Monday, December 4, 2017

OTBR: Abandoned Chateau in Czech Republic

Latitude: N 49° 04.158
Longitude: E 015° 18.312
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A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously (not actually) last month that are "off the blue roads".


  • in the forest near an abandoned chateau in the Czech village of Cesky Rudolec
  • in the Melbourne outer suburb of Narre Warren, near a brick house with 18 tall cypress pines planted along the front and side fencelines
  • in the woods in Germany, near a typical Black Forest farmhouse
  • outside Boston, just past a small modern house on a typical New England road, full of curves and tall trees, mostly maples and past peak color but still a beautiful drive in the countryside
  • between soccer fields at the Cold Spring Elementary School in Rockville, Maryland
  • at the edge of the fenced tennis court in a park in Richmond, Virginia
  • near the entrance to the historic Donnybrook Cemetery in Kalkallo, Australia ("The old graves were much more interesting than the surrounding grassy paddocks.")
  • in a weedy, overgrown front yard in Sylmar, California, site of a 1971 earthquake ("The paint is fading and the wood fascia is peeling. Why keep the place up if another major earthquake is going to destroy it all, anyway?")
  • down a hill through trees toward the stream on a fenced lot behind Edgecomb's Imported Car Sales and Services in Charlottesville, Virginia
  • in Virginia, about 50 meters off the Appalachian Trail at Marys Rock in Shenandoah National Park ("The view from the top was great.")
  • outside Huntsville, Alabama, uphill in the woods near a very long two-story wood house with stairs going up to the front porch on the second floor ("They already have their Christmas tree up, with all white lights.")
  • in the traffic lanes of Virginia Avenue near the Hong Kong Restaurant in Hagerstown, Maryland
  • in Pennsylvania, past nothing but farms and in a farm field across the road from Norm's Farm Store ("We stopped there to by bird feed - way cheaper here than in the DC area.")
  • on the far back side of Wildwood Cemetery, on a high bluff overlooking Williamsport, Pennsylvania, with the graves a steep walk up or down hill from the roads from where visitors can park
  • outside St. Louis in Illinois, between two harvested corn fields on either side of the road
  • on an access road to a mobile home Park in Nebraska, exposed to some crusty looking folks who probably have guns
  • in the parking lot of Stewart's Small Engine Repair near the Stateville Correctional Facility in Lockport, Illinois ("In the Blues Brothers movie, they discuss that "Joliet Jake" just got out of Stateville")
  • just off Metcalf Road, a narrow paved road outside San Jose, California, near a quiet ranch with a few cows wandering over the grassy hills
  • and in Illinois, down a well packed gravel section road that dead-ends at a cemetery (no pun intended)

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