Web Urbanist - cool site

[glenn kangiser]

http://weburbanist.com/2010/05/17/10-most-amazing-ancient-objects-of-mystery-in-history/

Spare time?

Check this site out for interesting stuff - exploring abandoned buildings - historic objects etc.

http://weburbanist.com/2008/12/05/abandoned-deserted-building-town-city/

[MountainDon]

I;m working my way through the list of abandoned sites.   I could see the birth of a new hobbey , Visitng, gaining entery and exploring...   

[NM_Shooter]

I can speak from experience that this is a lot of fun...

Check out this site : http://www.infiltration.org/index.html

Also google "dogpatch arkansas urban exploration".  I grew up near dogpatch in its hayday and would love to revisit. 

Back in college, I had a gf who attended Harding University in Arkansas.  Not having much money to amuse ourselves, we would get together with a small group, and go "lurking".  Basically this was comprised of getting into campus buildings late at night and exploring around in places we would have gotten thrown out of if caught.  We didn't steal or damage anything... with the exception of one of the kids who managed to find a master key to the whole darn university.  But we considered that cheating.

Anyway, one of our favorite places to lurk was the old theater.  It was dark and full of abandoned props and stuff.  Literally hours could be spent snooping around in there.  The other location was the natatorium (sp?) Large indoor pools at night are just spooky. 

Poor kids today.  With all the security cameras and motion sensors, they don't have an opportunity to engage in much deliquency like this. 

There was a building in Houston that was fun to explore, but you had to know an elevator trick to get in.  This was a building in an older part of downtown, and there was a night club and a parking garage in it.  Between the garage and the nightclub, if you were paying attention while in the elevator, you would notice that the trip up to the club had a long section in it.  By pressing a sequence of buttons (long since forgotten) we could gain access to this secured floor.  Unfortunately we could not call the elevator back from the floor, and had to navigate a large dark room in order to find the stairs. 

We noticed what seemed to be some spots in there that looked to be used by homeless folks, and got a little worried for our own security.  We tried to enter that floor again one night and found that we could not. 

My kids sort of like this too, so we still play a little from time to time.  I have found that if you are carrying a camera, workers in the buildings usually don't say anything even if you are caught.  An example of this is the Lodge at Cloudcroft NM.  After dinner we went exploring, and found our way into the basement where there is an old bar that looks to not be used at all.  Lots of tables and chairs, sheets over everything, and a 150 year old bar with dust covered carvings.  My kids were mortified that I just walked up to this door in the basement and pulled on the knob.  I pointed out that there were no signs telling me to keep out. 

I am probably a bad example for children. 

[MountainDon]

I pointed out that there were no signs telling me to keep out. 

I am probably a bad example for children. 

Back in University days we liked to find quiet places to study. The engineering building library wasn't open at night and the other library was much further away.  One day I found an interior door I could slip the bolt by sweeping with an L-hooked piece of brass shim stock. We used that room as our preserve, but could not access the exterior doors after certain time of evening. Not good enough. So I took the lock to 'our room' apart. The tumblering setup indicated it was part of a master key - limited key system. I slowly filed a master. So much for quietly studying. Luckily after several false attempts I had a key that opened everything inside the building including the front and back doors. Using my metal stamps I stamped it DO NOT DUPLICATE. The few times we were challenged for being their I'd say "I have a key and show it. Nobody ever for a name or anything after that. There were grad students that had keys to certain parts but we were all a long way from that

[glenn kangiser]

So - how about ....be on the lookout for an adventure and report back here with pictures? 

... of course we will all stay out of trouble, won't we...