The Officers Club

11/7/04

Tonight we found new ways in to the fabled site, and found the ever elusive Officers Club. Which was right where I thought it was on the survey map.

In our previous visit we found a spot near the front gate where the bottom of the fence was far enough off the ground that we could squeeze under. I don’t know if I got fatter since then, or if the rain caused the ground to swell enough I couldn’t squeeze through tonight. So I found a nice place right near the middle all lit up where I could scale the fence without too much trouble. Well, without trouble as long as no cars passed by and no one in the condos across the street looked out their window.

One on site we headed to the right where the sports complex is. Walked through a parking lot with the pool on our left and the tennis courts on our right, on out onto the baseball fields. On the hill above center field is an old Spanish mission style building that looks like an old chapel. This is the building I suspect is the officers club. We cross the field and come up on the back side of the building. At this point Burzum whips out the tripod and starts taking photos. Since watching him do this isn’t very interesting, I start to circle the perimeter of the building looking for access points. The right side has some broken windows that look good, but it’s very over grown with pampas grass, and I hate that shit. We had one of those bushes in the backyard when I was growing up. Can’t even count the number of cuts on my arms I got from that plant. As I was making my way around the left side I see what looks like a couple of black boxes, and maybe a bag or something on the ground. We are in an exposed position and all I have with me are my 3-C mag light, and a 2-AA mag both with xenon bulbs. I’m not using any light and can’t see very well, the night is overcast with some slight drizzle here and there, so all we have for ambient light is the pollution bouncing off the low clouds. As I’m staring at these objects trying to make out what they are I notice what looks like the bag on the path start to move. At this point I let out some weird guttural screech, which coincides with the huge wave of panic that washes over me thinking a zombie is rising out of the ground to swallow my brain, when I notice it’s just a skunk. Still a bit frightening , but not worthy of the abject fear I felt for a few moments. I wandered back to Burzum as I convinced myself I really was going to live through this. I can only feel sorry for Burzum at this point as he is shaking his head. You see, I have this problem, one of the things I like to do more than anything else, is to get really stoned. Go out to a dark, deserted place. And let my mind play tricks on me and scare me half to death. That’s my sick adrenalin rush. Burzum knows this, and I’ll tell ya, I was on a roll tonight.

Burzum took a few more pictures and we started around the left side of the building making our way to the front. The skunk had taken off, probably scared as much as I was, and we were free to pass without becoming stink bombs.

We continue around to the front and notice the sign above one of the entrances reads ‘Club Knoll’. We have arrived. We continue to poke around the front. All the doors and windows have plywood over them. It seems like entrance would, once again, take an act of vandalism. As we start to head back it strikes me. There is a HUGE rock fireplace on the wall. The wall is only about 6 feet, so it’s a quick easy climb, a small drop, and we’re in.
In a courtyard.

It’s a nice courtyard, or, was a nice courtyard. Has the large fireplace, a defunct fountain, and incredibly overgrown. We wander around the courtyard, through the halls. Burzum taking pictures, me painting halls. All the doors are boarded and locked. As are the windows, all save one. One that was just barely big enough for Burzum to slip through. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to squeeze through that hole. So I sat down in the hallway, and stared out at the courtyard while Burzum entered the building and began looking around. As I was sitting out there waiting for him, I stared at the courtyard, looking at the sky, the plants, the ivy in the halls. So quiet and peaceful, the low clouds hanging over head like a blanket. The site amazes me all the time, it’s so hard to believe it is in the middle of one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the world. This is also about the time I start envisioning police helicopters coming to get us. I got a real problem and bad history with helicopters, but those stories are already available on the net. :D

Burzum gets done with exploring the inside for this trip. He reports, ‘There is a lot of shit in there.’ Card rooms, a bar, a little tower, which was locked. Always with the locks! A basement, oddly enough though, there were no random toilet sightings this journey. There weren’t any decrepit phones either. He said he didn’t check it all out, but that he did find an access point that I might be able to make it through.

We continued on down the road and walk around a small neighborhood of old military housing that butts right up to the residential neighborhood. We didn’t try all the doors, but all the doors we tried were locked.

From there we walked down the road that goes past the power plant, and head up the main road towards the main building so Burzum can get a few exterior long shots of the hospital. We head up the road behind the gym and in front of the credit union, which is one of the remaining buildings still in use. And back out to the front gate where we make our escape.

mrsleep
11/11/04