Heading West

On Saturday my friend Jeff came out with me to explore the back roads that I'd traveled on with Bill and Janice the previous week. I'd spotted some old abandoned houses that we didn't have time to check out then so today we'd look at those and search for more strange and wonderful things to photograph. We headed towards Winchester, stopping on the way to check out a flea market.

I couldn't stop laughing at these 'Hello Mickey' shoes, and the guy on the stall seemed quite indignant at me laughing while taking a photo of them. I guess someone will love them...

Really?

We spotted this awesome smoke stack as we passed through Winchester. White House produce mostly canned and bottled apple products We parked up and scuttled over to the building where we spent a happy 30 minutes or so getting our creative juices into gear as we peered through windows and walked around the parking lot.

And then back into the car to head further out into the wild.

I had to stop and take a photo of this. Never seen an anti tobacco product on the side of a barn before and it really made me think. Usually today photographers are looking for old faded barn adverts for tobacco but I suppose in 50 years or so, more photographers will be hunting down faded and ghost adverts similar to this pristine paint job we were looking at today. I found this link featuring this particular barn and it seems it's a growing trend.

We then had to stop further down the road to say hello to some cows. There were a lot of them in the field but these ones were quite friendly and of course very curious. It wasn't long before a large group of them had wandered over to us at the gate on which we were leaning over, hands outstretched, trying to pat a damp dribbly nose.

As we drove we  passed a few old houses, stopping at those which looked especially gorgeous, including this one. It didn't look like it could last too many more years and was imploding on itself. Being in West Virginia, we didn't dare try and enter. Jeff spotted these very cool 1950's soda bottles under the building; I had walked straight past them.

Some more distressed and decaying dwellings, and a beautiful pink car parked beneath a pink blossom tree. Not a photo to be snapped all year round.

We trundled down more roads, stopping to check out an antiques dealer, an alcohol drive through, and an old coke bottling plant. We cruised along and I realized that we were close to an old plastics factory sitting on a mountain. We decided to investigate.

As we approached the building it was evident that vandals had been destructive here, with nearly all the upper windows smashed out and contents inside strewn about.

Absolutely loved these plastic bowls with fruits and flowers on.
Because we hadn't been expecting to explore this building, I'd entered without a spare battery and without my remote control, so I had to be content today without taking any long exposures or experimental shots.

Plastic granules on the floor, which were prety slippery!

Loved too this train plate,

Jeff lost battery power towards the end of our walk through, but we'd seen most of the plant, so I resolved to return soon, better prepared, to take more photos before the place is completely destroyed by vandals.
Our timing was impeccable. We walked back down to the car, feeling only a few spots of rain but hadn't been driving for more than 10 minutes before the heavens opened and drenched the roads.

Our final stop of the day was back in Winchester to meet a friend for beers, and as we walked to the bar, we almost stumbled over another oddity, some abandoned umbrellas!