Tag:

Travel

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

by Kaylah Stroup August 24, 2015

I spent my twenty fifth birthday in a mental hospital – one that was abandoned, purchased at auction, partially restored, and now offers tours! I’m talking about the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. It’s a little over two hours away from Oglebay, where we stayed the night, so it was kind of must. We woke up fairly early, ate the best hotel breakfast I’ve ever had, and made our way there. Although I’m not a huge fan of guided tours (okay, I kind of hate them) and that’s all they offer – we had to see this place!

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was in operation from 1864 until 1994. It was originally built to house only 250 patients but in the 1950’s peaked at 2,600 patients. Like the majority mental hospitals that were open at the time, there are many stories of wrong doing. An investigation in 1949 found unruly patients locked in cages, lobotomies being performed with ice picks, and conditions so poor they were surely the cause of death in many patients.

This building has suffered it’s fair share of abuse as well. In 1935 a patient started a fire in his closet that destroyed six male wards and caused one of the cupolas to fall through the roof. It sat abandoned from the time it closed, in 1994, until 2007 when it was bought at auction for 1.5 million dollars. Of course, much like any abandoned building, many explorers found their way in to photograph this gorgeous building, and in 1999 vandals did quite a number on the interior…but it’s probably not what you’re thinking. All four floors of the building were damaged by police officers playing paintball!

The building’s condition had deteriorated to the point where it’s survival was threatened. A dedicated team of staff and volunteers are now committed to restoring it to it’s former grandeur. Our guide pointed out a few things in the main lobby that they had restored and it’s apparent how much time and love they’re putting into this place. One of the other people on our tour asked “Are you ever going
to fully restore it? Or just leave it looking abandoned?” I don’t recall exactly what she said but I caught something about how they would probably leave some sections fixed up just enough to be safe because photographers would otherwise be outraged. Jeff and I shot each other knowing looks. Heaven knows I love me some peeling paint!

One of my favorite things I saw were actually the stone faces on the exterior of one of the buildings. It is said that spirits cannot come in through the front door so they put these ugly faces above the back door to scare away any spirits who might wander in the back. The uglier the better. While I don’t believe in “spirits”, I do LOVE folklore. After walking back in the building Jeff whispered “Can we get some of those for our house?” I had already been thinking of asking him the same thing!

After the tour you’re allowed to visit a wing of the main building that’s basically a museum. There are tools, old photos, headstones, and even some of the former patients artwork. It was a great way to end the tour, especially since I wanted more. We took the shortest tour since I hate guided tours so much (and of course, time constraints) but I was way into it! I feel like they could probably rope people into the longer tour at the end of the short tours by simply offering to let them pay the difference and continue on with the group.

Like I mentioned, I am not a fan of guided tours but this one was well worth it. Our tour guide was knowledgeable, kind, and seemed to actually be interested in what she was doing. Maybe I’ve only been on guided tours with poor guides in the past? We only took the first floor tour but I would love to go back to take the cemetery tour. It’s not my thing, but if you’re into ghost tours they offer those year round as well. I definitely recommend stopping in if you’re anywhere in the area! It was waaaay cool to be able to finally visit such an incredible building with such amazing history.
xoxo

Oglebay – Good Zoo

by Kaylah Stroup August 18, 2015

At the beginning of the month, for my birthday weekend, Jeff took me to Oglebay. There’s lots to do at there and, despite it not looking like too impressive of a zoo on paper, my first choice was to visit Good Zoo. They have 50 species of animals that reside on their 30 acre property. It’s a fairly small zoo but it was easily one of my favorites. Jeff and I spent nearly three hours here. We zoo-ed, HARD. I think I might have had more fun at this little tiny zoo than I ever have at a zoo before.

I think what I enjoyed most about the zoo was how close you could get to the animals! It wasn’t just “wow, look at that cool animal”, a lot of them you were suuuper close to! The kangaroos, for example, are in a large pen that you can enter. You have to stay on the path but the only thing between you and kangaroos is a small rope. So basically these beautiful creatures are an arms length away, and you have to have crazy strong self control to not try and pet one.

Beside the kangaroo habitat is an aviary filled with rainbow lorikeets. I was a bit hesitant to enter since I’m not really the biggest fan of birds. I refused to hold one (mostly because I watched them poop all over other people and didn’t really want to deal with that) but Jeff quickly made a friend. This silly little bird would not stop licking him. Jeff would reach his hand up for the bird to walk onto but instead it would bite him then resume licking the sweat off his head and neck. I have a huge number of hilarious/creepy photos of that bird licking him. It was really hard to choose which ones to share.

After walking the entire zoo and then riding the train around the zoo we circled back around to some of the first exhibits. Sometimes it takes me a while to get into the groove of photographing things, especially when other people are around. That plus the fact I really really wanted to see the golden lion tamarins and meerkats again! While I loved basically every single animal I saw these two were my favorites. I’ve been to more than a handful of zoos, how did I never realize how darn cute these guys are!? The tamarins especially! I was actually crying watching them play. Yep, just a few hours shy of turning twenty five and I’m standing in front of a monkey exhibit crying over how cute they are. I could have watched them play all day. I hope I get to meet one some day.

Yeah, so basically the Good Zoo rules. They even offer animal encounters where you can go inside the exhibits with a trainer and feed the animals. There was a couple doing that with the ring-tailed lemurs while we were there. Needless to say, Jeff and I were both green with envy. Maybe another time…
xoxo

Until next time, little buddy!

Wigwam Village #7

by Kaylah Stroup August 13, 2015

One of my greatest joys in life is crossing off goals. That sounds weird, but stay with me here, I just find such great pleasure in making goals and accomplishing them. It doesn’t matter how silly the goal it is or how insignificant it may seem to someone else, I just love accomplishing things. Some days on my to-do list along with work related things I’ll write “shower”, “make bed”, etc just because I love crossing things off.

Since the second I learned about Wigwam Village a few years back I knew I needed to stay there. I love tacky roadside attractions, and tourist traps. It’s just so kitsch, how could you not love it!? For the longest time I couldn’t find anyone to go with. The only one I knew of at the time was in seven hours away in Kentucky. No one saw the point except me.

Fast forward a few years to June of 2014, Jeff and I are getting ready to head out west on our first big road trip together. While looking up things in the area I realized there was another Wigwam Village in Holbrook, Arizona. We stayed, and it was just awesome as I had made it out to be in my mind. It was in no way luxurious but it was awesome!

When I got home I did a bunch of research on the history of Wigwam Village. Originally built in the 1930s + 40s, there were seven Wigwam Village locations. Now only three remain, each of which has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Holbrook, Arizona, Cave City, Kentucky, and San Bernardino, California. I had to visit the other two!

A few months later, for our six month anniversary Jeff and I took a trip down to Cave City and stayed at that Wigwam Village. Then in June, while on our most recent road trip, we finally crossed number three off the list, San Bernardino – number seven of the original seven! I say finally but we managed to stay at all three of the remaining Wigwam Villages in a span of just a few days over a year which is pretty darn awesome, right?!

Of the three Wigwam Villages I think this one was the nicest inside. It might have even been bit bigger than the others as well. That’s not to put the others down though, all three were clean, had friendly staff, and made for super cool photo opportunities.

I celebrated crossing off my goal of staying at the three remaining Wigwam Villages by getting a permanent souvenir. While shoving my face with a delicious burger from In-N-Out I searched for tattoo artists in the area. I wasn’t able to find one in San Bernardino on such short notice but found Mikey Sarratt at High Noon Tattoo in Phoenix. He not only responded to my email super quickly, but came in on his day off just to do this little tattoo. I was SO nervous but I seriously could not be happier with the finished result!
xoxo

Special thanks to Jeff for being more than willing to make all my silly little dreams come true. That guy hates staying anywhere but really nice hotels but made the exception because he understood how much it meant to me. You da best! I love you!

Save

Borrego Springs Sky Art

by Kaylah Stroup August 10, 2015

Before leaving to head out on our road trip a very kind reader, who gave us the awesome suggestion of hitting up Noah’s Art last year, recommended visiting Borrego Springs. It looked and sounded awesome. Like I mentioned in my previous post about the trip, we had the whole day after Bottle Tree Ranch to do whatever we’d like before checking in to our room for the night. So despite it being a little bit out of the way we decided to venture down to Borrego Springs and see what it was all about.

The product of Dennis Avery’s imagination and Ricardo A Breceda’s hard work the land surround Borrego Springs is filled with giant metal sculptures collectively known as “Sky Art”. There are over 130 of these babies scattered around. All sorts of different animals too! There are horses, dinosaurs, camels, and even a sea serpent emerging from the sand.

Jeff wasn’t feeling too well so visiting Borrego Springs was basically just him driving me from animal to animal and me saying “Are you sure you’re okay with this? Do you want me to drive? Can we at least go see the ______ and then we can leave?” There are so many sculptures we didn’t even get to see a quarter of them! Although we found a few crude maps on the internet it was still a lot more like a scavenger hunt finding them which was kind of fun.

Looking back I so badly wish I had some photos of Jeff and I beside these sculptures so you could get an idea of just how large they are. Something I really enjoyed about being here was that you could walk right up the animals. Nothing stopping you from getting as close you wanted. Some of them were a bit of a hike in the heat from the road but worth it regardless!
xoxo

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

Bottle Tree Ranch

by Kaylah Stroup August 6, 2015

After Death Valley National Park we made our way over to Bartstow where we got a hotel room for the night. Death Valley was our last big stop of the trip. We didn’t have any destinations planned but we had places already booked to stay for our last two nights of the trip so we had time to just wander around. We woke up the next morning and started heading toward Bottle Tree Ranch which I had found on Roadside America while cuddled up in bed watching the Food Network in the hotel. That’s only worth noting because the Food Network and hotels go hand and hand for me. I can’t stand to watch it at home but because it’s what Jeff always turns on in hotel rooms I’ve come to love it and somehow it makes hotels feel more like home to me.

So! Bottle Tree Ranch. What to say about this place? First of all, WOW, it’s incredible. It is literally a forest made from large metal pipes with bottles on them. Elmer Long has been interested in collecting bottles since he was a kid. He and his father would go on trips where they would bring home old bottles found at dump sites. When his father died he inherited his collection of bottles and that’s when the ranch began. In 2002, at age 55, he quit his job to dedicate his time to the ranch. There are over two hundred trees and thousands of bottles!

It is definitely a sight to behold. While the property isn’t all that large, it’s absolutely overwhelming standing in the middle of it all. I had no idea how to shoot it. The whole time I was just thinking “I hope some of these pictures look okay…“. I’m pretty pumped about my shots but definitely feel that there is nothing that compares to seeing the trees in person.

I know when I blogged about Jerry’s Junk I briefly touched on how much I love collectors, and their collections. I just really really love passionate people. I’m the biggest weenie in the book but I’m seriously sitting here all teary eyed about this place. It’s so awesome to see people doing something they love, even if that thing is seen as a bit crazy by the general public.

Bottle Tree Ranch is nothing short of amazing. When we visited Elmer was outside. He was so friendly and so kind. I’m so happy people like him exist! If you’re anywhere near Oro Grande, CA or are just out cruising Route 66, Bottle Tree Ranch is a must.
xoxo

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

Death Valley National Park

by Kaylah Stroup July 29, 2015

I don’t know what I was expecting from a place called Death Valley but somehow I was still shocked by the conditions in the park. At the visitors center we stood beside a sign that read 119 degrees Fahrenheit, which is easily one of the hottest temperatures I’ve ever experienced. Why we had to visit at the hottest time of the year is beyond me but I’m definitely glad we went. It still blows my mind that just a day before we were on the coast where I was worried I hadn’t brought enough warm clothes.

We did a lot of driving in Death Valley National Park, and not too much else since we’re both absolute babies in the heat. One of the few spots we stopped was at Mesquite Sand Dunes. It was insanely hot. So hot that I could feel the heat through my shoes which I thought was crazy. After roaming around in the sand a bit shooting photos we scurried back to the car. We sat down, turned on the air, chugged some water, and realized there was a funny smell in the car.

“Do you smell burning rubber?”
“I think it might be my shoes…?”
Lifts foot as close to face as possible in the car. “Yep!”

That sand was so hot our shoes were actually melting. The park’s brochure actually said of the eighteen heat related deaths in the park sine 2000 three of them occurred in the sand dunes. My photos don’t really seem to capture the size of the dunes and just how expansive the area was. But to see this place in person and experience heat that oppressive that fact really isn’t all that shocking.

The goal was to not spend too much time in the park since we needed to get out of the area before we got too tired. Every other night that we had tried to sleep in the car this trip it was miserable. The last thing we wanted was to be sleeping in the car in this heat. After the dunes we cruised to the visitor center to get stamps in our National Parks passport. We sat inside looking over the other main parts of the park trying to figure out what else we wanted to see. Death Valley National Park is massive, it actually has more miles of roads than any other national park. Sadly everything else we were interested in visiting suggested having some sort of fancy pants all terrain tire that our rental most definitely didn’t have. Guess we’ll just have to go back another time to see The Racetrack…

We made one last stop in the park, at Zabriskie Point. You walk up this steep hill to the an overlook where no matter which way you turn there is a gorgeous view. It kind of seemed like all the other visitors in the park that day we’re following the same agenda as us – only get out of the car when absolutely necessary. This overlook, and the visitor center were the only place we really saw anyone else. Even with the crowd at Zabriskie Point it was a perfect last stop. It was so beautiful you could easily just tune everyone else out.

Right outside of the park there were tons of abandoned buildings. It was a busy-ish area and a great majority of them were fenced off so we passed. We did manage to find another outside the fenced area that we stopped at. Just a small shell of a building but I love the photos of it nonetheless. I actually have a whole post of abandoned things we visited in the desert that I’ll share another day. The desert is a wonderful place!

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

Ballarat, CA

by Kaylah Stroup July 23, 2015

Fish Rocks, Salt Wells Canyon, CA

Cell phone service in the desert is hit or miss. I either had all my bars or nothing but while I did have service I was browsing Roadside America for spots to hit. That’s how we found Ballarat. Formerly a supply point for the mines nearby, Ballarat is now a ghost town. In it’s heyday it was home to nearly 500 people. It had 7 saloons, a jail, a school, a handful of hotels and more. There isn’t much left anymore, just a few rusted out all cars, shells of buildings, and a cemetery.

I was a bit nervous to visit since it’s a little ways off the main road. I was worried it would be home to someone who might be offended by our visit. A sign near the entrance of the town read as follows…

“this is a free zone take any kind of photos you want. camp party make movies etc no harm. nobody cares feel free. learn nothen setting in your car the friendly zone welcome to ballarat ghost town…”

After seeing that I felt free to roam…

The thing I was most excited about in Ballarat was the cemetery. I’d been on the lookout for an old desert cemetery since the last trip and we had yet to stumble across one. I saw photos of this one on Roadside America and that was actually one of the biggest reasons I wanted to visit. This one was smaller than I had been hoping for but still so awesome. It had such a gorgeous view and it was just a world of difference from the cemeteries we have here. And this headstone?! Get out! Easily one of the most interesting I’ve ever seen in person.

We didn’t stay too long in Ballarat, it was hot and we were both anxious to get into the national park but it was definitely a great stop.
xoxo

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

road trip photo album // chatbooks review

by Kaylah Stroup July 22, 2015

One of my goals for this last road trip, and really any future trips, was to get my photos printed. Apart from film, which I always get prints made from, I never get photos printed. Everything is stored on external hard drives. For a person who collects so much that almost seems funny. I treasure the few photo albums I do have and definitely want to have more tangible photos.

As soon as I got through editing all my photos I got started making this book. I didn’t want it to be something I kept pushing back and would eventually forget to do. Chatbooks was my first choice for a book since they had sent me one a while back featuring my instagram photos. I liked that it was fairly small, and looked super nice for the price. Their books are only $6 and they have free shipping PLUS you can use the
code “theda146” to get your first book when you subscribe to your Instagram Series.

I initially had a bit of an issue uploading my photos so I tried out a few other sites that make photo books. The thing was they get expensive quick, and they can take a lot of work. I loved that with Chatbooks you just upload your photos, and that’s it! They’re printed in order. (You are able to rearrange them if you’d like but in the instance you want them printed in the order you took them that’s the default, which perfectly for vacation!) You can add captions if you’d like but it’s not necessary. I reached out via twitter with my uploading issue, they responded quickly that I should try another browser. I downloaded Safari and wouldn’t you know it, that solved the issue. I added a few captions, chose my cover, ordered, and a few days later it showed up!

I LOVE it so much. It’s seriously so nice to be able to flip through my photos instead of just having them on the computer. I’ve actually been considering going back through 2014’s road trip photos and having those printed as well. A little Jeff + Kaylah road trip photo album series! How cute!

Other than the little bit of trouble uploading that was easily remedied by using a different browser this was seriously so painless to make. I basically have no excuse whatsoever to not get photos printed. Chatbooks, you rule!
xoxo

PS. Don’t forget if you use
code “theda146” you can get your first book free when you subscribe to your Instagram Series.

Save

San Francisco to Yosemite

by Kaylah Stroup July 20, 2015

After the tide pools Jeff and I made our way up to San Francisco. We hadn’t scheduled much time in our agenda for the city, it was basically just meant to be a stopping point for our journey along the coast. I wanted to see two things in San Francisco – Camera Obscura and the Golden Gate Bridge. So, first stop – Camera Obscura! It sadly wasn’t open but I was happy to see it nonetheless. This has been on my to-find list for so long. I’ve been seeing photos of it pop up from time to time for years but never really knew anything about it, let alone where in the world it was. I realized right before the trip it was in San Francisco so I super giddy about finally seeing it.

From the Camera Obscura you can see the Sutro Bath ruins. It had popped up on Roadside America when I was browsing the area but it didn’t seem that interesting considering we only had a few hours at most in the city. Being right beside it, and in the fog was another story though. We had to go check it out.

The Sutro Baths opened in 1896 and at the time it was the largest indoor swimming facility. There were slides, springboards and even a high dive. There were six saltwater pools and one fresh water pool. It eventually closed due to not being profitable. Shortly that in 1966, a fire destroyed the building while it was in the process of being demolished. (Arson for insurance money!) Now the land surrounding it is part of the Golden Gate Recreational Area which is way cool because you’re able to explore the ruins. This website sums it up perfectly “It’s allowed to be harrowing and wild in a time and place where shampoos carry warnings and most interesting things are cordoned off for your protection. Here’s the playground for those who love crumbling stone clubhouses, jutting pipe monkeybars, stairways that lead you off cliffs and shifting sandboxes that get swallowed by surf.” It’s really surprising to me that you’re allowed to explore the ruins but you best believe, I’m all about it. I wish there were more places like this.

Beside the ruins is a cliff-side tunnel which I thought was terrifying. I’m sure some local is reading this and laughing but that water was rough, it was dark, and I thought the ground felt smushy. I was afraid somehow I was going to end up in the water. I don’t know, it was just really strange experience. I’m pretty fearless when it comes to most things but that tunnel freaked me out. It’s fun to be afraid sometimes, if that makes sense. I was happy to get out of the tunnel but I enjoyed the rush of being in there.

Next we headed to the Golden Gate Bridge which I didn’t actually get to see because of the fog. Whomp whomp whomp. We drove over it, I shot this picture, and we called it day. I have never in my life seen fog SO thick. We had assumed the sun set but after getting outside of the city we got to watch it actually set. It was really strange to watch it get dark, then an hour or so later watch it get dark all over again.

We drove into the night toward our next stop, Yosemite National Park. We got there in the middle of the night. I had a really bad stomach ache. Jeff said he had some tums or something in his suitcase so we pulled over on the top of a mountain to get it. I’m all bundled up in my seat when Jeff calls from outside “You have to come see this!” The stars, you guys, THE STARS. It was just the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life. I’m literally teary eyed right now thinking about it. We got out our cameras and hung out on the side of the road trying to capture the view. I didn’t get anything close to representing how amazing it was but Jeff shot this gorgeous photo. I could have stayed there and watched the stars forever. That actually might be one of my favorite memories of the trip. Just being barefoot on the side of a mountain looking up at the stars with Jeff. They were something else!

We finally headed back down the mountain to find a spot to sleep for a few hours before making our way into the park. It was another rough night of not being able to find somewhere suitable to sleep. I remember groggily searching “how to sleep in your car” for tips because we just couldn’t find somewhere that felt safe enough to snooze at. Rough night or not all was well because the next morning I sat on the rock wall below and put on my make-up, and got gussied up for the day ahead. Talk about a great view!

Yosemite was gorgeous but a bit crowded for my tastes. I was also crabby I didn’t have my bike because everyone there was on a bike. But I ate a killer sandwich, got some pressed pennies, and took photos that I love with the man I love.
xoxo

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

Newer Posts

Older Posts