Southern Illinois Prologue, #01: Mental Hospital
This past weekend, we went from Peoria to Wickliffe, KY, with stops all along the way (at Lincoln, Alton, St. Louis, Prairie du Rocher, Chester, Kaskaskia, and Cairo). The trip, spanning two days, covered around 700 miles throughout three states.
We didn't do as much geocaching as I would have liked, but we saw some great things on our trip (and got two new states under our belts).
One of our earlier stops:
This is the Alton Mental Health Center. Though it is still functioning on some level (forensics, etc.), there seem to be no patients here, so all of the dorms -- built on blocks like a neighbourhood, if a neighbourhood had barbed wire and gated areas for the safety of its residents -- are empty. Certain buildings, as you can see, have collapsed roofs or insane foliage taking over the buildings.
Mark stayed in the vehicle while Jamie and I took pics. As we were wandering, a truck drove by, and went up to Mark. It was some security officer, who apparently flipped once Mark mentioned we were taking pictures.
"You let them know ... they are NOT allowed to do this. This is private property."
Erm, it's a state hospital??
Regardless, too late on the pics ...