July 6, 2012 - Last Day in Maryland

The 6th was the last full day that we were able to spend in Maryland. It was pretty sad for that reason, but we just couldn’t afford to stay any longer, unfortunately. The friends we were staying with went out of town for a few days, while we could be there to take care of the horses and other critters. (They had someone else come after we left.)

Orion has claimed this fan for his own.

Jupiter running toward us.

Aladdin

Jupiter.

The above are of Aladdin and Jupiter. Aladdin is blind, from some still-unknown illness he had. Jupiter is a mini horse that wears a bell, so Aladdin has some company.

Butterfly!

The true "front" of the house.

Fluffy caterpillar!

He was so cute.

This is Hyperion, one of the other stallions:

It really sucks that there are so many flies around, because otherwise, this would be an awesome picture of him.

Naughty horse, trying to knock over his water tub.

Hyperion loves getting scratched.

Itchy horse.

Some of the other boys coming over to visit.

We went back inside after watering everyone and feeding of some of the boys (we decided to stagger the feedings somewhat.) And we found our mantis friend from a few days before! This time we decided to take him back outside, before he became a kitty snack.

On my arm.

On my camera. *

On my hand. *

Where we eventually let him go.

We had to go and get Alex’s emissions test done, which was actually the real reason we made the trip in the first place. (I mean, the vacation part was the BEST reason, but it HAD to happen so he could get the emissions.)

And we got this bill in change:

It was funny, okay.

Stylish Stoner Washington.

Then we went out and did our main thing for the day, which will get its own post! So that’ll be the next one. (It's awesome!)

The other noteworthy thing, which I didn’t photograph at the time, but have now:

BIRCH BEER. This is not a thing that exists in the west. I’d never even heard of it until Alex told me about it. It’s similar to root beer, but reminds me more of the really super good root beer that I got at a local farmer’s market than A&W or other “regular” root beer. A lot of artisan soda companies say their birch beer has wintergreen in it, so maybe the hint of that flavor is the main difference? I’m not sure, but it’s delicious, and I’m pretty damn bummed that I can’t get it in Colorado! There are nation-wide soda companies that make it, but none of them sell it here, and at least the ones I saw don’t let you order online from them. Bummer.

After that, we headed home to take care of the rest of the horses.

Odin

Mitra (who is kind of an asshole.)

Ravi.

Not a horse: a goldfinch!

Odin again, and Cappy.

By the time we got to doing the mares, I was too tired to try getting a good picture of each of them. I got a picture of each, but most are wearing flymasks, and have their heads down to eat. So it’s not that exciting, and I’ll spare you.

But here’s Bebe, the girl I rode a couple days before.

And a group shot of the mare herd.

So we spent some of the evening outside, watching fireflies, taking care of the dog… and I feel something go up my pant leg. It feels like one of those fluffy grass seedheads, but I figure I couldn’t have gotten one of those up my jeans. So I kinda shake my pant leg out a bit, and then forget about it. It’s too dark to really see anything, but I don’t feel anything, so whatever.

We go back inside about twenty minutes later, and I sit down. I go to bend my leg, and I feel something move just underneath my knee. I more insistently shake my pant leg out. And THIS FALLS DOWN MY ANKLE AND RUNS OUT ACROSS THE FLOOR.

That’s a normal size drinking glass, so you have some idea of how big this guy was. (Okay, big for being UP MY PANT LEG AND HANGING OUT THERE.) He didn’t bite me or anything, so I just let him go outside. Hopefully he’s learned his lesson and will also eat the mosquitoes that WERE biting me.

Later that night, Alex’s friend Kat came and visited us. I was glad to meet her, since she’s one of his best and longest-term friends. She lives in Virginia, so it was a bit of a drive for her, but we hung out for a while that night and the next morning. It was a shame we didn’t get to do more, but she had to go around her work schedule, and we were leaving the next day. But it was fun.

And here’s Cy eating his own foot next to Kat.

 *These pictures are from Alex's camera.

July 5th, 2012 - Daniels, Maryland; The Churches

The main reason we went out to Daniels was to visit a pair of ruined churches. They’re sometimes referred to as the “good church” and the “bad church” due to the different vibes people get from them.

First, the “Good Church.” This was the St. Stanislaus Kotska Roman Catholic Church. It was built in 1878; it was struck by lightning and burned down in 1927.

A picture from the 20s.
Source: http://catalog.bcpl.lib.md.us/polaris/search/title.aspx?pos=1

It’s now almost completely fallen in and in ruins, and it is also absolutely beautiful. It’s unknown enough that for the most part there’s very little vandalism, and aside from some broken glass and a fire ring, there’s little evidence of people there.

I love the vines over the walls.

Gorgeous arches.

Lichens.

Spiky spider.

Now, Alex wanted to do a brief photoshoot of him in some of his clubbing attire here. (We’re so goth we sit in ruined churches.) He hiked all the way there in these clothes, in the miserable heat and humidity. But we joked that it was appropriate that he look miserable, since he was taking goth-y pictures.

These were my favorite pictures of him from there:

And I decided that I might as well do the same. I didn’t hike up in this, so yes, I did change clothes in the middle of the woods. Turns out, the dress was about a thousand times more comfortable than the jeans and t-shirt I wore up there, so I didn’t change back. Didn’t even get my legs too torn up walking back.

A couple pictures of me:

I really do love this place. It’s very peaceful and quiet, and it’s a beautiful place to be. We didn’t stay long, since it was a hot day, but it was still lovely.

The so-called “ Bad Church” is kind of the opposite.

This one is actually The Pentecostal Holiness Church. It was one of the churches that was owned by the Daniels mill company, I believe, and was destroyed in the flood.

Image from the 50s.

Source: http://catalog.bcpl.lib.md.us/polaris/search/title.aspx?pos=2

This church is right along the path if you follow it far enough, and it is a creepy sight. This church has long been rumored to have Weird Shit going on. Alex and a friend experienced a very strange thing in the vestibule once, where on a hot summer day, it was freezing inside. Other people have claimed to see strange lights, or just get strange feelings. Some of it seems ridiculously overblown, but some of it I’m perfectly fine believing. It’s a weird place, and while nothing too bizarre happened to us the previous time I went there, it felt very tense.

It always manages to look so dark.

We walked into the vestibule, and saw that the ladder that used to lead up to the upper part has been pulled up. I actually climbed the ladder last time we were there. But then we heard a noise above us and we both jumped.

It was a vulture, sitting in the window. We heard it rustling its wings. (The vulture isn’t visible in the pictures we took of the exterior of the church, and we didn’t hear it move until we were inside, at which point it was already at the window.)

We went out to the other side, and saw that it was a black vulture, not a turkey vulture like we were expecting. This is… interesting in its own way. The creepy church that no one feels very comfortable in, housing a black vulture? Interesting symbolism there, yes?

The vulture quickly flew up into a tree overhanging the path up to the church. And it did not leave.

The church has a lot of graffiti all over, and is also largely fallen in now.

This one looks like a little squid or something.

While there’s nothing odd I see in the image directly above, while taking this picture, something just slightly odd happened with my camera. It’s a digital camera, and the screen kept darkening by just a little, and then lightening again, the way it would when someone walks past, casting a shadow on the front of the camera. (Not a shadow on what I was taking a picture of; but a shadow on the camera lens itself.) I didn’t see anything around me “in real life,” and nothing showed up in the image, but it was just a little strange. I haven’t had that happen before with this camera, and it didn’t happen again.

This one at least shows some skill, I guess.

Fungus!

Again, the vulture never moved. It just watched us.

We did each take a picture of us in this church, but we left pretty quickly after that.

Me.

Alex.

On our way back, we talked about how odd it was to have a black vulture residing in the church that’s so widely regarded as creepy, bad, threatening, or evil in some way. (And no, I don’t think that vultures are evil or anything, but they are associated with death.) Unrelated to that, I mused that I was disappointed that I hadn’t gotten to see any snakes, since Alex said the two times he’d brought me to Daniels with him were the only times he hadn’t seen at least one. And then he said that the “bad church” was usually where he saw them. To which I replied “really, you see snakes at the Pentecostal church?” [Pentecostals are known for their tradition of “taking up serpents” and handling snakes.] We both found that kind of interesting too, at least in an amusing kind of way.

I can’t definitively say anything about whether the bad church has some evil influence surrounding it. I think that the claims of it being a “vortex” or a “portal” that demons will come flocking out of is a little ridiculous. But I do think it’s a very strange place. I’ve gotten a feeling of tension, or negative anticipation, like things are all right at the moment, but staying too long would be a bad idea. Alex experienced the very significant cold spot when he went with his friend Kat, and has gotten a range of weird feelings on different trips there. We’ve both had minor weirdness with our cameras. Very interesting.

Going to these two places made this my favorite day we spent in Maryland. Definitely a gorgeous area, and some amazing places to visit.