The Weekend

Wow...been since Wednesday since I last blogged. I've just been super busy doing a ton of stuff for work. Planning the Fall festival, attending way too many meetings for stuff that barely pertains to me and stressing over what I'm going to do as my lesson that gets videotaped for the entire staff to see. Ugh.

Other than that, the end of the week and weekend have been pretty nice. Friday night we went to a bonfire at Nat's house and hung out with Nat, Sarah, Kinsley, and Lee. The weather was great, just enough chilly for me. We talked and talked and talked until 11ish.

The next day Kerry, Julie and I went to Atlanta to take some "just for fun" photos. Kerry wanted to see some different things/places and I had been checking out some abandoned places people in flickr groups had already gone to--so we went to a few of those.

The first was the "bridge to nowhere" where we met two homeless men who currently live on the bridge. I'll be completely honest with you and tell you that it scared Julie and me a little bit. As soon as we climbed over the concrete wall that just so happened to have a drop off below it which made you feel slightly uneasy, and made it safely onto the bridge, we were greeted by Donald that made sure to tell us that he saw us as soon as we drove up. He never called it "his" bridge, but it was clear that he was the head guy in charge. We made sure to tread lightly and ask permission before taking pictures. Kerry of course had no problem striking up a conversation and felt more comfortable than we did.

There was one man who was reading a book on the bridge and Kerry asked him what he was reading....he was reading John Grisham! They had a grill, a clock, a few mattresses, and Donald was sure to tell us that most guys just slept right on the ground, but he had constructed himself a shack with a place to sleep.

I know that we could have easily been in a lot of trouble, but the hairs on our arms or on the back of our necks never did anything freaky. Nothing ever told us that we should run away and never look back. But at the same time, I didn't want to stay and converse very long either...just in case the "voice" was on a small donut and coffee break. By talking to Donald it was easy to tell he is very intelligent and spiritual. I still couldn't help but recall the many horror movies I've seen over the years where things appear to be going WELL and then the next thing you know you have a knife in your back. BUT lots of photographers in Atlanta have been to this bridge and made it out alive, so I HOPED we'd make it out too. I'm not saying anything about the homeless...I'm talking about strangers on the street that I don't know. It's sad, but true that you probably shouldn't be out there trusting many people.

Anyway, the part I liked the least was when we had to climb back over the fence because this time we didn't have the tire on our side to get a boost from. So, Donald went around and then insisted to help us across. When he grabbed my arm to help me it was so tight and intense that for an hour later I still felt like I could feel his grip on me. I didn't care for that. Then he asked if he could pray with us and it was the longest prayer ever and was a great prayer, but once again scenes of scary movies came to my mind---here we are all holding hands pretending to keep our eyes closed. He had a grip on Julie that left an indention in her knuckle for a long time afterwards...and I'm between Kerry and Julie thinking that this is the part where somebody comes up behind us and hits us over the head...and then we wake up in a completely terrible, new place. YIKES.

My mother shall never know of this adventure.

Once we were finally getting back into the car, he asked us if we'd mind going to get them a chicken basket and we opted for handing over three dollars cash instead. I told him thank you for letting us take pictures of his bridge and he said "No, it's the Lord's bridge."

Here is my photoshopped interpretation of the "Lord's bridge", the bridge that Atlanta folks call, "The Bridge To Nowhere" because it stops abruptly in the sky and goes nowhere.

I'll save the second location for tomorrow---because if you thought this one was scary---you might need to recover before the next one! :)


That's Donald in this next one



The view from one side