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Travel

abandoned in the desert 2018

by Kaylah Stroup August 21, 2018

These are the very last photos from our wedding trip. I’m so sad to have finally gotten through them all. I mean, I know it was all the way back in the beginning of June but I liked knowing that I still had photos left to sort through. After each trip to the desert, I end up having an assortment of photos from the abandoned places we stopped at along the way. Each year I save all these random photos until last and end up writing a post about how much I enjoy desert abandonment, how much these trips mean to me, etc. Perhaps it’s a bit redundant but y’all, I like to talk about it. (2014, 2015, 2016 + 2017)

Obviously, this year’s post is a little more special than normal. Not only did we get married on this trip but my parents were there with us at all of these places. After officially deciding that we’d get married in Arizona, one of the things I was most excited about was getting my parents back out west. My mom loves the scenery and my dad loves poking around all the abandoned houses. Roadtripping around with four people was definitely more difficult than it just being the two of us but I feel so thankful that we had the opportunity to experience this with them. I don’t feel like crying, it’s too early for that, so I’ll just say holy cow, I love my family.

Ponyhenge

by Kaylah Stroup August 20, 2018

The Rocking Horse Graveyard

My travel bucket list is… unique. While I certainly wouldn’t mind going to Stonehenge, places like Cadillac Ranch and Ponyhenge are what actually top the list.

When we started planning out some locations we could stop at on our New England road trip, my number one spot ended up being Ponyhenge. Also called ‘The Rocking Horse Graveyard.” I’d seen photos of it for years. I could NOT wait to finally see it in person!

When we got off the highway and still had a bit of drive left, I got a little worried. Our trip had already had quite a few stops that we didn’t research enough and that ended up being a bit of a letdown. I was worried that I was directing us to nothing, especially since Lincoln looked so darn quaint. I’m expressed interest in immediately moving there at least five times as we drove through. It was beautiful. Alas, we weren’t off looking for charming homes, we were looking for ponies!

Ponyhenge

The origins of Ponyhenge are a little fuzzy. There are mixed stories but basically, there was a single rocking horse left in a field, random people started dropping off their old horses, and eventually, it became what it is today. A field of, at the time of our visit, 24 old rocking horses. According to various articles I found, Ponyhenge is periodically rearranged. Sometimes they’re in a circle, sometimes rows and other times, they’re simply scattered about.

When we arrived, the ponies were in a circle with a few hanging out in the center. The field was overgrown. (I’d been crossing my fingers it would be!) The sky was gloomy, and threatening rain. It was perfect for photos! Although, the ponies and general gloominess of the day may be a little bit spooky, the area it was in was the complete opposite. Everyone who jogged or biked past, and there were quite a few, enthusiastically greeted us. It was awesome. Spooky ponies and extra friendly folks – feels like a town with a secret, eh?

Ponyhenge is easily one of my favorite roadside attractions I’ve ever stopped at. It’s literally just a field full of rocking horses but gosh darn it, I love it. I truly hope someday I can own a piece of property like Ponyhenge that people will add to, come photograph and just enjoy! There’s just something really special about this type of thing.

We found the ponies by putting ’39 Old Sudbury Rd. Lincoln MA’ into our GPS. The ponies are actually a little bit further past that in a field. There’s even room to pull off in front of them. My first impression was that it was much smaller than I had imagined but don’t that let that stop you from checking them out. Heck, bring a pony to leave behind if you can!
xoxo

Taken with Polaroid Originals OneStep 2.

Thurber Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup August 15, 2018

The very last stop on our epic family roadtrip / destination wedding adventure was easily one of my favorites. It’s hard to say something is your favorite when you literally just got married a few days earlier and spent a whole bunch of time with the people most important to you. So, let’s call this my favorite aside from the things that basically automatically get ‘favorite’ status. Although, one could argue an old cemetery complete with friendly livestock grazing inside automatically ranks up there as well.

This was another FindAGrave app find. Just like our previous stop, we were all hankering for a place to stretch our legs and explore. I browsed Roadside America but didn’t find anything that looked interesting on our route so I turned to my second app of choice, FindAGrave. The reason I always say it’s not the best is because of the limited information it gives on places. It’s nice for locating cemeteries but who really knows if it’s going to be worth checking out or not. I decided it was worth the gamble since it wasn’t too far off the highway in the direction we were heading.

We arrived at the address only to see it was wooded, gated, not visible from the road and presumably, up a bumpy looking dirt road. Worse than that was that, there was someone at the gate closing it up. We pulled into the large pull off area in front of the gate and asked ‘Is the cemetery up there?’ hoping if he had some sort of authority he’d say it was okay if we poked around. He cheerily responded that yeah, it was up there, the road was driveable, he was just visiting his grandparents, to make sure to close the gate behind us and to have fun!

We crept up the dirt trail in our rental cars. After going through a second gate, we entered the cemetery. I could immediately see that it was going to be a good one. Then I spotted why there were so many gates and why it was so important to keep them closed! A beautiful cow was grazing alongside the graves. I’m not sure if there were more but I was excited just to see her. It was a really beautiful sight, and of course, I’m always excited to see animals. I was also very happy we’d been dragging around the 70-200mm lens. I was able to get some nice close up without disturbing her.

After getting my shots of the seemingly random cemetery cow, I started to wander around the rest of the grounds. It seemed like everywhere I looked there was something that got me all excited. One of the things I loved most was the huge range of different grave marker types. The whole thing was the complete opposite of the uniformity most cemeteries have. There were crosses made from pipes, headstones that appeared to be stamped somehow, metal crosses, and of course, your classic granite obelisk among many other unique one of a kind things I’d have trouble even describing.

Thurber Cemetery has a ton of history, and what makes it most interesting is that they have signs scattered about with little factoids. Instead of being dry and boring, they were actually fairly humorous. Clearly written by someone with a lot of opinions – check out the one a few photos below. “idiotic cemetery restoration attempt…”

I hesitate to describe a cemetery as ‘fun’ but I’m having a hard time thinking of any other descriptor that works as well or sums up my feeling on it. There was a cow, there were cactus, a little bit of every type of grave marker you could think of, and interesting information sprinkled throughout. I loved Thurber Cemetery. I’m really glad we got off the highway to check it out!
xoxo

Clearly, it needs updated since in the two years after hitting publish I’ve found many others I LOVE but I have a list of my top ten cemeteries!

three days in New England

by Kaylah Stroup August 13, 2018

My husband and I (gah! so fun to type!) just got back from a nice little roadtrip around New England. Although probably one of our least well-planned trips, it turned out pretty rad. We, perhaps, spent a little bit too much time driving and would have probably had a bit more relaxing of a trip if we’d just slowed down and only chose one or two states to concentrate on but we had a blast regardless. We saw a ton, covered a bunch of ground, and I managed to cross off a few travel bucket list items.

When we traveled to New Orleans last year I wrote a summary type of post that covered a bunch about what we did. I really enjoy looking back on it. Of course, there will be lots of posts about favorite stops along the way but I enjoy writing this type of post as well because I get to talk about all the little fun details that might not be big or exciting enough to write a ton about.

What we did…

We drove… a lot. Maybe more than planned. Straight from Ohio to Connecuit where we made a quick stop at a maybe not so abandoned theme park. We checked out Seaside Sanatorium and then grabbed a hotel for the night because holy cow, sitting in the car all day is exhausting. The morning started in Salem, Massachusetts which was just as cute and quirky as I had hoped. I love when towns really embrace whatever they’re known for, like Roswell with their alien… well, everything. I was even excited to see that Salem’s taxis had witches on them! After walking around a while there, we headed off to Portland, Maine, making a few stops along the way to check out old cemeteries. In Portland I ate my first lobster roll, we hung out at a coffee shop for a bit then visited the ocean. I’m pretty sure that this might have been one of my favorite visits to the Atlantic so far. I still can’t stop talking about it. After that, we grabbed a hotel in Manchester, New Hampshire to rest up for the long drive home. I crossed Ponyhenge off my bucket list, finally, and we made a brief stop in Natick, Massachusetts to visit Kristina at Calliope Paperie (who had the audacity to not be in town that day. Hehe!) The rain started to pour down, and we finally hit the road for Cleveland.

What we ate…

Caramel Patisserie in Salem, MA. A few years ago I was a macaron nut. I made it a priority to try some in every new city we visited. They were wildly popular at the time, and everyone and their mom was trying their hand at making them. This resulted in more than few not so awesome macarons being ingesting. Don’t get me wrong, even a bad macaron isn’t horrible but for the amount they cost I just hated gambling on them. I’d rather spend my money on new and exciting desserts. All of that to say, Jeff suggested we get some macarons since we hadn’t had any in a while. Holy cow, Caramel Patisserie’s macarons were top notch. I’m back to being completely obsessed. If you get a chance, try some of theirs! I highly recommend the rose or chocolate passionfruit.
Becky’s Diner in Portland, ME. Jeff’s main objective foodwise was lobster roll. Becky’s Diner was SO great. We got seated upstairs on a patio overlooking the water… completely by ourselves! It was my very first lobster roll, (loved it!) and Jeff said it was the best one of his life. Our waitress was super sweet and seemed genuinely excited to give us beach recommendations. It was a relaxing little stop!
The Holy Donut in Portland, ME. I’ve been craving these since our last visit a few years back!
The Common cafe & kitchen in Natick, MA. While eating it, I wasn’t wildly impressed with their avocado toast. Now though? I can’t stop thinking about it and how good it sounds!

This was the first trip ever I actually did a good job at packing snacks! We, of course, ate a couple more places than listed and picked up coffee a few more spots but for the most part, we ate what we had. I’m pretty proud of all the goodies I packed, honestly.

Highlights for me!

Finally crossing Salem off my travel bucket list. There are lots of other places I want to visit, obviously but it feels good to finally cross off another city I’ve been dreaming about!
Holy Land, U.S.A. I only snapped a few quick photos because the property was sporting some seriously threatening ‘no trespassing’ signs. I wish I could have spent time exploring and taking photos but honestly, just seeing it in person was very exciting.
THE OCEAN, ugh, the oceeeeeaaaaan. I love Lake Erie but there really is something so special about the ocean.
Ponyhenge!!!!
All the headstones with skulls and cherubs! Gah! You best believe I have lots of cemetery photos coming soon. Hope you’re ready!
Just being on the road in general. Of course, there were moments it was not so fun but Jeff and I truly just enjoy driving new places. The excitement of never knowing what you’ll see next and knowing that around any bend or just off any exit might be your next big adventure.

I can’t wait to really start sorting through my photos. I’m very excited to share more soon!

Until next time, New England!
xoxo

Ps. If you love to plan out trips and are heading to New England any time soon – check out all the recommendations I got.

abandoned motel in New Mexico

by Kaylah Stroup August 9, 2018

Desert West Motel, abandoned, swimming pool

Cruising down the highway shortly after entering New Mexico, Jeff and I spotted this abandoned motel at the exact same moment. We gave each other the look and quickly agreed that even if we couldn’t get inside it’d make for some cool exterior shots. Despite having just stopped an exit or two earlier to check out a cemetery, we were ready to stretch our legs again.

As it would turn out, the Desert West Motel was wide open and a prime spot to spend some time wandering around. Jeff, my dad, and I all had a blast here wandering around the property. Dipping into rooms to check out it’s contents. Stacks of mattresses, garbage bags full of trash, and tumbleweeds filled the majority of them.

Seems as though while in operation it wasn’t that great of a place. One and two star reviews are almost all there is to be found. Pool was closed, resturant was closed, no hot water, broken furniture – all things repeated in each. The last review dating back to 2013. Most do mention the one positive – ‘no bugs!’

Spots like this are my favorite. Abandonment in the desert is so much different than here in Ohio. Wish we could explore spots like this more often. They always seem to be worth a stop.
xoxo

Steins Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup July 30, 2018

ghost town cemetery, Steins Cemetery

The FindAGrave app isn’t perfect but it did lead me here and that definitely counts for something!

Normally the drive back from anywhere feels so much shorter because you have whatever you did to occupy your mind. This definitely should have been the case, since Jeff and I had just gotten married a few short days earlier, buuut the drive from Phoenix back to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport was long. LONG. Loooong. I guess what made it feel so long was that we knew we were on a tight-ish schedule. There was time to explore but at the same time, we all just really wanted to get some miles behind us so that it didn’t seem quite so daunting. Fifteen and a half hours is a lot of time in the car!

It had only been a few hours since our detour to Tombstone, AZ but we were all ready to find somewhere to stop again. This will be a repeating theme throughout the rest of the posts I have from our drive after the wedding. I love long car rides but what’s the fun if you’re not stopping every twenty minutes to check out things along the side of the road and take photos?! Luckily, my husband and my parents feel the same way.

I haven’t been to too many of them, but I’m hooked on desert cemeteries. On any road trip, I’m going to make an effort to find interesting cemeteries but in the desert my need to find them is even more intense. The FindAGrave app showed Steins Cemetery coming up, it looked pretty small. Only 24 memorials are listed but the three small thumbnails in the app looked promising. I was stoked from the second we pulled up! It was beautiful! Okay, maybe not everyone’s vision of a beautiful cemetery but the absolute perfect desert cemetery. A strange variety of memorial types – flat stones, crumbling concrete crosses, and small wooden planks – all weathered by the hot sun. No two headstones were the same, and most weren’t even remotely similar to the ones beside it. It was an interesting hodgepodge of styles, for sure!

desert ghost town cemetery Steins Cemetery

The cemetery is small but an excellent place to stop, stretch your legs, and of course, poke around a bit. There’s even a geocache right outside the cemetery! Here are five reasons to start geocaching, if you haven’t already.

ghost town cemetery

three best spots for beachcombing in Cleveland

by Kaylah Stroup July 25, 2018

beachcombing in Cleveland, OH

I’m sharing top secret information with you here today. Are you ready? I’m giving up my three favorite spots for beachcombing in Cleveland! This information isn’t actually a secret. These beaches are all popular spots but perhaps never shared in this manner? What I mean is that when people think of Cleveland, I’m sure their first thought isn’t ‘I’m definitely gonna have to look for beach treasures while I’m there!’

Part of me feels like I shouldn’t disclose this information since beach people are normally fiercly protective of their spots. As someone who travels fairly often though, I do wish this information was easier to find. When I’m researching areas that I’ll be visiting, I’m not looking for the best beaches to swim or sunbathe. I wanna know where your trash is! Where can I find random treasures that wash up on the shore?! This is the information I’m sharing with you today. If you’re looking for some tips on where to swim in Lake Erie, this isn’t the post for you. If you want to find beach glass, old pottery, and other strange bits and bobs – I’ve got ya covered!

Wendy Park

2800 Whiskey Island Drive, Cleveland, OH 44102

Wendy Park is my main haunt. It’s the first beach I fell in love with when I moved to the area. It’s off the same exit as Cleveland’s most popular beach yet, somehow, manages to be worlds different. Waves wash in all sorts of random things from pottery to drift wood to miscellaneous trash. Sometimes there’s even an abundance of beach glass as well but not all of it is as worn down as I’d like.

I’m a big fan of Wendy Park because it’s fairly quiet (and of course, because I find lots of fun stuff in the sand!) Every once in a while I’ll show up and there will be a bunch of people but the majority of the time it’s usually just me and a random dog walker. At the park beside the beach you’ll find a neat view of the city, and a pier that leads out to the old coast guard station that is currently being renovated.

Best for : trash, driftwood, pottery pieces + birdwatching

Bradstreet’s Landing

22400 Lake Rd, Rocky River, OH 44116

I discovered Bradstreet’s Landing shortly before moving to the area and actually regularly took the hour drive just to come here. I had never seen as much beach glass as I was finding here. I was used to finding four to five pieces of glass per trip but at Bradstreet’s I could fill a sandwich baggie in an hour or so.

Depending on what time of the day you go, Bradstreet’s Landing can get kind of crowded. It’s an older, friendly crowd though. A great spot if you’re a social beachcomber who likes to chitchat. Even when there are others there, it’s still super easy to find lots of great pieces of glass!

Best for : beach glass

Perkins Beach

Upper Edgewater Park – 41.48752919,-81.75115557

I found Perkins Beach by accident. We were geocaching around the area and one led us to this quiet little beach. It was getting dark but I liked the view of the city I could see so I made it a point to go back the next day to check out the beach. What a great discovery that was!

I almost already regret sharing this spot because the beach glass here is so good! There isn’t a lot of really large pieces but the small pieces that cover the shoreline are perfectly frosted. I have never seen such beautiful glass in person as I find at this beach. There’s also an abundance tiny blue pieces!

Best for : beach glass, driftwood + a great view of the city

beachcombing in Cleveland, OH beach glass from Perkins Beach

an hours worth of glass from Perkins Beach

A couple honorable mentions…
(Not included in the top three mostly because of distance to Cleveland.)
▴ Mentor Headlands. People rave about the beach glass here. I’ve never had great luck but I think Mentor Headlands has some seriously impressive rocks!
▴ Sherod Park Beach. To be honest, I only recently discovered this beach. Consequently, I can’t really give a fair review of the beachcombing scene there. I actually didn’t see much beach glass at all. The reason it makes the list though? I found my first marble there. I will say that there were lots of great rocks as well!

Two last things before ending this post!

If you see a green haired girl hunched over searching for treasures at the beach, please say ‘hi!’ I’d love to meet other folks who enjoy poking around in the sand!
Pass on the knowledge! Know of a neat ‘trash beach’ near you? Let me know! Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, finding these places online isn’t easy, it’s almost like you just have to be in the know which isn’t really possible if you’re just traveling through somewhere. I’m always looking for new places to add my to-visit list. If you’d rather keep it a secret, feel free to email me.

Good luck!
xoxo

shackman multishot – wedding roadtrip

by Kaylah Stroup July 24, 2018

instant film

My brother + dad climbing around Twin Arrows.

Two years ago a very kind person sent me a little package with a camera they no longer had use for. I’d never even heard of a Shackman Multishot before but it’s safe to say, I fell in love quickly! Despite it’s very clunky size and super expensive film, it’s one of my absolute favorite cameras.

The Shackman Multishot has two lenses that sit beside each other. You can either take two nearly identical shots, or you can cover one of the lenses and take two totally different shots that will appear on one photo. Most of the time I opt for the second option. Getting two shots per frame is cost effective, looks really rad and is just something totally different than anything my other cameras can offer me.

Very shortly before I aquired the camera, Fujifilm annouced they’d no longer be producing the film needed for this camera. Luckily, I had the foresight to get it while the getting was good! I have a gold mine of film in my fridge that I only break out on special occasions. Special occasions really just meaning road trips most of the time. I figured this would probably be one of the most important and unique trips of my life so I brought along a ton.

I’m SO excited about the photos I captured while we were out west last month! The first one in this post being my absolute favorite. I can’t get over how well those shots work together! My only regret is not shooting more photos with the Shackman Multishot.

xoxo

Film for this camera can be found here. Be warned, it is no longer made and therefore very expensive to purchase. As for the camera itself, perhaps check eBay. Last time I checked, there were none of this exact camera but one of a similar model that has four lenses. So tempting!

Twin Arrows + Two Guns

by Kaylah Stroup July 17, 2018

I have a lot of photos from our most recent trip out west that I want to share. A lot of pictures that I’m really, really excited to show off! Despite covering ground we’d driven just a few years prior, we still managed to make lots of new stops. That being said, aside from our actual wedding photos, these might be some of my favorites. Not because they’re well composed or of wildly interesting subjects but because they’re really special.

I think I end up writing one of these posts after each road trip; where I just go on and on about how much I love traveling with Jeff, how it means the world to me, and how there’s nothing else I’d rather do despite the fact it’s not always perfect. This post from 2017 is a prime example. Well, Surprise! I’m here writing another one.

The day before the wedding, instead of a traditional rehearsal, we opted to just show off two of our favorite desert spots to our family. First stop, Twin Arrows. This was mine and Jeff’s third visit to the abandoned gas station, trading post, and diner since 2014. It’s going down hill quick but still remains one of those spots that just makes me fall in love with the desert all over again every single time. It’s also the inspiration behind the two arrows on the enamel pins we had made for our wedding.

After wandering around for a while, finding a snake, and coming up empty handed in the hunt for a geocache we moved on to the most important location of the trip. Just around ten miles away lies one of my favorite places in the world, Two Guns.

A little bit backstory here, we discovered Two Guns back in 2014 on our first trip our west. It was 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. Jeff and I 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 but it’s honestly one of my favorite memories from that whole trip. We visited again in 2016.

After we finally made concrete plans to get married there I could not wait to be there with everyone. The thought of showing it off to our loved ones was enough to make me all teary eyed. I can’t quite explain why but it’s such a special place to both of us. I’ve never been more excited to share something with someone than I was to share Two Guns with them. Even looking back now, I can’t believe that we actually managed to pull it all together.

For a brief moment before leaving for this trip, I contemplated not bringing along my camera. I figured I’d just be so busy I wouldn’t really have time to shoot much of anything. There were definitely a couple days where my camera didn’t get much use and just hung out in a bag that made my back really sweaty but I am so thankful to have had it at our ‘rehersal’. The photos from this day make my heart feel so full.

Two Guns ruins at Two Guns ghost town View from the top of the crumbling building we chose to exchange vows on.

Although the ruins aren’t what comes to mind when I think ‘Two Guns’, they were always my first choice when it came to ceremony location. They don’t have as much graffiti on them, and I really didn’t want any poorly drawn genitalia in my wedding photos. Before this trip, Jeff and I had actually never wandered out this far on the property. I had seen some photos of the building we ended up choosing online and even made a comment about how great the staircase was but didn’t truly consider it because I knew it was pretty far away from the road. When we actually approached that building with the staircase though, collectively the whole family was like ‘Is this the one?!’, ‘Can it be here?’ We found a heart shaped rock, and some random people showed up with puppies so obviously it felt right.

Picking the exact location the day prior was a really special moment and one of my favorite memories from the whole trip. I was definitely stressed and sweaty but I’d do it over and over again in a heartbeat! Not sure what else I could write that wouldn’t just be me repeating myself about how wonderful it was to be there with everyone. The whole trip just feels like a dream. I was so anxious about our very offbeat plans but dude, we nailed it.

Climbing down into the Apache Death Cave.

Apache Death Cave

Our loved ones in the cave! How was this real life!?!

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