vandelized

A return to California from up North this week had me working the backroads of three states since the entire West Coast is in lockdown. Empty roadways and deserted campgrounds seem to be the new normal making today’s eventual return into the deserts of southern California even more apocalyptic.

Outside 29 Palms the many roadside structures long ago abandoned due to highway diversions or bad life decisions dot the landscape giving the casual observer an insight into what this world can become with a single change in direction.

One such casualty was found just a few hundred yards off the road with nothing but empty landscape as far as the eye could see. In recent times it appears a place for teen drinking parties or a flophouse for a night or two. A more notable past might have might been a small ranch house along a thriving interstate that ran from Chicago to LA in the 40s’ ’50s and ’60s. A family living here once carving out a life with the prospect of brighter days ahead.

Wandering the blown-out structure, around every corner, a story is told in the layered walls now pealing and faded by the desert winds and heat.

It’s the history I’m after. Something the curious like to explore. Something this photographer dreams of stumbling into.