Ents and Magic

itchyshutterfinger:

“The Station”

Celebration Station was a beast.. I remember seeing it from I-40 and wishing my parents would take the next exit. That never happened.. and even after I was older and driving, I never checked it out. Years later, I found out that it had closed.

The once vibrant, thriving Station de Celebracion was boarded up and, like most closed businesses in the area, left to decompose on its own. This was in 2001.

2012.. Still decomposing. Call me a necrophiliac.

I packed light for this exploration.. I had been inside the building last year and knew what to expect. Or thought I did (obvious foreshadowing is obvious)..

Walking up to the building seems to take forever.. I parked at the neighboring hotel and had to pass by the go-kart track and long parking lot before taking a few exterior shots. The front door thanks me for a great season and tells me that I’ll see them “IN HELL” while the once friendly but now incredibly out of place mascot dog guy looks at me like, “Heh, sorry about the mess..”

As most places like this, the silence can be deafening. Even with the expressway right there, you become tuned into the sound (or lack of) your surroundings. Leaves rustling make you swing around.. a pebble that you mistakenly kicked skipping along the pavement makes you tense up and try to recall if it was you who kicked it. I made a dumb mistake this day.. I was there alone.

I made my way to the side of the building where there is a door whose glass has long been gone.. I looked around before ducking inside. I methodically knocked out the shots I wanted.. Think how bank robbers are portrayed on t.v. where they call out times while they empty vaults ..that was me in my head.

*snap*.. *snap* “35 seconds..”

*snap*… “50 seconds…”

I headed for the stairs.. that are peppered with spent .22 casings… and slowly approached the second floor. My heart pounded while a lined up the shot for the photo “Leftovers” (the photo with the can and puddle of ..stuff) and “You” (the photo with the spray painted characters looking and pointing) when it happened..

I heard a door close upstairs.

There was one big room directly to the right of the “You” picture that I was headed next and I heard a door quietly being pulled shut.

Fuck. I needed to go. Now.

I didn’t run but I walked with great purpose down the stairs and out of the broken door.

As if it couldn’t get worse, a police car was pulling up as I came around the building. He parked in the the front lot and I could feel his stare burning into me while I pretended to reshoot the stuff I’d already shot before I went in.. I made it to my car and gtfo of there in a hurry.

Fuck flying solo.. Got some cool pics tho’.