Spooky Season “Year End” Wrap Up

With spooky season fast approaching(This post should’ve been out a while ago, but here we are) we are gonna start a “yearly” recap with some of our favorite places/Pics of the year. Anything could be on our list, spooky places, unsettling locations, hallways, gravestones, or just things we find interesting and unnerving. This will essentially become a greatest hits recap. We hope you decide to play along and have a little fun digging through our vaults with us.

Just like usual we had a hard time culling our photos down to a manageable amount. This gallery will not only be a look back at some of our previous blog posts, but also a glimpse into the locations of our future posts. We have roamed and ventured so many miles these last 7ish months, it can be hard to remember all of the exciting places and minute details we’ve encountered.

It is funny what catches our eye at each of these sites. Most days I forget all the details the moment we leave. It’s not till we edit pics weeks or months later, that I finally start to remember what we’ve seen and witnessed. At this point in time I start to realize what shots we may have missed. Shortly there after, Jean gets a text saying “We have to go back”. While I love all the sites we visit, there is something very refreshing about going back a second or third time to get those missed shots we thought of after the fact.

These pics and small galleries will be from multiple sites, and I’ve tried to group them together with some thought. We will add insights and comments to as many photos in here as possible, and we hope you play along and check out our walk-thru. Some of these photos will need some setup and other will not.

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Please enjoy! If you are bored, give our walk-thru a listen.

We will start our adventures with Hallways, tunnels, corridors, and general obstructions. There is something so cool about turning a corner and having a hallway stretch out ahead of you. A good portion of the time there may even be a light source in the distance to help guide you on your journeys. More often than not there are doors ajar or bits of debris to photograph along the way. It is a very uneasy feeling in some of these larger institutions, when the hallway disappears into the distance, and all you can hear are the sounds you’re making. Every corner, every door, and every room could hold danger. You never know what lurks in the distance. You know there should be more life and activity here, yet it is somehow completely absent.

Schools are next. We have piles and piles of pics from old schools, and usually they are creepy. A ton of that creepiness comes from their hallways and large open spaces. Here are a few shots that just seemed off to us. Even with the ever increasing number of places we have roamed, we had never encountered mushrooms in abandoned buildings before. I know that may seem trivial, but it was interesting and extra creepy to see so many cluster of mushrooms in a couple schools in the Midwest. I completely missed the ropes in the gym till after we left :/ I may have tried something more dumb than usual!

Now we roll onto a Vet clinic & a Medical research facility. Both of these places were more unsettling than I could’ve imagined. The history and “life” left in the vet clinic blew my mind. Pics of old customers and their furry pals lined the walls. Intake and operating rooms could’ve been put back into use with minimal effort. There was even a pile of old collar tags. As always, I needed to find the basement. After a little roaming I found the basement stairwell. The door was largely cracked open, so I opened it the rest of the way to find the top landing of the stairs missing. I shined my flashlight in the hole only to reveal a large skeleton looking back at me. I am glad I looked before I took that 1st step. Sadly at some point in the past, This large dog(?) had stepped onto that landing and it broke away under its weight. This dog would’ve then starved down in that hole… What a horrible way to go.. Scared, Panicky, Hungry, Weak – Dead :/ The medical facility had done research on animals, and was later converted into a “human medicine” teaching center. There was a ton just left behind in both places! Everything from drugs and gauze to syringes and tissue samples. There were even patient files and medical records with all the personal details and info left open, exposed, and out to rot.

To me Theaters & Auditoriums are just like Churches. Their large open spaces give off a feeling of grandeur & opulence that is hard to compare to. No matter what state of decay they are currently in, it is easy to envision their former beauty & splendor. While I love all abandonment, there is something so welcoming here! Having thoughts and daydreams of the old performances that used to be on these stages is comforting!

Piles of human downtime. From Malls to Northwoods Hunting Cabins we as humans love our downtime. Retail therapy or a hunting retreat, we are always on the go even on our days off. While we have been back to this mall, we haven’t gotten the time to do it again properly. These first 4 pics are from my first day alone at this Milwaukee mall. I spent my youth here in these theaters. In the first theater something was crunching under my feet. When I looked down I noticed piles of bullet casings on the floor, and in the second theater I came to that day lay a “body”. I was scared and uneasy until I made it back outside and into my vehicle! This Northwoods hunting cabin peeked out of the forest like something out of a slasher film. It was still “fully” stocked with everything you would need except food! It had been left abandoned for 20ish years at the time of the photos.

Death is a major part of life, and Funeral Homes are a large part of death. Like churches and other places of reverence, funeral homes offer a sense of the great beyond and something much more. We send our loved ones here to be ushered into the next realm with as much care and love as possible. I may have a goofy grin in some of these photos, but we are, and always will be respectful of everyone and their legacy. When I am gone, you can play with my “ponytail” too! A great man, father figure, and roll model to me once said “If you can’t laugh at life, life will laugh at you” -(Dan Schuenemann) Have some fun on each adventure, you never know when your time will be up. While we have only roamed 2 funeral homes so far, I know there will be more to explore before my final trip to one as a client.

From the funeral home, into the Hearse & under the Headstones. We have only stumbled upon a handful of old hearses in the wild, but they really inspire our minds to wander. These chariots to the great beyond carry us on our final trip to the grave. Once you have been delivered to your final resting place, you will be laid to rest under your own personal monument, headstone, or gravestone. These monuments are bits of people’s lives, history, and tragedy laid out in stone for the centuries to come. With hopes that their loved ones will come visit, and the passage of time won’t wear away the memories of them too quickly. Be it from people’s minds or the stone their monuments are carved into! Let’s all hope to be remembered one way or another….

This last set will be a mish-mash of leftover pics that didn’t really fit a “theme” above. Below you can find some thoughts and input on a few of these pictures!

• In March 2023 we gained access to a site that we had tried numerous times. This site was slightly flooded and after a quick unseasonable thaw, we had rains and a snap freeze. Those ever changing conditions put a thin sheet of ice over everything here! Electronics were frozen in places, bears were immovable, and with every step the sound of the crackling ice radiated out from under our feet. “Sneaking” anywhere on this site was now impossible.

• Just moments after our 1st still water pics, we were yelled at and basically chased out of that site. No tickets were accrued that morning.

• I thought the human analogs may be used for police dog training. After looking at them again and thinking about it a little, You wouldn’t want the dogs to bite down on those metal rivets or washers. A viewer also sent in a link to an article describing their construction and uses. They were used to train EMTs and Rescue personnel to get the “feel” and weight of dragging a non-responsive person out of a building.

• The older hooptie with the Christmas tree lights. This one had me(maybe us, but mainly me) on edge. The 1st few rooms of this old complex were filled with tons of “rummage sale” material. The next few rooms had a ton of white noise. We would find out later that it was a broken city water main, flooding the basement. Luckily there were major drains in this place and the water level never really rose too far. Yet, there were abandoned and stripped vehicles in this side also. Great place to strip a vehicle, with no prying eyes. As I roamed around the vehicles soaking up what details I could, I noticed some lights and maybe sound in the distance. I rounded the next corner and saw an old “hooptie” with Christmas lights on it. I approached that vehicle with caution, and I thought I saw someone inside of it move.. With clenched cheeks I slowly backed away.. We plan to go check this site out again someday.

• The 2 flooded dry cleaner pics below are just the start of something special. We are really excited to bring you this entire gallery! Most of these pics don’t have a gallery or blog post yet, but eventually they will!

• I understand things die, but when something is trapped(in a pool or elsewhere) and suffers a slow and drawn-out death(starvation, etc ), that is what saddens my soul.

• Finding a vintage cold war civil defense water storage drum was a real treat. I had never seen anything like this n the wild! I would love to own one, and from eBay I can! (Not that I’ve already been looking(I PICK IT UP THIS SUNDAY)) I was intrigued to find out that these did not come filled with water. They were made to be filled with water and stored for a short time before use. Once they water was gone, the drum could double as a commode. This little nugget of history blew my mind!

• We have been lucky enough to find a few abandoned farmhouses while flying down the country roads. These are always so cool. They usually have tons left behind to sift through like an archaeologist. It is fun to try to piece together “Facts” about the old occupants history!

• We have encountered dead things before, and pigeons(birds) are one of the main creatures that dies in abandoned buildings. Recently in a Midwestern school there we so many pigeon carcasses in the gym and adjoining hallway that I almost lost count. I think the final count was 12 or so dead birds in a very small area. It was very disheartening. We were then also extra caution incase it was an environmental concern causing the birds to die.

• I have some history with trying to save a pigeon from a bando… Let’s just say it didn’t go so well…. There is an entire post section dedicated to it 🙁

• Dolls, dolls, creepy dolls and doll parts everywhere!

• Accidental shadow pic in the asylum basement! This room with the swing and murals on the walls really confused me. Was this a place to be secluded and calm ones self?

As always, again, thank you all for playing along! It really does mean a ton to us! Like, comment, share, subscribe, and all other interactions are welcome and encouraged! You could even tell us about a spot you want us to check out, or just send us an email for the hell of it! Email US