I'm a little late in putting a thread together this year for the best possible reason: every time I thought I was done for the year, I'd find one more place that I just had to visit right away. This has been a year of notable changes for me, and it seems like it's lasted as long as the last three years combined. Exploring really helped keep me sane during all of the tumult, and my craving for exploration only grew as I visited some of the best places I've ever seen, most notably five wildly different but equally fascinating hospitals.
This year I've kept it to two photos per trip, which represent some of the most harrowing, beautiful and invigorating experiences I've had since I started doing this for real a decade ago.
I started the year out with my first large-scale car graveyard, the remnants of a mechanic's shop in business for half a century.
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Most of the time I spent in this mansion, I kept one eye on the visibly sagging floors hanging over my head. I couldn't have been less surprised when I heard that the staircase in the second photo had collapsed earlier this month.
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This roadside diner was almost a wasted trip until I found a loose board, at the cost of a badly gashed knee.
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In retrospect, my first hospital of the year was a poor sign of things to come, with most of the interesting sights being confined to a small nurse's residence off to the side.
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A return visit to an old favorite balanced the demolition of major buildings with the discovery of a newly-abandoned headquarters.
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I regret not getting more pictures during my return visit to a cool power plant I first checked out last year, but I was interrupted and trapped on the roof by workers for several hours, and was quick to exit when they left.
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If I had to choose one highlight from this year, it would have to be this hospital.
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Yes, I'm including this place, for no other reason then my satisfaction with the pictures I took that day.
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This would be another top contender for the highlight of my year, combining a fantastically beautiful and atmospheric place with (in retrospect) a great story, courtesy of the local police.
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In October, I started planning a move from Maryland to Vermont, and chose the car graveyard from the beginning of the year as my final exploration in the mid-Atlantic.
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Once in Vermont, I very quickly figured out that the state would provide a wealth of gorgeous buildings, starting with this defunct Catholic church.
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One thing I though I would be leaving behind for good in Maryland was good industrial locations, so I couldn't have been more pleased to find two great ones very close by, just in time to close out the year.
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So many thanks to everyone who has taken a moment to check out all of my posts and photos this and in past years, and especially to everyone whom I've pestered for information or offered a kind word throughout the year!
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