Report - [US] Mojave Road trip, Day 2 (Apr 2017)

[Beaker]

Starting the day with a can of Red Bull, and a packet of crackers with bacon flavoured cheese in a can as topping, what could possibly go wrong!

#8 Casa Mariner
No history on this place. Which is a shame, as I’d love to know what on earth a boat was doing in the middle of a desert…

The Explore

First stop on the list after checking out of Palmdale and heading halfway up the Californian interstate. Pulling up to this modest building didn’t promise a lot – by now I’d come to realise that most of the urbexing in the Mojave was too little, too late – but despite the house being gutted and smashed to bits, it had its own charm and enough quirks to make it worthwhile photographing.

Modest

Handy patio

Internals needed work

Neon lights

Outhouse was a bit breezy

The barn was burnt down

I would love to know how this got here

#9 Motel California
Again, no history on this place, no matter how hard I looked. Documents I found onsite indicate the office was used for a multimedia firm in the early 2010s, but the trail before and after runs cold.

The Explore
Second location of the day and it’s not even 9am. I couldn’t find much online, other than the entry was, while exposed, very easy. While the explore itself only took about 20 minutes, the building had some charm, and had I visited a few years ago, it might even have been a worthwhile visit. Again, the site was mostly trashed and ransacked. By this stage, I’m almost wishing I was back in Belgium for a pristine site visit…

Time to check in

Cooker

Obligatory bog shot

Fridge door

Open plan

One of these is a comfortable chair

Office. Used until early 2010s


cont...

 

[Beaker]

#10 In Urbex we Truss
Again, no history on this place, no matter how hard I looked. Google states that the company, Inland Truss, was at this address but no details on when it opened or closed.

The Explore
Third location while heading northwest out of the Mojave. The site is in the middle of nowhere, next to a wrecking yard that had shipping containers as a fence. Pulling up in what was once the car park, I wandered about the two temporary looking buildings that served as office space – both of which were horrifically trashed. Oddly, the temporary buildings were the only permanent feature. The factory that once built the housing trusses had long been demolished, with only a loading area and a broad concrete foundation remaining. After 10 minutes poking about, I’d seen all I had seen and departed. As I drove past the site again on the Interstate, I noticed two guys poking around the site, one of whom gesticulated in my general direction. I couldn’t tell if it was a wave or the finger, so I put the foot down headed to the next location.

The Office Christmas party was a bit excessive

Loading bays

Temporary outlasted the permanent

#11 Nowheresville
The satnav said that I should take a left onto 100th Street West. Looking left, there wasn’t a 100th Street West. This could be an interesting trip…

The Explore
The site was listed on a blog and to be fair, the photos there give the site more credit than it deserves. To start with, 100th Street West is a dirt road, that an SUV would have eaten up without a worry. Problem: I was in a low slung Mustang convertible, which made sense when I hired it but less so at this moment. Eventually I made it to the site, scratching the underneath of the car on many bumps (thank you $0 insurance excess ) down Champagne Road, yet another path that had never seen tarmac. The site itself was completely gutted, with whatever fittings left behind removed on to the grass and torched. Sadly, this is one of those sites that took more effort to visit than the visit itself.

Not worth it

Not any more appealing than from the other side

Site was covered in Beetles

#12 Granja de Pollos
Last stop on the itinerary before I pack the urbex gear away again. Will this site finally be any good?

The Explore
In short: not really. The site was right next to a neighbour that apparently was a Big Rig driver, judging by the truck revving that was going on while there. I’d parked ages away with the car hidden by tumbleweeds, but here I was at an abandoned chicken farm. The house was more or less stripped of anything of value, though was fortunately without the graffiti of other sites. The large cages at the rear of the property give a small clue as to what this site was used for but by and large were long since devoid of occupants.

Pollo farm

Kitchen area, though they tried hard to hide it

Plenty of spare beds

Not everything was thrown out

Hen house


Anyway, that was my trip around the Mojave. Not as satisfying as I'd hoped but there is a lot of abandoned stuff in the Mojave if you look for it.

 

[mw0sec]

Nice aerial tower in one of those shots. Surprising that an amateur radio enthusiast has not liberated it!