A little over a week ago, my friend and I drove out to Gary for the day to get check out some abandoned places. We hit most of the popular locations as shown in the gallery. I think it was a success. We met a group of teens from Chicago's south side filming a movie at the Church but other than that, we didn't find anyone else where we explored.
Just some thoughts on the places. The church was bigger than I thought! I've only ever seen the main church structure, I never knew there was an auditorium, a gym, and more floors! That was cool, but I was a little freaked out just because I didn't know what was safe to walk on and what wasn't.
The station was nice, we only peaked in through that little box that was built. Not a whole lot to see but still a beautiful building on the outside.
The theater was really cool but had a creepy vibe. It was a lot darker than I thought (seeing it in videos made it seem very light) and even our flashlight wasn't the best. We made it up the stairs to the balcony seating. Had to watch out for all the holes! As I was doing some long exposures, we heard a loud crash inside. Wasn't sure what it was but we didn't want to stay in there any longer so we got out quickly. I assume some bricks just fell or a collapse somewhere, but we left. I wasn't sure if there was more to explore, it seemed like there might have been.
The school was the best explore by far. So much supplies left, it was so big we didn't finish exploring it. I heard there's a pool and a proper gymnasium which we missed, couldn't seem to find it navigating inside the school, it was a weird layout. So sad to see the auditorium in that condition due to the fire. Got to see a mural from my favorite street artist in one of the classrooms, his name is Sentrock. We didn't really explore the first floor because it was really dark and was flooded in some areas. It seems like they gave up on boarding up the school, literally every doorway was open.
Next time, I would like to explore other locations. I'd at least like to stop at the church again and retake some photos since we didn't want to bother the group filming, my friend wants to also finish up the high school, but I thought we should check out the other one on the other side of Gary. I do have a smaller school and some other locations in mind.
