Before you even see the photos let me explain why it automatically get some points toward the rank of ‘favorite.’

Friday night Jake, Jeff and I got ice cream at our favorite spot (Mason’s Creamery, of course!) We sat and discussed options on what to do the next morning. We could stay in Cleveland and try to find something to get into here or choose a city within a couple hour’s drive and poke around somewhere new. The three of us all agreed that going somewhere new-ish would be a blast. We could wander around on foot, get a good lunch, and just enjoy being somewhere we weren’t familiar with.

It was late when we got home from ice cream and we were planning to leave super early in the morning so there wasn’t really time to do much research on abandoned buildings in the area. Jeff quickly hopped on Google Earth, spotted a run down looking building, and marked it on his map. No further research, just an idea of something we could cruise by.

We arrived fairly early in the morning. The neighborhood was quiet still so we decided to get out of the car and wander around the perimeter. From the front, this magnificent old school looked sealed up. Windows appeared to be freshly boarded up. The back of the building? Not so sealed. Quite the opposite actually. Jeff scurried his way up the rubble to peek inside. His face LIT UP! Right inside the back was a huge auditorium.

We took turns climbing the rickety ladder placed by previous visitors to enter the school. The second you got inside this grand auditorium greeted you. Destroyed yet absolutely beautiful. It was breathtaking.

Obviously, I was impressed but nothing will beat the excitement of peeking into a small room to my right and spotting a row of chairs and mirrors where folks got ready for the school plays. It was so clearly and obviously a dressing room. I was whisper screaming to Jake and Jeff. “OH MY GOSH. LOOOOK! MIRRORS!! COME ON”

I mean, the auditorium was beautiful. Perhaps the largest and most grand I’ve ever explored but I’ve been in auditoriums before. I have never seen anything like this room. Something about it just really got to me. I honestly can’t explain it any further than that. I still get a little rush of adrenaline thinking about spotting it for the first time.

(I posted a little video clip of me walking into this room on my Instagram.)

The building just kept going. There were classrooms upon classrooms. Each painted a different bright color which was now chipping so beautifully. I feel like I was on such a high from even getting into the building, let alone finding that cool dressing room, that I couldn’t truly appreciate the other rooms. They’re all a blur to me and on top of that, I know we didn’t see them all.

Getting spots I’ve already seen photos of is fun. I’m not one of those people that doesn’t explore spots that are already popular but nothing beats someone in your group discovering a new building. Obviously, we weren’t the first folks inside but none of this building was familiar to me. I’d never seen a single shot from this place. It was brand new to the three of us. More than that, I had no idea we’d be getting inside anything that day. Of course, it’s what we all wanted to do but exploring in cities you aren’t familiar with can be really hard. We lucked out!

I still can’t believe what an awesome find this was and that it was right under our noses the whole time. Here’s to finding more gems! xoxo

For a better idea of how incredible this spot was, check out Jeff’s video!

Use the ‘abandoned‘ tag to view more posts on forgotten buildings across the US. Also, be sure to check out my husband’s book – Abandoned Cleveland.

doolan family bus – part 4

by Kaylah Stroup June 5, 2019

Bus update time! Check out previous bus conversion posts here – 1, 2 & 3.

Last week we started tearing apart the old seats to salvage the foam inside. Nevermind the fact they’d been sitting out in the elements for two months. My dad is alllll about recycling materials. Had I written this post the day these photos were taken, I’d probably write that we wasted time trying to save foam that was hella gross BUT I am a week behind in sharing photos and I now see he had a plan all along and these will be perfectly acceptable inside our cushions!

For real though, that doesn’t take away how absolutely nasty of a job this was. The vinyl had let in water and then held it in. When you cut the seats open they sounded exactly like someone peeing. There are certain textures I don’t really like to touch or I get the heebie jeebies. The inside of the seats? UGH. The worst.

Also inside the seats – hair barrettes! Many, many hair barrettes! (Can’t forget to mention that my parents had already found 20+ while removing the seats from the bus.) My niece thought it would be a good idea to make all the men in the family wear the barrettes. They all obliged but no one more happily than Jeff. He’ll do anything to make a kid smile. I picked a winner.

*Check out that gross fuzz from inside the seats on my hand too.*

This week was also for building the second long bench and hanging the table! Both things make the bus feel so much more complete. Obviously both things also still need a lot more work done on them but having the basic framework done is so wild! Sitting at the table with my nieces and nephew I can envision us actually on the road. It’s exciting!

*I’m cracking up over Jeff and his hair barrettes in this shot.*

For only working on this bus one day per week I think we’re absolutely killing it! In person, while we’re actually there, it feels a bit like its slow going but when I look back at the previous posts I’m able to see just how quickly things are progressing. Even the difference from my last post to this one is huge! xoxo

hair dye diaries – green to fiery orange!

by Kaylah Stroup June 3, 2019

Say ‘goodbye’ to green & a bit fat ‘hello!’ to this fiery orange!

Arctic Fox Sunset Orange & cosmic sunshine

After three whole years of green hair, I’m finally back in the hair dye game! Seems a little funny to act like having green hair is boring but going three years without any big hair changes is definitely out of character for me. What can I say? I really loved green. I still love green and I look forward to going green again someday BUT I was bored.

I had a couple moments during the fading process that I questioned what I was doing and why I’d want to change my hair but I had already mentioned my intention to change up my hair. Y’all keep me accountable!

Arctic Fox Sunset Orange, Arctic Fox Cosmic Sunshine

Supplies used – (affiliate links)

Beyond the Zone Radical Bleach Kit (Amazon / Sally Beauty Supply)
Arctic Fox Sunset Orange (Amazon / Sally Beauty)
Arctic Fox Cosmic Sunshine (Amazon / Sally Beauty)
Special Effects Hi-Octane Orange (Amazon)

If you use Honey, you can almost always find a coupon for Sally’s! (The morning I bought dye, it found one for me that brought the total down another $6.80!)

Even as someone who has dyed my hair basically every color, I still get nervous about how it’ll turn out. I think it’ll be really rad to have this to look back on like ‘okay, the green didn’t truly bleach out but look what I ended up with when I used this specific combination of colors on top of that.’ Ya know?

I’m excited to rock this orange/red combo for a while but perhaps even more excited to no longer be stuck with green. As I said, I loved green but I kind of got a little too attached to it. I can’t wait to experiment with new color combinations in the next few months. xoxo

You can find tips & guides in my hair master post – including Bleaching your hair 101, 7 tips for maintaining bright hair color, Two tips for switching hair colors easily. & so much more!

exploring an abandoned house

by Kaylah Stroup May 29, 2019

Early last month we woke up before the sun and headed out on a little adventure. The plan was to explore an abandoned church that we found out was accessible. We circled the neighborhood looking for the perfect place to park that wouldn’t look suspicious. After what felt like forever, we finally chose a spot and started the short walk to the church.

And that’s when the police officer passed us, slowed down, and pulled into the parking lot directly across the street. It was no coincidence. He knew what we were doing and we knew that. Instead of doing the obvious choice of immediately turning around and heading back to the car we decided to take a long stroll around the block.

On our walk, we found this house wide open and waiting for us to dip inside.

It was a quick explore. In and out in around fifteen minutes. I’ve talked about it before and I’m sure it’ll come up again but exploring houses is such a strange feeling. Why did these people just up and leave one day? I can see leaving behind big furniture but they didn’t need their clothes anymore? And the old family photos!?

Video version below! I really love this one. It’s short, straight to the point, and gosh darn, feels like you’re exploring the house too!

Use the ‘abandoned‘ tag to view more posts on forgotten buildings across the US. Also, be sure to check out my husband’s book – Abandoned Cleveland.

doolan family bus – part 3

by Kaylah Stroup May 27, 2019

I’m back again with another bus update! Check out part 1 & part 2.

With the brand new floor completely down, last week was for working on building benches! We got a pretty good start on the ones that will be on the left side of the bus. (I say “we” but A LOT of credit goes to my brother who is really taking the lead on building!) There are two of them that face each other with a table that goes in the middle. The table top will be on a bar that allows it to drop down to the same level as the benches so it can be converted into a sleeping area.

The bus will have seating for approximately 10 plus with slightly less sleeping area since a good portion of us are hammock lovers!

It’s really starting to take shape. I was having such a hard time picturing what it might look like when it was just an empty bus. Each week that we work on it I become more and more excited!

I can’t wait to get this bad boy on the road. xoxo

PS. Pop over to Youtube view the video! …or just view it here tiny sized.

I cry over four leaf clovers

by Kaylah Stroup May 22, 2019

Up until last year, I had never found a single four-leaf clover. Over the summer of 2018, I found maybe seven total. That was with me looking constantly. Every patch of grass, nearly every time I went outside. I was happy with that number too! It was exciting.

In the past week, I’ve found over thirty four-leaf clovers. OVER THIRTY. That doesn’t include the twenty or so my nieces and nephews found alongside me in my parent’s yard. That also doesn’t include the five five-leaf clovers, two six-leaf and two seven-leaf clovers we found! Oh yeah, and a weird four and half leaf one too.

Yesterday was rough. The grief felt so heavy. I miss my mom every single second of every single day but some days just straight up suck. Yesterday was one of those days. I texted my husband that I was having a rough morning. Then, not fifteen minutes later, I took the dog outside and immediately found a four-leaf clover in the driveway. It obviously didn’t take all the sadness away but it was a bright spot in my otherwise dark day.

It seems like this last week that strange coincidence has happened quite often. First, at the beach, by myself when I was feeling blue. Again, two days later, in the yard with my nieces and nephew. Then yesterday both times I took Klaus on a walk.

Now, keep in mind, statistically, you have a 1 in 5076 shot of finding one. When you go up to five leaves you have a 1 in 24,309 shot! Six leaves? 1 in 312,500!! (I grabbed those numbers from here.)

I have strictly science based beliefs. I know my mom is gone. I don’t think ghosts or spirits are real. Previous to this week, the idea of her communicating with me from beyond the grave would have been laughable. So, I’m not saying it’s my mom…

But I’ve also been wrong before. Right now, I really like the idea of being wrong.

Four leaf clover patch — *I see at least two in this photo.*

four leaf clover collection — *with my mom’s wedding ring*

When I posted this photo on instagram and put the alternative caption “Mom, is that you?” a couple of folks shared ways that they feel like their loved ones communicate with them. I’d love to hear more of those stories! It really does sound a little out there but at the same time, it doesn’t. To be honest, I’ll take any sort of comfort right now! xoxo

Newer Posts

Older Posts