My family is convinced that I will, and I quote, "get raped to death by a hobo in a back alley if you keep going into abandoned buildings" so I don't think they'd be thrilled about any attempts to involve them in my adventures.

Took my inlaws with us one time when we were visiting. Explored an abandoned hospital where her father was a Dr at. Next day had to take nieces and such after they heard about it. Prolly about 10 in the group, guiding that size of a group was not fun.

But they enjoyed it.

I took the kid for a look around KPPC.

No luck with the laundry, maintenance or the power plant, but he's small enough that he managed to squeeze through a crack into 93.

I have a plan for the laundry. Easy with the right hand tool that I didn't have on me that day.

Although initially my 100th post I liked the way this story turned out so I’m posting it in my journal as well.

Picture a large badly decaying (20-30 rooms) house rising out of on three sides the inky-black water left to pool in the space between the building’s foundation and the retaining walls forming a narrow almost moat of sorts. The yard has been un-kept for years despite the fact until recently (at the time of the events) the house had been occupied. The house had saplings growing from it’s box gutters, and the rear portion of the house had fallen in to such disrepair that it was possible (if you could find it in all the underbrush and if the “moat’ was dry) for a grown man to simply step into the building using neither a door nor window, just the gapping hole in the side of the house. The foundation wall facing the driveway was painted with various gypsy and occult symbols, and judging that they were quite old and had been done with a brush as opposed to spray paint seemed to imply it was an occupant's handiwork. The family was known to the locals to have a reputation for instability and violence, and as a matter of fact I would find out much later that the house’s last occupant was a virtual prisoner. One day while conversing with the guy who cut our grass the subject of the house came up, I asked him who lived there, he told me, and I stood for a moment staring at a man with virtually no education clad only in boots and two sizes too small jeans that were neither buttoned or zipped and tried to decide if he was kidding. I decided literature was not his forte and began asking others who had lived in the neighborhood for years and they all agreed, he was right and the most cursory check of county records bore all of my neighbors out. That day as demolition crews tore into the building and it began to topple into it’s own inky-black tarn, I was indeed witnessing the fall of the house of Usher.

The house was demolished around 10-12 years ago after being seized for back taxes and condemned as an eye-sore/nuisance. No trace that the house ever stood remains, the city even had the concrete driveway removed. The vacant property was later sold to a family acquaintance.

Before the demolition was to begin I knew I had to get inside. The obvious entry point was the hole mentioned above, so I used it but found that it only led to a ground floor “mother in law” style apt with the doors that presumably led to the rest of the house firmly sealed. Fine I‘ll find another way in. Now at this time I’d would like to point out that I usually don’t take my mother UE’ing but I was a freshman in college and still living at home which as it turns out was right next door to the target property. When I told her my plans to check the place out she insisted on going with me, ok, why not? It was just next door, and besides that, it was a chance for her to answer her own questions about the mysterious structure hulking next door, such as what was it like inside? Why was the Christmas tree (visible thru the grimy widows) left lit all year? and Was the TV. set seen flickering thru the filthy drapes actually being watched? Upon looking thru the front windows we were greeted by the sight of a large magnificently wood paneled room rich with seemingly hand carved trim details, not to mention antique furniture dating probably from the late 30’s back to high Victorian pieces dating to probably the late 1880’s- early 1890’s, including a massive peddle operated organ as the show piece of the room. The closet doors stood open, and they were packed. A large dark wooden staircase curved up and away into the shadows.

Now we knew we had to get in but the front windows and doors were locked and I wasn't going to break in to a building that still housed personal effects that someone might want. We didn't need to anyways as it turned out, a window was unlocked on the ground floor of the east wing, but the room we stepped into was a far cry from even the faded splendor of the front room or even the cozy functionality of the apt in the back of the house. These rooms were as dilapidated and derelict as any abandoned house I’d ever been in. Large chunks of plaster littered the buckled and warped floor , broken lath hung haphazardly from the ceiling. This looked like a true abandonment, it was hard to believe we were in the same building. These rooms were beyond even guessing what function they had once served, but the strangest was yet to come. stepping into the hall beyond this suite of ruined rooms I was confronted by the backside of a rusty refrigerator sitting squarely in the middle of the door. I tried to move it, and I'm not a small guy but It didn't want to budge more than a few inches either way. Well it couldn't move, it had been anchored in place by steel cables, so we climbed over it but only to find every door and hall leading from that area blocked by a rusty cable anchored refrigerator. Had the elderly woman I'd seen rocking on the front balcony all those years been a prisoner? or were had the refrigerators been put in place to keep her from wandering into less safe parts of the house? but why were they anchored in place so securely?, certainly a frail looking old woman couldn't move them by herself, could she?
I began throwing all of my might into pushing the next fridge as far as it would go on it’s tether, I paused for a moment to get a better grip, but the sound of the rusty casters scraping across floor continued. What the....? My eyes quickly followed the sound to the far end of the hall, the refrigerator blocking that end was moving, and not as a result of the efforts at my end of the hall either, some one was pushing it, hard, but it too was tethered down. Was it the police? or worse yet one of the younger owners/ family members, the same people who threatened to sick dogs on a church group that had wanted to clean up the yard and remove the saplings growing from the box gutters, as a free service to the elderly woman while she had lived there. I stood for a moment frozen, looking thru the roughly four-inch gap between my refrigerator and the wall. Suddenly a hand thrust thru the similar gap of other fridge and then a face appeared, low like the owner of hand was crouching, we locked eyes, I’d been spotted

A chorus of racket sprung up from the far end of the hall,
“What’s going on?” my mother whispered to me in an urgent tone.
“There's’ someone over there.” “We’re not alone.”
“ Did they see us?”
“Yes.” I replied.
We still had to climb the first refrigerator we’d encountered to get to our exit, but there were two refrigerators between us and them. soon to be three but I know that would probably buy us another 20-30 seconds. We made to the widow and scrambled out into the daylight , making a dive for the nearby woods when out of the corner of my eye I caught movement down the hill toward the front of the house, It was a man in dark clothes running, fast. The color of his shirt matched the sleeve of the person I’d glimpsed inside it was him, but he wasn’t running towards us, he was running towards the street towards a parked truck, a truck with the letters CG&E (Cincinnati Gas and Electric) painted on the side and he was in uniform with his id badge clearly trailing behind flopping wildly from the chain around his neck. I stopped.
“It's a damn CG&E guy!”
My mom had now also stopped,
“What!” she exclaimed. What the hell was he doing in there?”
“I don’t know but he sure is in a hurry” I replied. “I know he’s got a two-way in that truck though, we’ll see what he does, if he just sits there, then we’ll know he’s calling the cops.”

The mystery man flew around the front of his truck and jerked the door open. He literally leapt into the cab. and slammed the door shut. Now for the moment of truth, he’d gotten a good look at my face, all the neighbors would know my description and worse yet I lived next door. The truck engine started, but there was no sitting, The truck began to accelerate away hard, I could tell he had it floored. Hmm... Well how do you like that, another explorer. We must of scared him as much as he scared us. Actually it was probably worse for him, he could have lost his job had we been the owners. The noise we heard after I was spotted, was, thinking back, more consistent with some falling over themselves trying to get away than the sound of someone climbing over a refrigerator.

I watched the house for a while from the safety of one of our upstairs bedrooms, no one came to investigate, no police, no owners, no one. We managed to get at least a peak at the inside and given ourselves (and some poor CG&E guy) a real scare to boot. All and all not a bad day’s exploring.

Posted by Doug I've posted this before, but it almost kind of nearly suits this thread in a roundabout kind of way ;)

Your drain video is very awesome and funny! I love it a lot! It looks like you love to explore storm drains as much as I do (LOL)! Great work! Keep exploring!

Posted by Doug My daughter appears from 37:17 for a few minutes, so she was exploring with her dad rather than me exploring with a parent.

Very cool drain video! I'm happy to see that you are still crawling/walking in drain tunnels like I've been doing (LOL)! I do prefer walkable tunnels (6 foot and bigger) but I've been known to crawl/crouch in smaller tunnels to this day (LOL). I even explore drains in the winter even when it's very cold out, below 0 to be exact and I will tell you that I love it a lot. I love it when it's snowing, blowing and cold but I'm not always a big fan of driving in the snow if you know what I mean (LOL). Keep draining, it's good for you to stay adventurous (LOL)! I also love to see that you enjoy walking long distances in drain tunnels and you don't seem to mind if it's RCP tunnels, for which I prefer concrete tunnels over brick tunnels because the concrete tunnels are usually not slippery but still happens sometimes but the brick tunnels can be very slippery and not taking care of by the city workers. How do you feel about popping manhole covers (entering/leaving)?

My parents are totally uninterested lol. I've taken my sister along here and there.

My dad and I went through a few places while I was growing up in Alaska. I've taken my brother along a couple times too.

I will add that I have an almost 10 year old niece that I would like to take her to some of my best storm drains because I feel she would enjoy walking in the tunnels and climbing ladders with me. I'm not sure how she feels about getting wet in dirty water but she is a kid, so she might actually like it, plus we have swam in the middle of a lake after we jumped off a boat. I feel that there is a very high chance that I could get her to join me but we will have to see how that goes (LOL). For me, exploring storm drains is like an adult playground (LOL).

Posted by hoover 2 Your drain video is very awesome and funny! I love it a lot! It looks like you love to explore storm drains as much as I do (LOL)! Great work! Keep exploring!

Ha, I had fun making it.
Thanks

Posted by hoover 2 Very cool drain video! I'm happy to see that you are still crawling/walking in drain tunnels like I've been doing (LOL)! I do prefer walkable tunnels (6 foot and bigger) but I've been known to crawl/crouch in smaller tunnels to this day (LOL). I even explore drains in the winter even when it's very cold out, below 0 to be exact and I will tell you that I love it a lot. I love it when it's snowing, blowing and cold but I'm not always a big fan of driving in the snow if you know what I mean (LOL). Keep draining, it's good for you to stay adventurous (LOL)! I also love to see that you enjoy walking long distances in drain tunnels and you don't seem to mind if it's RCP tunnels, for which I prefer concrete tunnels over brick tunnels because the concrete tunnels are usually not slippery but still happens sometimes but the brick tunnels can be very slippery and not taking care of by the city workers. How do you feel about popping manhole covers (entering/leaving)?

Sorry, I missed your replies from late last month.
Yeah, I'm pretty comfortable in a drain.
I love using manholes. To me it's a huge part of drain exploring.
I did a double zine special on manholes. About 80 pages I think.
A lot of fun.

One of the people I went exploring with recently brought his parents along. At one point they wandered away while he was trying to start a fire. Finally I brought them over and told them they should really be supervising their kid.

Posted by Doug Ha, I had fun making it. Thanks

You're welcome. Keep up the good work.

Posted by Doug Sorry, I missed your replies from late last month. Yeah, I'm pretty comfortable in a drain. I love using manholes. To me it's a huge part of drain exploring. I did a double zine special on manholes. About 80 pages I think. A lot of fun.

That's totally fine. I'm glad to see and hear that you love drains and manhole covers. I actually prefer going into manhole covers instead of outfalls because I love to climb ladders as long as the ladders/rungs are safe to use (LOL).

Posted by hoover 2 That's totally fine. I'm glad to see and hear that you love drains and manhole covers. I actually prefer going into manhole covers instead of outfalls because I love to climb ladders as long as the ladders/rungs are safe to use (LOL).

Yeah, I guess getting out via manholes can be risky for physical reasons & incase a cop car cruises by.

Posted by Doug Yeah, I guess getting out via manholes can be risky for physical reasons & incase a cop car cruises by.

Oh yeah that makes perfect sense (LOL). I normally don't mess with manhole covers that are in the street unless I have at least one friend with me but when I'm alone I never mess with manhole covers in the street unless they are on the side of the street like where cars park if that makes sense. I prefer manhole covers that are in the grass and have the collar sticking above ground so I can grab onto the collar as I'm climbing down the ladder/rungs for safety reasons.