Adventures in Urban Exploration

My obsession with urban exploration, or urbex, began several years ago as the result of curiosity towards the abandoned house next door. So I grew up in Maryvale, which is the west side of Phoenix, and that neighborhood had/has issues with rampant crime, abandoned houses, and severe poverty. By extension, this meant that even houses on my street, which was relatively safe compared to other parts of the hood. So I went to the house next door, which was abandoned at the time, and I didn't get too far. In fact, I went into the backyard and I looked inside the house from the sliding door in the back. It was empty, but alas there was another abandoned house on my street. Just a couple of doors west was the house where my cat came from (that's a story for a different day) and I visited it with a friend. We had our scooters parked in the alcove next to the front door and we ventured in. I was a little nervous because I was afraid that I would get robbed by a hobo or caught by the police. I didn't, but then again much like my obsessions and habits, they all came from my childhood on Hazelwood.

I would do a little exploration over the years, but I really jumped back into it this year. I have been documenting abandoned and closed down locations in East Mesa, AZ. I'm talking about how around half of Superstition Springs Mall is occupied whereas one of the wings of the mall is almost empty. In fact, January 2019 saw the closure of the Sears, which was one of the original anchor stores from 1990.

One of my earliest encounters with an abandoned building was surprisingly at Walt Disney World in Florida. It was March 2007 and I was visiting Epcot Center. I needed to use the restroom, so we headed over to the glided dome-like pavilion that was emptied. I got to the sliding door and walked inside for a moment. Apparently, the building I entered was the former home of the Wonders of Life Pavilion as it was closed down in January 2007 after almost eighteen years. Ironically enough during that same trip I saw the Monsters, Inc. Laugh, which officially opened in April 2007. Perhaps, it was a soft opening.