Solomon’s castle and other strange Florida homes

me, mrs lij and andy will be going to Florida soon and so I’ve scrounged roadsideamerica.com for some good places to go and sadly a lot of the more interesting stuff is simply not possible to do on a vaction, too far away. That’s one of 99 great things about jersey: absolutely nothing is so far away it can;t be visited in a day cause nothing is more then 3 hrs away by car.

Anyway I specifically checked out a few things and have a list including solmon’s castle, another house of the future, a house that is a carbon copy of graceland, and another one that looks like a battleship. That last one the guy is supposed to be a real wackjob nut case. I just got off the phone w/the daughter of the owner of solomon’s castle asking if I could snag an interview. Midway thru saying yes she asked if I’d heard of Weird Florida. ::) Anyway, yes I have, And it’s on my *to buy* list, so I really should get it this week, something to read on the plane, or maybe even give me some more ideas of what to visit.

We also plan to check out the a graveyard of nothing but circus performers, and I mean real circus performers, like from the 40’s and 50’s and such. No idea if we’ll find it or it’ll be cool, but I imagine the headstones will be worth the site. I hope. His daughter told me that she owns a small house and wants a bigger house so she’s building a bigger house outside the smaller house. In other words there will be a house-in-a-house. Sounds like something from Green Eggs & Ham but thats what she told me!

originally posted October 2005

Columcille Megalith Park

Looks like a cool place to check out

Do we hurt ourselves by discussing the places we explore on blogs/websites and forums?

Urban exploring has been around a long time, but it was always a hidden, secretive thing. People didn’t have digital cameras to document everything with, nor did they have websites to share their experiences in. They didn’t have magazines to write to, not did they have magazines to show them new places. It was for the most part localized. Your experiences were shared amongst your local friends, and you explored local places.

That’s all changed thanks to digital technology and internet. With the popularity of magazines like WNJ, this has made the whole thing more fashionable and cool, and less of a thing that only bad kids do. There’s a downside. That information can be read by anyone, anywhere, and you can’t control what they do with it. Were there kids cruising midgetville before the Weird NJ article? Of course, that’s why they wrote about it to begin with. People told them what they had seen or experienced. But once that article hit, people started coming to midgetville from as far away as Pennsylvania hoping to see midgets. Also consider the Dutch church, which was torched mere weeks after being published in Weird NJ.

Criminals destroy and vandalize. They spray graffitti. They attract attention and draw tighter security. Not to mention that they give all UE’ers a bad name. Locals don’t know the difference between the good UE who take only pictures and who wouldn’t vandalize a thing and the not a very nice persons who who go there just to be destructive.

I created my original website shortly after I got hooked on WNJ & UE. I wanted to share what i had seen with those who hadn’t, and hopefully get intel on good places from people out there with similar interests. I’ve mad a lot of friends because of my website and forums, and I’m sure otger website owners have too. All well and good, but what about the sharing of info? Does it really hurt the places we love to explore?

Thats a tough question. I think it is true that the more exposure places get, the harder it is to explore. I know of a not-so-abandoned-nursing home that was profiled near my dads house. There’s really only 2 places to park, and whenever the locals see a car parked there that doesn’t belong, they call the cops, assuming that its UE’ers. It has since been burnt down by stupid teenagers (who were caught and prosecuted thank god)

I put disclaimers on the site telling people that I provide this information for their enjoyment, but that bad behavior will make it worse for all of us. Someone said that good UE’ers “take only pictures, and leave only footprints”. Cliched, but true. I can only hope that people act appropriately. If they don’t I may have to scale back some stuff. I hope it doesn’t come to that.

What do you think?

Weird NJ 2006 Halloween party

The party was held at the Asbury park Bowling alley, as opposed to the Stone Pony. Not sure why, the SP was always a fine venue, but I must admit that this bowling alley was pretty cool. It is old. it doesnt have the modern scoring devices, the bar is old school, it is really cool. The party itself was cool, Frankenstein 3000 was a great band, though I wasn’t as impressed with the second band. //shrug.

The costumes were ok this year but the Marks went and decided to only allow Nj themed costumes into the costume contest which severely limited the entrants. **Severely** limited. I really hope that either the quality and quantity of the NJ costumes picks up next year or they throw it wide open in 2007. Got a whole stream of photos here but here’s a few to tease you.

Some costumes take guts to wear...

Weird NJ 2007 Halloween party (and I’m the poster boy!)

I was the poster boy for the 2008 WNJ party video on you tube

If it’s hallloween it must be time for the annual wnj party. We went to see Saw IV before the party and honestly I can’t think of any movie recently where you absolutely MUST have seen the previous movie to understand this movie, particularly the twist at the end. The movie can be a tad confusing because it tells Jigsaw’s history in backflashes, and then the twist… well… it’s one of the better twists I’ve seen in a movie in a long time. Actually, there are two twists… and I won’t reveal them…

After the movie we headed right over to the Loop Lounge and got there at 645 and Mark Scuerman was there just setting up. He yelled at me for being too early. I wanted to make sure I was there to get my free autographed copy of the new Weird US board game. I opened it up this am and it looks pretty cool… and I have two copies now. Muhahahhaaa…

I dressed as a typical Bergen County Democrat, so I was in shackles and had 100’s and 50’s sticking out of my pocket. I told everyone that the charges against me were completely false, the idea that I gave that guy no-bid contracts for money. I really did it for the hookers and the coke. I am also switching to Hudson County because I figure I can get 70% of the dead vote (Dawn was dressed as a zombie). Some of my campaign slogans:

Remember to vote early and vote often
There’s no such thing as small bribes, only small favors.
Hudson County: where the dead can vote.
“I’m going to screw you, but at least I’m honest about it!”

I was in the costume contest against a tall witch, a jersey devil-ess (in a bikini… gimme a break) the pink lady, the edison memorial light tower. The 2nd place guy was a guy who literally burned parts of his suit and smear dark patches on his face, and represented Aldo’s a restaurant that recently burned down. The winner was a lady who dressed up as Rutt’s Hut, the hot dog place noty too far from where the party was.

While there a lady told my wife she had seen my website and thought I was a good photographer and then reffered to me as stuofdoom. my wife corrected her that I was LIJ… now she knew who stuofdoom was because she knew he just published a book, but she did really seem to mean my site… so… wtf? What I don’t figure is how she could’ve known that I have any website at all? It’s not like my face is in any of the photos on the site and I didn’t mention to anyone last night that I have a website…

Strange…

Stone Living Room Youtube video by WNJ

Four years ago some asshats destroyed the SLR. Me and about a dozen friends went and rebuilt it and it was destroyed again within 24 hours. This video was posted on youtube in late 2008. Apparently others have made similar rebuilding attempts and the SLR was again destroyed. The “logbook” shown in the video is actually from a geocache that was eventually stolen.

4×4 adventures

So we were up in Sussex County on 206 and I passed this place I’d seen numerous times before and wanted to check out but never did. John pointed out there was a water tower (something I’d never noticed) So I wasn’t planning on stopping but decided, why not? So there was no place to park so we turned on a side road and I see a dirt trail with tire tracks and I said *I’ve got a 4×4!!!!*.

Dude, it’s a Honda CRV. get a grip. Well I drop down this trail and I quickly realized the trail was meant more for ATV’s then wanna be 4x4s. So after I take one difficult turn I her something.. odd. I stop and find that a tree branch about the thickness of a … I dunno, but it was about an inch and a half wide and 9 inches long so you make your own analogy… was wedged between the rim and the … (I’m lousy at naming auto parts) .. ummm.. rear axle.

I managed to free it and i see that the hose leading to the brakes is mucked up. but I’m not leaking anything. Brakes tested ok. I got kinda freaked (cause my wife hates when I offroad with the car) and decided going further into the mountains with iffy brakes wasn’t my idea of fun. We explored, then decided to explore some of the wonderful barns and buildings we had seen on the drive up along 206/15/94 and so forth. God that whole area is like heaven.

Anyway, today I went to the mechanic across the street. turns out if was the emergency brake line. a metal wire encased in a rubber tube. No harm, no foul (it worked fine). Had this been the other hose I would’ve had no brakes at all.

Gotta be careful out there!

Originally posted April 2005

Hancock’s House

The Hancock House was the site of a massacre by british troops, where 300 Hessian soldiers killed 30 Americans, all by bayonneting, no shots were fired. One of the dead was a British Judge with American sympathies.

This is why you would never want to go caving with me…

… because you’d end up getting trapped like these folks did cause I’m such a fat ass.

Strange Hybrid beast discovered in Maine

No one knows what it is. This happened in 2006, so by now you’d think a thorough autopsy would’ve revealed something. Worth checking out to see if there’s any followup stories.