A Five Mile Walk in the Early Evening

After returning from work and chatting with the owner of the house we're living in, Diana and I decided to go exploring. Joe had suggested we check out the Research and Development complex right across the street from his house--where many people walk their dogs, he said. It houses Jackson State University, the national HQ of the junior league of Phi Kappa Alpha (?), the Mississippi Library Commission...and many other state-run things.

After realizing there wasn't really much to do there, we took our expert exploring skills and put them to use when we laid eyes on a complex of old abandoned buildings across from the Mississippi School for the Deaf.

Here's what we saw:

Our first view of the mysterious abandoned complex. Inside, we discovered by climbing on a stair rail covered by overgrown branches, is an (empty) pool.

I love doors, and I love urban decay, and this is perhaps the best combination of the two.

Some bowling pins in a shed with broken windows and slashed screens.

Turns out this complex was the old location of the School for the Deaf and the School for the Blind. We don't know why it was abandoned, but everything seems to be in pretty bad shape and appears to have been empty for quite some time, given the state of the paint and the glass. But why hasn't the area been cleaned up?

Those benches must have been from a cafeteria. Furniture was discarded everywhere, there was hardly a clear spot on the asphalt.

I loved the light here.

Through the blinds.

An outside walkway between classrooms, it looks like. Everything was eerily overgrown and untidy, and we kept jumping at every sound.

The pool building, from the other side.

 Done exploring the abandoned complex, we took the underpass under I-55 and wound up on the should of the Frontage Rd, the road the essentially runs parallel to the interstate the whole way. There were no sidewalks to be seen, so we walked in the grass. The road was empty.

Somewhere along the way we saw mimosas, these beautiful flowers.

 Eventually we found our way into a gated neighborhood called Woodland Hills (I think). The air was beautiful and the ranch houses quaint.

Neither of us liked this big, ugly brick wall surrounding someone's house. It was also cracked like this in multiple places.

Strangely untidy for the tip-top condition of this neighborhood.

 When we resurfaced from the curving roads of the neighborhood, we realized that we were in Fondren, the hip part of town where we had dinner last night. We hadn't even know you could walk there (and I guess if you don't consider walking along the road that runs parallel to the highway feasible, then you can't walk there). We wandered around a bit, and wound up back at Sneaky Beans cafe.

This poster/graffiti was up in the garbage pick-up lot behind Sneaky Beans. "I love myself & so should you" it says.

At some point we realized that it was getting dark, and walking back the way we came was not a safe option. We only had the number of one person from work, so we called her and asked if she could pick us up; she sent our friend, who was helping her move in to her apartment, and he drove us back home. We made a delicious dinner for ourselves, and even have leftovers for lunch!

When we went to www.mapmyrun.com we learned that our explorations had taken us on a walk of more than five miles. I'd call that a successful meandering.