
So this is me in 1989, chasing Big Foot. I was going to be the female Indiana Jones, at least if my grandfather had anything to do with it. Of course, Indy never really chased big foot or aliens until that whole Crystal Skull... thing. I give my grandfather (Pepere) 90% of the credit for introducing me to exploring, because he was an old school urban explorer all the way. He'd been in the catacombs of Italy in the 50s and visited the Parthenon (Thank you, US Navy). When he was home on leave, he would take his girlfriends and little brother exploring the barracks of the nearby Civil Conservation Corps camp in Voluntown, CT (Camp Lonergan). He would tell me stories about how there were posters of pinup girls still on the walls because all those CCC men ditched the place when the US entered WWII.
Of course, by 1989, those barracks were long gone. I took regular climbs up Lantern Hill in nearby Ledyard/North Stonington with my grandparents. Occasionally we would go down to the newly built houses in the development on Tanglewood Drive and sneak in if Pepere could find the special hidden key (they all have them, he says), but of the two houses down there at the time we could only get in one, and that was the one that Pepere picked the lock with his MacGyver knife. Meanwhile, my mom was notorious for sneaking behind NO TRESPASSING signs with little me in tow.
Fast-forward to 1998, when my grandparents and parents and I were cruising around in their Buick after one Saturday morning breakfast out, and Pepere was all excited about some neighborhood of houses completely abandoned off Laurel Hill in Norwich. We drove right up in there because you could, at the time, and marveled at the abandoned houses, and while there, we took a little drive around Norwich State Hospital. A couple weeks later I went back with some friends and we had a great old time exploring the houses. We went there like every day until the fateful day when my friend's car broke down up there and we got caught by security. Of course, with a smoking car in need of help, they were pretty lenient with us and gave us a quart of oil and sent us on our way. A couple weeks later, upon our next adventure, we discovered jersey barriers blocking the entrance to the neighborhood off Laurel Hill (today they have been replaced with gates). Sadly, being 14 at the time, I didn't have a camera, not even a disposable camera, and have NO pictures of our escapades. I'm sure someone in that bunch does, but it's not me. I had no interest in photography at the time and it was long before I even had a cell phone, much less an iPhone.
Of course, by 1989, those barracks were long gone. I took regular climbs up Lantern Hill in nearby Ledyard/North Stonington with my grandparents. Occasionally we would go down to the newly built houses in the development on Tanglewood Drive and sneak in if Pepere could find the special hidden key (they all have them, he says), but of the two houses down there at the time we could only get in one, and that was the one that Pepere picked the lock with his MacGyver knife. Meanwhile, my mom was notorious for sneaking behind NO TRESPASSING signs with little me in tow.
Fast-forward to 1998, when my grandparents and parents and I were cruising around in their Buick after one Saturday morning breakfast out, and Pepere was all excited about some neighborhood of houses completely abandoned off Laurel Hill in Norwich. We drove right up in there because you could, at the time, and marveled at the abandoned houses, and while there, we took a little drive around Norwich State Hospital. A couple weeks later I went back with some friends and we had a great old time exploring the houses. We went there like every day until the fateful day when my friend's car broke down up there and we got caught by security. Of course, with a smoking car in need of help, they were pretty lenient with us and gave us a quart of oil and sent us on our way. A couple weeks later, upon our next adventure, we discovered jersey barriers blocking the entrance to the neighborhood off Laurel Hill (today they have been replaced with gates). Sadly, being 14 at the time, I didn't have a camera, not even a disposable camera, and have NO pictures of our escapades. I'm sure someone in that bunch does, but it's not me. I had no interest in photography at the time and it was long before I even had a cell phone, much less an iPhone.

During the summer of 1999, I was driving around with my dad, who had some job to do up in Baltic after I got a tetanus shot. As we drove down I-395 around Norwich/Taftville, my dad said something about "blue smoke!" and I thought he was losing it, but when I looked, I saw it too. And the only thing I could think was that the Baltic Mill was on fire. Upon our arrival in Baltic I stole my dad's disposable camera off the dashboard and ran a mile in heels to get as close as I could to the fire. My pictures sucked and the fire was pretty much out by the time I got there, and the shin splints killed for weeks, but I was so damn proud. Then I lost the disposable camera and it didn't get developed for about a year. ha.
Because eastern Connecticut is inbred and extremely small, turns out that one of the kids who started the fire (who were a couple years younger than me) ended up being the older brother of a friend of a friend of mine, whom I went exploring with 24/7 in the summer of 2003. His name is Zack, and he's in a ton of the UE pics you'll find here. We haven't done much exploring together since 2007 or so but life happens. One time, we got chased at high speeds around Norwich State Hospital by security, which was oh-so-fun.
I discovered InsaneBunkers in November 2004 while researching more places for Zack and I to explore, and there, I am (who else?) Megster, the crazy cat lady of IB. I'm a lot less active on the forums than I used to be, but I'll blame work and life for that.
In 2005/6 I worked for a small newspaper in southeastern CT, The Resident. It gave me some awesome access to people and events and get paid for writing about Urban Exploration/historical things. I used to post some news snippets on InsaneBunkers before their hardware failure in early 2007. That's why I was a Moderator-Publisher. Sadly, the hardware failure meant the loss of all the photo galleries and news articles on the site, whether they were by me or others, and IB was gone for over a year. When it came back, only the forums had been saved, so then I discovered I had magical powers to ban spam bots, and I did that instead. Eventually they made me an Administrator, so that's how that happened.
Around 2007 I pretty much stopped exploring for personal reasons and I hated it. After never getting arrested despite several close calls, I couldn't risk it anymore, and ended up missing out on exploring a lot of great locations, even places that would have been an easy explore. All places I've shot from Jan. 2007 - July 2011 with a couple exceptions were done either legally, shot from a public space such as the road, or with permission.
Because eastern Connecticut is inbred and extremely small, turns out that one of the kids who started the fire (who were a couple years younger than me) ended up being the older brother of a friend of a friend of mine, whom I went exploring with 24/7 in the summer of 2003. His name is Zack, and he's in a ton of the UE pics you'll find here. We haven't done much exploring together since 2007 or so but life happens. One time, we got chased at high speeds around Norwich State Hospital by security, which was oh-so-fun.
I discovered InsaneBunkers in November 2004 while researching more places for Zack and I to explore, and there, I am (who else?) Megster, the crazy cat lady of IB. I'm a lot less active on the forums than I used to be, but I'll blame work and life for that.
In 2005/6 I worked for a small newspaper in southeastern CT, The Resident. It gave me some awesome access to people and events and get paid for writing about Urban Exploration/historical things. I used to post some news snippets on InsaneBunkers before their hardware failure in early 2007. That's why I was a Moderator-Publisher. Sadly, the hardware failure meant the loss of all the photo galleries and news articles on the site, whether they were by me or others, and IB was gone for over a year. When it came back, only the forums had been saved, so then I discovered I had magical powers to ban spam bots, and I did that instead. Eventually they made me an Administrator, so that's how that happened.
Around 2007 I pretty much stopped exploring for personal reasons and I hated it. After never getting arrested despite several close calls, I couldn't risk it anymore, and ended up missing out on exploring a lot of great locations, even places that would have been an easy explore. All places I've shot from Jan. 2007 - July 2011 with a couple exceptions were done either legally, shot from a public space such as the road, or with permission.

In early 2010 I became the vice president of the new version of the Sterling Historical Society, and later became a co-president in January 2011. Along with the other co-president, we wanted to explore and document all cemeteries in Sterling, which was a project I started on my own in 1997 when I discovered that there are several lists of cemeteries for Sterling with lousy directions that don't match. As of 2014, I'm now the secretary, as the other co-president and I didn't have the time to devote to the society and wanted to take smaller roles. I make the displays for Sterling Family Day every year and started documenting all of the historical buildings left within the town in June 2013. I've been hard at work researching the next Sterling history book, since the last one was written before I was born.
My local history knowledge is extending to Preston CT, where I'd delivered mail to the entire town as a substitute on all four rural routes from 2008-2012, and is also where my grandparents have lived since 1960. You'll note that many of the 2003 abandoned locations were located in Preston but have been long demolished including: the John Killam House (aka Watson Farm House demo'd in '07), the John Avery House (aka Leaning Farmhouse of Preston demo'd in '04), and the so-called Halls Mill Boarding House (structural collapse in '10/demo'd June '12). Of course, the previously mentioned mother-of-all-things-abandoned-in-eastern-CT, Norwich State Hospital (demo in progress), had 400 acres located in Preston.
I returned to exploring in 2011 while on assignment for one of my clients as a professional photographer, who wanted shots of Waterbury, CT. And what better place to capture the whole of the city than Holy Land USA? Any excuse seemed to be a good one and I took my mom along on the shoot for safety. We had a blast exploring Holy Land (which I had last visited in 2006) as well as the nearby Little People Village.
2012 saw a bigger return to exploring with the guy I would eventually marry, Brent. In addition to exploring, hiking, beach combing, and bottle digging, we now go letterboxing too. We did a lot of letterboxing in 2013 but got sidelined by my pregnancy in 2014, since that wasn't easy. With pregnancy and work, you guessed it, another hiatus from exploring. Now our little explorer is here, and who knows what adventures we're going to have!
My local history knowledge is extending to Preston CT, where I'd delivered mail to the entire town as a substitute on all four rural routes from 2008-2012, and is also where my grandparents have lived since 1960. You'll note that many of the 2003 abandoned locations were located in Preston but have been long demolished including: the John Killam House (aka Watson Farm House demo'd in '07), the John Avery House (aka Leaning Farmhouse of Preston demo'd in '04), and the so-called Halls Mill Boarding House (structural collapse in '10/demo'd June '12). Of course, the previously mentioned mother-of-all-things-abandoned-in-eastern-CT, Norwich State Hospital (demo in progress), had 400 acres located in Preston.
I returned to exploring in 2011 while on assignment for one of my clients as a professional photographer, who wanted shots of Waterbury, CT. And what better place to capture the whole of the city than Holy Land USA? Any excuse seemed to be a good one and I took my mom along on the shoot for safety. We had a blast exploring Holy Land (which I had last visited in 2006) as well as the nearby Little People Village.
2012 saw a bigger return to exploring with the guy I would eventually marry, Brent. In addition to exploring, hiking, beach combing, and bottle digging, we now go letterboxing too. We did a lot of letterboxing in 2013 but got sidelined by my pregnancy in 2014, since that wasn't easy. With pregnancy and work, you guessed it, another hiatus from exploring. Now our little explorer is here, and who knows what adventures we're going to have!