Birds, Cars, Steve Stuff

Smith Mission - I stopped in my tracks when I came across this on a hill in Wyoming. 

After sleeping in my car next to a golf course in Casper, I ended up bumping into this hippie dude with one of those old Ford vans from the ‘60s. Turns out, he was from Virginia Beach and lived in Nevada, and was kinda doing a similar trip to me, only just across part of the west. We would end up hanging out together for the next few days, checking out some cool stuff around Wyoming and Idaho. That first morning, we stopped for gasoline in Shoshone, Wyoming, and I had to take some pictures of this amazing place. This type of abandoned town, with its wide open spaces and old buildings and cars was a special type of beautiful to an east-coaster.

August, 2017

August, 2017 

After my ignition point failed, leaving me stranded in the middle of the Wyoming desert for 8 hours, I finally made it to Lusk, Wyoming, where I stayed in the only motel room available in the entire town. Long story, but this was the day of that eclipse in 2017, and while I was trying to make it to Casper, where the full eclipse (at 100% coverage) was visible. My car broke down right as I approached the end of a traffic jam on the “loneliest road in Wyoming”, which I later discovered stretched all the way to Casper, about 50 miles. I pulled off the road and watched the eclipse at about 98% with a Canadian family that let me use their glasses to shield the sun. After the eclipse, I started trying to figure out what was wrong with my car, while about half of the several hundred thousand people that had driven to Wyoming for the eclipse drove by going the opposite direction. Anyway, after some help from a few Minnesotans, and Macgyvering a set of ignition points out of a wooden knife from a fudge shop that I had visited in the U.P. (that is it’s own story), I made it to Lusk and picked up new parts the next morning from a NAPA. I also walked across the street from my motel to visit this abandoned micro oil refinery, called “CF Refinery”.

The Top of Daytona closed a few year ago when the building was hit hard by hurricane Matthew. However, they’ve been saying on their website that they plan to reopen as soon as the building is finished being repaired, but that date keeps getting pushed back. My dad and I have driven by the building each of the past couple years, hoping that maybe they’re open again. However, this year when we drove by, the entire exterior of the building had been newly restored and apparently they’re planning on reopening sometime this year. I really hope they’re back open for 2021!

LOVE IS STORED IN THE BIRD!!

Heading up to the U.P., I spent a relaxing night camping in Marquette after taking a nice walk on the beach. I totally remember this loading dock from when I was a kid - we used to come up to the UP on vacation in the summer. My dad grew up in Detroit, and much of our family were Finnish miners in Michigan’s upper peninsula, going back generations. He and his family would go on vacation in the UP in the summer, and when we were kids, he would show us many of the places he loved visiting. I remember visiting this beach and loading dock when I was 8 or 9 years old :)

From Niagara Falls, I headed west through Ontario, then over the bridge into Detroit. After visiting some friends in Detroit and Ann Arbor, as well as my uncle in Holland, Mi, I headed up to the little town of Luzerne, where my grandpa lived for many years. After that, I continued up to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, Mackinac Island, then over the bridge to the U.P. Here are some of the things that I saw in Michigan - August, 2017

July 2017

Well it’s been a while. Like 2 years. I’ll pick up from where I left off - it was late July 2017 when I headed from Maine up through Quebec, Montreal, back down into New York State, and Burlington, Vermont. From there, I headed west to meet my grandpa for an old car event that happens every year two blocks from the house my mom grew up in, in the small upstate town of Cazenovia, New York. This Victorian ear mansion (maybe abandoned, maybe not), was something that I spotted while driving around in a bunch of old Franklins during that week. 

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~ secret yawn button ~

Not about asexuality but to see a medically reviewed article mention asexuality and the assumption that a relationship doesn’t need sex is noteworthy and important.

Images by Jeremy Cliff || IG

I don’t quite remember where in Maine I was when I came across these buildings, but they stood out to me.