Last week the family visited Hot Springs to see my father. My girlfriend and I went downtown to play 'tourist' and we ran across a run down nursing home. It looked completely abandoned so we decided to see if there was a way in. Lucky for us someone left a sizable entrance by smashing the story high glass facade to the right of the front doors. I knew it's never good to have just two people when urban exploring so we went to get my nephew to form a crew.

Window of opportunity As we entered I instantly recognized the smell of mold. Being from New Orleans it's almost as familiar as the smell of red beans since Katrina happened. As I pulled my shirt over my face, I giggle at the crews battle stances. My girlfriend was holding her phone up with two hands to make use of its flashlight and my nephew, donning a houston astros jersey, had an aluminum bat hanging over his shoulder. We look like quite the motley crew The crew We turn a corner to see footprints of paint followed by drag marks. 'It really feels dangerous in here', I think to myself. As we pushed ahead the graffiti started to get slightly vulgar and intimidating. "Run while you can" and "last chance" was sprayed on the walls. As if my heart wasn't beating fast enough, the tagging had my adrenaline spiking.

It's never fun going up stairs in an abandoned building. The angles you have to cover just in case anyone or anything is living there just keeps your head spinning. The stairwells did have a slight beauty due to the beams of light flowing into them and showing bits of paint left on the handrails. That was until we went up to the first floor turn and saw what was written on the wall "you've been warned" and "you've been burned"

Stairway to heaven It's all in the details You've been warned We make it to the second floor with a sense of accomplishment. It feels good to face the unknown sometimes. We all start exploring the different rooms and meet in the hall to tell stories of what we've discovered. What I found written on the wall was my favorite quote I have seen in awhile. "You should feel like this your whole life". I realized that statement has a lot of truth to it. My heart hasn't beaten this fast since I snuck into Jazzland years back. It reminds you that being uncomfortable isn't such a bad thing. That's what life is.....feelings, even the uncomfortable ones. Message Find your balance The rest of our time was spent looking for cool photos and scaring the shit out of each other. The trip into the abandoned nursing home was a success. Thank you for looking at our trip. Enjoy some photographs for your troubles -Zack