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Travel

Abandoned Motel

by Kaylah Stroup
While the first day of mine and Jeff’s little escape was fun, the second day of the trip was the real highlight. We drove the back roads from Norfolk, Virginia to Baltimore, Maryland, and even dipped into Delaware just so we could add another state to the list of them that we’ve been together. (Sitting pretty at 17 right now, can’t wait to add more!) We were stumbling upon incredible looking abandoned places left and right but sadly, due to the weather, we couldn’t stop. There was no where to park. Places that would be perfect to pull the car off the road were covered in enough snow that getting stuck was a real risk and not one we were willing to take.

Somewhere in Delaware, we stumbled upon this motel. We both saw it at the same time and looked at each with pure excitement. Luckily it was near a few other businesses that were still in use so we were able to whip around and park across the street in one of their parking lots. We trudged through the snow and snooped around this truly spooky site.

I’m obviously unsure of any back story on this place, and it’s hard to tell how long any place been abandoned. This place was so far gone. The inside was absolutely trashed and clearly, the outside is a wreck. I love colors but honestly, I think my favorite part might be that sign! It’s so creepy looking. I would love to see it in the spring, the vines covering it with leaves on them. I bet it’s lovely!

Rushing around like we did at the motel reminds me of when Jeff and I were out west last summer and we stopped at a ghost town called Two Guns*. I found it on Roadside America and it ended up being right on the way to where we were heading except we were majorly crunched for time. We had reservations, and had to check into our wigwam before the front office closed for the night. But Two Guns!!!! It looked amazing. We had to stop, there was no two ways about it. We agreed we’d only spend ten minutes there so we both got out of the car and literally ran from building to building snapping photos like crazy. The ten minutes was up in no time at all. We got back to the car gasping for breath and full of adrenaline. My pictures weren’t that great, and I’d love to reshoot it but it’s honestly one of my favorite memories from the whole trip. Now we’ve started referring to times that we rush around an abandoned property due to any kind of time restraint as “going Two Guns”

This motel was totally awesome but I think my favorite part will always
be the adventure of it. It was wide open and not a challenge to
get to at all but running across a divided highway and dashing around in
the freezing cold was so much fun. We definitely went Two Guns on that place!
xoxo


*Some of my Two Guns photos can be found in this post.

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It’s the little things…

by Kaylah Stroup
At the beginning of last week Jeff text me about how he was so sick of the winter and was dying to go shoot photos. I replied “ditto! let’s get out” assuming that would I mean I would have to grudgingly bundle up and head out into the negative temperatures for a few hours. His response was “let’s go on a trip!” Two days later we’re in the car heading down to Virginia, he had booked us a hotel in Norfolk.

It was supposed to be an escape from the cold but the day previous to our arrival Norfolk had been hit with a pretty intense snow storm. They apparently weren’t too prepared, and the roads were kind of awful so after finding macarons and eating a burger we retired to our hotel room fairly early. As cold as it was there it was still an improvement and we were both excited to escape our city for a bit. While Cleveland was experiencing temperatures as low as -25, Norfolk was around 20 degrees.

The next morning we woke up before the sun so we could hurry down to the beach and watch it rise over the ocean. It was absolutely freezing but well worth it for the sight. This is one of those times where I’m not super pumped about my photos but once I get over the initial “I could have shot that better” I know I’ll be really happy I have them. Watching the sun rise and set with Jeff is one of my all time favorite things. It never fails to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Funny story – For our first date I suggested we watch the sun rise together. We agreed upon a place, time, and date. I woke up super early that morning to make sure I looked extra cute, bundled up and headed to the beach. Nearly a half hour after the sun rose I realized this butthead wasn’t going to show up. I played it cool and texted him something along the lines of “Hey, you didn’t show! Hope you’re okay and nothing happened!” He text me back almost instantly. He had overslept and my text woke him up. We finally met up later that day but I’m probably never going to let him live that down.

I was pretty excited to find coral on the beach. Lake Erie doesn’t really have many interesting things that wash up on the beach, I mean if you exclude giant water bugs and trash, so even frozen coral is intriguing to me. I’m also a fan of sea foam. It was killing me that it was so cold there, I wanted to stick my hands in it so badly.

Back in Ohio, I’m still hating winter just as much as before we left for our quick trip but it was a great escape, even if it wasn’t a warm one.
xoxo


Two posts into my “the little things” series and both include Jeff and a sun setting or rising on the beach. Whoops!

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giant roadside animals

by Kaylah Stroup
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!

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Wigwam Village #2

by Kaylah Stroup

The main reason we actually took a detour to Kentucky before heading over to North Carolina? Wigwam Village! If you recall, back in June, Jeff and I actually stayed in one in Arizona. The one in Kentucky is the one I originally knew about waaaay before I even met Jeff, before I even moved to Cleveland, before I even drove! I had been wanting to stay here for so very long and now I finally get to cross it off my list.

Built in the 1930s + 40s, there were originally seven Wigwam Village locations. Now only three remain, each of which has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The first question everyone always asks when I say I stayed at Wigwam Village is “Do they have bathrooms?!” Yes, absolutely. Each wigwam has a bed, and bathroom, they even have cable tv and internet access. The base of each teepee is 14 feet in diameter, so it’s kind of close quarters but perfect for two people. The teepees are by no means luxurious but they’re still clean. I like to think of it like staying at your grandma’s house. It’s clean but it’s outdated. The beds have nice old quilts, not crisp white sheets like at a hotel. The bathroom is incredibly tiny and the shower is even smaller (but, daaaang that water pressure was great!) Basically the gist here is that they’re clean, and fairly cheap but I probably wouldn’t stay there if it wasn’t so incredibly kitschy. I am an absolute sucker for tourist traps.

It’s way out of the way to go to Cave City from Cleveland before heading to Charlotte. It’s essentially a huge triangle but when Jeff suggested we swing by I couldn’t say no, especially considering it was our six month anniversary and I’ve been begging to go to Cave City for so long. He’s super squeamish about dirty places, which is hilarious considering we’re almost always in abandoned buildings. He’s not a huge fan of Wigwam Village in that aspect, he’d rather stay at DoubleTree (and if he knew I was typing this he’d say it was all because of their cookies!), but the fact he suggested it for our anniversary is pretty darn sweet in my book!

Now with this one under my belt, I only have one remaining Wigwam Village to stay in, and you know dang well I’m chomping at the bit toget there. Like I said, they’re not luxurious places by any means but an absolutely a fun place to stay!
xoxo

Update – August 2015 – I’ve stayed at all three standing Wigwam Villages! Wooo! Check out my post about Wigwam Village #7.

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On the road – Kentucky to North Carolina

by Kaylah Stroup
The weekend before last Jeff and I took a little road trip, definitely not as epic as our last one, but still a nice escape from daily life. I was invited to a blog conference down in North Carolina, and while that was fun enough for me, Jeff suggested we leave a day earlier and take a detour over to Kentucky before hitting NC. That’s my maaaan! I’m so pumped I found someone who likes road trips as much as I do. I excitedly agreed that adding another day, and a few more states would make it even better. I have a handful of posts from the weekend but thought I’d start with a little round up of all the roadside attractions we found.

First thing Saturday morning we hit the road for Cave City. We didn’t actually get a chance to go in any caves. Booo! The one we really wanted was sold out for the day and before we knew it everything was closed. But we did visit all kinds of silly little gift shops full of rocks, which we both enjoyed.

After leaving Kentucky the next morning we stumbled upon the most exciting little part of our trip. I was using the Roadside America app, like I always am when I’m basically anywhere outside of a twenty mile radius of Cleveland. I found an elephant and since I was tired of being in the car already I suggested we stop and find it. As we approached, right off the side of the highway, we spotted the area where it was. Not only was there an elephant, there was a giraffe, a horse, some clowns, a castle and two ferris wheels. ALL ABANDONED. We both freaked. It was such an awesome find!

Apparently there used to be a fireworks store there but in July of this year it burnt down. There aren’t really any traces of the building left, it was apparently cleaned up but they left behind all the fun stuff. One of the ferris wheels was already starting to do the mean lean, I’m not sure how long they’ve been out of use but it doesn’t seem like this one will be standing too much longer.

A quick drive away from that is a giant dragon, not quite as exciting as two ferris wheels but still pretty awesome. This guy was massive. He’s located behind an dollar store and there was actually someone camping right near his feet. I don’t know what that was all about but I tip toed up and took a photo of the big dude anyway. Can’t not photograph a massive dragon.

Like I said above, the dragon is only minutes away from the elephant, giraffe, ferris wheel place, and oddly enough he used to be in front of a fireworks place that also burned down a few years back. I saw on the app that someone mentioned the dragon has been for sale since 2013. I couldn’t find anymore information on it but I sure hope he finds a nice home! I wonder what the going price on something like that is.

In North Carolina I stopped to check out the grave of Daisy and Violet Hilton. Daisy and Violet were Siamese twins who toured the US sideshow circuit in the 1930’s. The twins were poor at the time of their death so they were buried in a donated plot and share a headstone with an acquaintance’s son. If you’re interested in reading more about them, I actually read this book not too long ago. It was pretty interesting.

Last silly little roadside attraction of the trip was a shell shaped Shell station in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It’s no longer in service but it is in excellent condition! Preservation North Carolina actually spent one year and $50,000 restoring it to it’s original condition. Eight of these were originally built in the 1930’s all around the area but this is the last remaining one. I am forever a sucker for novelty architecture.

And that’s what we saw on the trip! I have two more posts about awesome places we visited that I’ll be sharing soon.
xoxo

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On The Road

by Kaylah Stroup
I finally finished going through and editing the last of the photos from June’s roadtrip out west. It’s so strange to me that this trip was so long ago, and on the same hand, it’s also crazy that it even happened. It was seriously probably the best week of my life.

This is just a collection of landscapes, and a few other random photos from the trip that didn’t really fit into the other posts. Since we went through six different states, we got to see a little bit of everything geography-wise. Even in a single state it was incredible how rapidly the land changed from dry, barren desert to lush mountains.

So those wild horses are amazing, right?! We had seen wild horses a day or so prior but since we were rushing to get to Wigwam Motel to check in we didn’t have time to stop. I wasn’t too bummed about it because just seeing wild horses totally made my day. While we were on our way up to Mesa Verde we spotted another group of them! I wanted to take pictures but was feeling frustrated after a crappy night’s sleep, and not knowing exactly how close I could get to them. As much as I like horses, I’m still just a little bit afraid of them. I felt rushed and just snapped some crappy shots. On the way back down the mountain they were still there. I took it as a sign I needed to shoot them again. I borrowed one of Jeff‘s lenses and took the photo above. I love that the one is looking right at the camera. SO AWESOME. I’m pretty darn proud of that shot.

I’m dying to hit the road again, even somewhere closer to home would be okay with me. I’m so glad to have found a partner who has the same priorities as I do. If it were possible, we’d probably travel nonstop. Fingers crossed we make it out again before winter hits.
xoxo

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Sunrise in Cisco

by Kaylah Stroup

Remember in this post when I mentioned that the very first stop on our roadtrip was a ghost town in Utah but my film photos didn’t turn out so hot, and I wasn’t exactly pleased with my digital ones either but maybe the photos really aren’t that bad but are kind of overshadowed by the photos I am really pleased with from the trip? Yeah, that! I went back through all of the photos, edited them, and actually ended up really liking them. So, here are my photos from Cisco, Utah.

According to what I could find in my brief attempt at figuring out what happened to this town, Cisco was settled in the 1880’s and served as water-refilling station for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Cisco met it’s demise when diesel and electric locomotives superseded the steam locomotive. The town is only mere minutes off the highway so vandals rapidly accelerated the town’s journey into decrepitude. And perhaps it will mean more to you than it will to me, but Cisco was featured in Thelma and Louise, as well as Vanishing Point. Neither are movies special to me, but I can definitely appreciate the fact that might be why someone would be interested in this place.

I still hard time believing this really happened. Not just our amazing luck of finding a ghost town at sunrise the very first morning on the road, but the whole trip in general. When I think about it for too long I get a little teary eyed. That was honestly one of the best weeks of my life thus far. I don’t know, maybe it’s not really everyone’s thing but if ever ever ever get the chance to spend a week exploring somewhere with someone you love or even by yourself, DO IT.
xoxo

Updating to add that three years later, this is where Jeff proposed!

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May Natural History Museum

by Kaylah Stroup

One of my favorite stops of our roadtrip last month (how has it been that long already!?!) was actually our very last stop. On the Roadside America app I saw that there was a giant beetle right outside of the town we’d be spending our last night in so obviously I had to go. Then I realized there was also a museum. The one review for the museum that really stuck out in my mind gave me fairly low expectations but hot daaang, the museum was amazing!

The May Natural History Museum is one of the world’s largest private displays of insects. The museum’s founder, John May, spent over 80 years traveling the world collecting specimens. I was expecting something similar to the insect cases any natural history museum has, but wow, his collection blows every other museum I’ve ever been to out of the water. I spent my entire visit with my eyes lit up like it was Christmas, and the biggest, stupidest grin on my face. I saw insects I didn’t even know existed! It was seriously just so awesome.

The museum itself is fairly small in size, takes maybe five minutes to walk through if you’re not interested, but any bug lover could easily spend way over an hour. If you’re anywhere near Colorado Springs, Co, the May Museum is a must! For more information on the museum, including their hours and prices, visit their facebook or website.
xoxo

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Abandoned in the desert

by Kaylah Stroup

While on our road trip out West we saw so many abandoned buildings. I mean, just tons of them! It was crazy, and it was so hard not to stop at every single one. We literally could have spent weeks hitting up every one. Here’s a little bit of what we did stop and check out…

We actually started the trip with a ghost town in Utah. We arrived in Denver in the evening, drove into the night, and finally stopped to take a quick snooze in the middle of the night. We started driving again right before sunrise, at that time I checked the Roadside America app and discovered we were only 15 minutes away from a ghost town. It was the absolute perfect way to kick off the week. I sadly didn’t really get too many photos I was super pleased with but the memory is so much more important than photos. Plus who knows, maybe the photos really aren’t that bad but are kind of overshadowed by the photos I am really pleased with from the trip. That kind of thing seems to happen to me a lot which is why I really enjoy shooting film so I can’t just delete the photos. I’m sure I’ll end up eventually loving my ghost town photos.

The bus covered in graffiti was kind of a strange find. Driving to Colorado Springs, alongside the highway, we were spotting incredible building after incredible building that were just left to rot. The bus was the final straw, we hopped off the highway and went down a little side road to get to it. We were both exhausted and ready to get to the hotel room that we had booked for our last night but the bus had to be shot. As we approached I heard the strangest noise, like music was being played. The thing was though this bus is in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing around it, no other buildings, no people, nothing! I suspect it was the wind hitting something, like a jug, to create a whistling/humming noise. It was eerie, to say the least.
xoxo

All of the photos above were taken with a pentax k1000 and Fujifilm 35mm Superia X-TRA 400.

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