School’s Out

The buses have stopped running, chalkboards have been wiped clean, books and supplies rest silently in the darkened closets. The lights have been turned out in our schools as they have unleashed our children on the world for summer break. Late nights and early mornings lead to lazy days filled with hours of play, the job of entertaining and the need to referee as siblings get bored and take up their favorite past time of aggravating and instigating.

The invading army of my sweet babies take over every aspect of my days as they descend on my once quiet space and Mommy Duty kicks in to full swing. I may be an explorer, content to crawl around in forgotten places and walk the abandoned halls of long lost locations as my creative mind works together with what I am seeing to form the stories I love to share, but Mommy pulls rank and the Summer months prove to be a difficult time to continue what I love.  My camera is forgotten in trade of the fort building expedition I’ve been called to, my boots are only brought out when someone’s frisbee has gotten caught in a mud pit and the use of my pens are used for making Tic Tac To boards and keeping score on the moment’s favorite board game.

I welcome any rare chance spent exploring or in front of my keyboard writing, but until the School Bell rings on the first day of school, until bed times return to normal and alarms bring early mornings and the squealing of the bus brakes, any glimpses into the world of exploring will be sparse as I fully enjoy my ride through Parenthood. Though they may be able to slow me down I will never stop writing, so whether I’m wiping up ice cream faces, making Play-Do animals or cleaning the marker off the window no one wants to confess to, I’ll be happy to write at a slower pace than none at all. Happy Summer 🙂

© Olivia Wolfe~2012

Testing in Progress

It was an exceptionally warm winter day as I parked the car in the small town’s little plaza. I had positioned myself a short distance away from the location and as I got out of the car and turned toward the back of the lot I could see the delapitated rooftops through the bare trees. I looked around and saw that no one was paying any attention to me so I slipped into the woods before any eyes turned my way. The well worn path twisted and turned around aging trees climbing slightly into hills and falling back into place until I came to a thick line of trees marking the abrupt end of the wooded area. I peeked through and found myself at a set of railroad tracks with the coveted chain link fence resting just beyond. On the other side lay the guard shack sitting on the outskirts of the abandoned Jet Engine testing Facility and I was anxious to cross the tracks and begin my explore. Staying in the cover of dwindling foilage I scanned the area looking for options. To the far left of the shack, a large hole in the fence beckoned me and I listened one last time for the sound of trains and looked for any sign of others. When I was confident I was alone I fell into a quick pace, over the bed of gravel surrounding the tracks, listening to it clink against the metal as I closed the distance between me and the entrance. I slipped through, quickly dusted myself off and looked up to focus on my surroundings.

Resting eternally outside the shack was a forlorn looking Jeep. Rusted out and stripped of its doors, it sat amongst an explosion of glass from what had once been its windows and its fading paint had been accosted with the use of multiple spray cans. All hope for a way out had deflated with the dry rotted tires as the rims sank heavily to the ground. I approached  the driver’s side for a closer look. Old papers, pop cans, torn seats and sparkling piles of sharded glass. There was something curious about the shards. It almost looked as though they were moving. Were my eyes playing tricks on me? I crouched down next to the driver’s seat and saw that they indeed were moving and as I watched as they went from a slight movement to a slow and steady bouncing motion. How was that possible? My other senses kicked in and I noticed the low rumbling sound of something on the tracks. A train! It was very close and would be appearing past the line of trees at any moment and I was out in the open. I looked toward the door to the shed and saw that it was obstructed by the office furniture laying in shambles just beyond. I would not have time to fight my way in to the safety the walls would offer so I looked around and twirled into position against the front tire and brought my head down below the top of the fender just as the train broke into view. I sat motionless until I knew the engine carrying the operator had passed and then I peeked through door’s frame to watch the long line of freight cars rumble along the tracks. It seemed like forever before the last car disappeared, tagging behind the others to its unknown destination. It was time to do some disappearing of my own so stretching out of my uncomfortable postion I scanned the area and took off running for the first door I saw which stood a fair distance away.

Trading the light of the day for the darkness that consumed this building, I took a moment to catch my breath as the echoes of my footsteps reverberated off the metal and the silence slowly devoured them. I brought out my flashlight and made my way into the depths of what once had been the biggest aircraft facility in America during its time of operation. Founded in 1929, these grounds were used in the making and testing of airplane engines during World War II and the four decades following until it closed its doors in 1983. As I walked past huge pieces of machinery, ducking under metal piping that had given way over time I wondered what a typical day’s work had been like for the men who had reported for duty each day. Many well known planes had their engines built in the very place I was wandering in with the machines I was climbing around on. Knowing that the Enola Gay, which dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, was among those numbers added a surreal mood to my step as I descended the metalic grated catwalks in search of the safest route to the building next door. It was convienantly positioned between a busy road to the left and the still-active airport to the right so spying my entry point I waited for a break both in traffic and clear skies from the runway and then fell in to a quick sprint through waist-high grass and crumbling blacktop. This time when I stopped just inside the walls to catch my breath I watched a set of offices come into view as my eyes adjusted. A quick peak inside showed nothing left but bare rooms so I followed the hallway until I came to a wall boasting what lay beyond: Small Engine Testing.

Once I rounded the corner I found myself in the shell of the warehouse-type testing area. I followed the walls with my eyes and watched them rise six or seven stories high and marveled at the scale needed for “small” engines. What looked to be another empty room proved interesting when I spotted a cell of some kind at the far end. Watching my step I moved over fallen pipes, electrical lines, piles of garbage and empty garbage bags. The irony of seeing empty bags among the garbage made me shake my head but my attention quickly turned back to my objective. A chair stood positioned in front of a test window with a small control panel for easy operation patiently waitiing for a push that would never come. I was tempted to take a seat and peer through the window just as countless people had done in the past but the thick layer of fine powder covering everything curbed my curiosity. To my right stood the entrance to the cell and the one-foot steel door stood slightly open, beckoning me to look inside. I pulled on the door, first with one hand but then bracing myself as I added my other, working in opposittion of years of rust as the heavy door grinded open only slightly more. Wiping my hands on my jeans I slipped through the crack and inched my way in.

This space had been chosen to toss mounds of garbage bags that had actually been filled but a split-second glance brought something to my attention. These were not ordinary garbage bags, as they do not ususally come with warning labels. I leaned in for a better look and saw that the tags revealed the disposal of asbestos were contained within the plastic. The room closed in on me in a matter of seconds and even with my mask, I pulled my shirt over my face and hid it in the crook of my arm. The thought of just how much asbestos I had been exposed to on the day’s explore began to cross my mind and there was nothing I wanted more at the moment than a nice hot shower. Being at the tail end of the trip I decided there wasn’t much more to see so I backed slowly out of the test cell, careful not to succumb to my clumsiness and fall into an early death. Once I was safely back out into the open I brushed myself off and fell into a rather quick pace, crossing the facility in record time back to the guard shack, past the Jeep, through the fence, over the tracks, through the woods and back to the safety of my car. Usually I’m excited at the thought of returning to a location but this one I will not soon be returning to.

© Olivia Wolfe~2012

The Land of the Lost

The adventure does not start and end within the walls of an abandonement, but rather spans the time between the moment you turn the key in the ignition and when you finally return home. The experience lies in getting to your location, or in this case, getting lost. It is my choice to always take the road less traveled, as there is more to see here than on some highway which only offers the same view  of the mundane. With the GPS in hand we set out on our trip and spent the morning following the winding roads through the Pennsylvania mountains.  Autumn had brought our surroundings to life with vibrant colors and a crisp feeling to the air as my bare toes rested outside the window on the side mirror, the sun warmed my face and  the wind played with the hair on the nape of my neck. I was so enticed by the view that when I checked the GPS for our next scheduled turn I found that the landscape had interfered with the signals and we were without our guide.  Relying fully on today’s technology left us without a map so the game of wandering through the mountains began, choosing our fate at each dusty stop sign with the decision to go Left or Right.

My attention left the sights outside my window as I laid back in my seat repostioning the phone in hopes to get a signal. No such luck so I tried one last effort and held it outward into the wind. The sun reflected off the screen and I tried desperately to see without leaving my comfortable spot. As we rounded a bend in the road the screen darkened with cloud cover and I smiled in victory at the chance to check our whereabouts. But it was not clouds I saw in the reflection and I sat up and tipped my sunglasses for a better view. Instead, it showed a glimpse of a massive formation and I looked up as I felt the car roll to a slow and steady stop. We had come to rest at the foot of this stone beauty and I sat up and pulled my feet inside the car as I stared up in awe. My thought process quickly switched gears from fascination to the insatiable need to capture this exquisite sight so I pulled on my boots, grabbed my camera and clambered out of the car, walking into the monstrous shadow cast off by the structure.

What I had happened upon was a historic viaduct which saw completion in 1848 for the Erie Railroad. Although its elevation only reached 100 feet it felt as though it stretched upward forever as I stood in the shade at the base of its majestic design. I learned later that I was witnessing just a miniscule stretch in the 1,040 foot length of what is the oldest stone railway bridge in Pennsylvania today. Through the course of the next century since it came to grace the skyline it has drawn the curiosity of countless artists and photographers through paintings and stories created over time until I, too, was drawn in by its beauty. As it came into view within my camera’s lens I was captivated by its silent splendor standing high above the changing leaves of the valley and I know as the sun finds it way back and the sky opens up with all the warmth of summer I plan to get lost again in these mountains in my quest to capture another stretch of history. It was this finding that developed the name behind my photographs as getting lost is never a drudgery for an explorer when you choose to venture Off the Beaten Path.

© Olivia Wolfe~2012