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 | Safeway the unsafe way.
entry by MindHacker
11/12/2009 9:03 AM
| Today, picking my brother up from school, I saw that the old Safeway was now abandoned... and being torn down! I drove all around it, and decided that I should climb it, but that I'd have to go tonight.
Well, it rained all day. So I went in the rain. With my ankle/heel only 75% after the soap-boxing accident, I figured I wouldn't be evading any cops, and had all my artsy photographer BS in line, and did a nice, slow entry, taking perimeter pictures first.
The new Safeway across the street still had it's lights on, as did businesses on the other side of the building, which was nice, because it let me keep use of my light to a minimum / kept my flashlight from drawing too much attention.
I first "explored" the front of the store, which was now a concrete slab, free off too much rubble. I did see a "Family Foods" sign hanging from the ceiling, forgotten or unneeded, and left for the (legal) scrappers. I considered going in until I saw how far the light fixtures swayed, hanging only on half-cords and broken chains, and decided it'd be more prudent to explore the back half of the building.
The back half of the building was larger piles of rubble, and the two-story section of the structure, which was still half there. After snapping a few pictures of the new Safeway framed by the wreckage of the old, and going around to the back corner of the store, which offered a snap of the intact face and ripped-out interior.
But the sole door to the 2-story section was locked. I heard a reoccurring chirp, which I figured was a smoke detector. So I went back to side 2, and picked my way through the rubble, having a huge 1'x2' I-beam shift under me at one point.
Inside, there was a glass office with a poster warning of "The Shrink", a stack of dole banana boxes, a chair dragged to the bathroom, and skewers. Along with tables and chairs covered with ceiling panels. And a back staircase.
I walked in with a "hello" - as this was the only hobo-friendly location left in the building, but it was hobo-less. Which is absolutely no surprise in my small town, but I only had my mini-mag and no knife (cop-friendly is unfriendly in the hobo-friendly areas) and no hobo-smacking light, so... no surprises are good surprises... er... something like that.
Anyways, I made it up stepping around all the broken tiles, found a brand new (aug 09) fire extinguisher, and found the water-heaters. I think. I took a few pictures of them, as it was the most industrial thing I could find (no good reason) and then took a picture out the door into an office. Complete with a chair and two TWO walls! That's half way there, but it had one of those claw-armed destroyers in the background, which was cool enough for me to attempt a picture. Three times. I think it took, I'll see tomorrow when I check the photos. The thing is, in low light, even light-painting the foreground, these are still 20second exposures (yay tripods!) - which means I have to stay still 20 seconds, even if I see flashing red-and-white lights.
They were just Safeway lights reflecting off windblown wreckage. But they got my heart back up what little it had dropped off (I don't like walking into abandoned, dark rooms. Alone. At night.)
So, I'm basically done. I pack the tripod and sling it, and set off towards the car, ganking the extinguisher as I go (Flame on!). And go down the stairs, just stepping through the ceiling panels. Eff it. I'm not falling down stairs slated for demo in the morning. To exit the building I decided on... the ALARM WILL SOUND door. I hesitated, saw that the magnetic contacts were contacting nothing, and went for it. The alarm went off... as well as it could. Which seemed to be limited to a quiet "sqoop" - the noise I had earlier mistaken for a smoke detector.
I dropped my loot and headed around front when I saw headlights. I took a circuitous route out, and they drove off. Just an innocent SUV. Oh well.
I tried to get a wide-shot of the new and the old, but I couldn't get far enough back / didn't have a fisheye, so I didn't. Then I had one last shot I wanted: The red leaves of the last remaining tree framed by what remained of the store, and the chainlink fence. Pretend I got and it was awesome, because that's when I saw a cop.
drive by on the road outside. Sorry, I try to make it exciting when I can. No hobos, no cops, no injuries... what can I say? I almost climbed a fall portion of ceiling before realizing that it had just fallen today and was probably not all settled in like the abandonment I'd normally do that to are. What actually happened was ERR OS - which is a way of saying my camera pissed at me. I tried a diff battery, same problem. I think it finally realized it was in the rain and decided to give me the finger, so i whipped out my cell phone camera, and took a .2 Megapixel shot of it. It sucks. It looks more like a shot of a few Christmas lights showed in a casserole.
So I went home. I'll get pics up hopefully in the next week. Huh. This is longer than I expected. Totally worth it, miserable weather, but ultimately leaving me feeling still somewhat unfulfilled, urbexly speaking. I'll try to step up my game.
The oh-so-inviting roof, looks almost safe! Pretend all the hanging stuff is moving. Now it looks less safe.
The two-story section.
Frik. How'd I manage to take a lonely chair shot? I'm turning into one of "them."
And the rest of the pictures were not interesting enough to post / washed out / darked out.
[last edit 11/23/2009 6:05 AM by MindHacker - edited 1 times]
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