Gary, Indiana

“Do you like exploring abandoned buildings, Andy?”

Not that I had ever done it but I guess I would like it if I ever got the opportunity to try so I looked up and answered –Yes! “Ok, we’re leaving at dusk” Lopez said.

There’s this town in Indiana called Gary. For some reason the better part of the town left it some 30 years ago. I have no idea how many people that live there now but a wild guess would be 5.000 people in a 15.000 people town. Hence, there’s a large number of buildings that’s been empty since “disco”.

The first building we went into was an old post office. The first floor was just one big mess and didn’t look interesting at all. All of a sudden I found a ladder that didn’t seem to go anywhere. I went up anyways and saw a small hallway. The rest followed and all of a sudden we found ourselves in these strange hallways without windows with small mailboxes and dust that still makes me cough – a week later.

The next stop was some strange building that used to be part of a school. 30 years on it still held a lot of letter and school records and God knows what. It was strange. After that we ended up in an old theatre. Man! The sign on the outside said – Jackson Five. That was probably the last show they ever put on. Make sure they wont ever play in your city or it’ll turn into a Ghost Town too!

A couple of days ago I finally met up with the Milwaukee Maniac. We went to the soccer game between the Chicago Fire and the New Jersey Metrostars.

This was indeed a great day but it almost ended up as a complete disaster. I was waiting for Phil for 30 minutes outside the ticket booth (grrrr!) and I really needed to go to the bathroom (nr 2) and God reached down three times and spared me. The third time I was about to run for the bushes but I managed not to. If you ever have me waiting again Phil I will make you listen to Ricky Martin for 10 hours straight.