Coronavirus Crazy Trip Day 2 - Discover The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

It was a fitful night of sleep, but at least the noisy air conditioner supplied some white noise.  Everything felt sticky in the morning - mostly due to the leftover greasiness of the hot previous day on the bike.  Due to coronavirus, we decided not to take part in the gratis hotel breakfast (grab and go only anyway) and ate Pop-Tarts in the room.  With ample time to get ready, I was slightly over-caffeinated by the time we left to go to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.

We got there a bit early to get some pictures, but even from the road in front of it, it was hard to get good pictures since the main building is so sprawling.  It does cut an imposing view.

We met one of the owners and she took our temperature as a coronavirus precaution.  She said the previous week there was a couple who were sent away with high temperatures.  There was a tented area where we could wait.  Soon enough other tour goers started showing up for the Discover the Asylum tour which are the only tours they do on the day they have them and they last five hours plus lunch.  Gregg and Amy where the guides as they split us into two groups.  I was surprised how many near-local people where there and how many had taken previous tours - a few people many tours.

The tour started with a bit of background - notably there used to be approximately 300 similar hospitals, and the Trans-Allegheny is one of the few left largely intact.

We started with Amy as she led us through several wards.  Having toured several prisons before (here, here and here), overall the asylum was a little less imposing, but still bleak and restrictive.  I won't walk through the whole tour, but here are some highlights.

Nothing like Home Sweet Home.

Most of the wards looked like this.

Several areas also had large rooms.  These were used for various things over the years including recreation, large housing rooms, etc.

Several areas had patient art present.  The scary thing here is that I could almost see this on a wall at work...

I would occasionally break away a bit and see what else was around.  This scene was almost too eerie.  Which brings up one thing about the tour - it focused a bit too much on the paranormal stuff.  Not that this can't be interesting, but I was hoping for a bit more history.  It was only late in the day when it became evident how sketchy some of the history is with incomplete and/or inconsistent records.

Many areas of the asylum were uncomfortably jail like.  But if we were to look at a Venn diagram of mental illness and prisons, there would be much overlap ... on several levels.

Another ward hallway.

How restrictive the environment was is evident through the tour.

Another ward hallway.  Amy spent some time talking about the many trans-orbital lobotomies that were done at the asylum.  The affects of this can be restorative, but "success" was a sliding scale and likely rare.  What is unbelievably sad is that some people asked for this procedure as the living hell of mental illness could be brutal (hopefully we've progressed at least some since then).

Some of the central part of the main building is being restored.  The work appears well done and much of the decor is period appropriate - if mixed - for a facility that was in use for so long.

This was part of the Doctor's quarters.

The view from the Doctor's quarters was commanding.  

The asylum also had office areas.  What they are hoping for eventually is a mix of unrestored and restored areas.  Having walked through much of the facility, my guess is that complete restoration would probably be impossible in a lifetime.

There were several areas set up to confine patients either for their own, or others safety.  Probably both.

Although this looked a little more brutal.

They also had one ward area restored.  This does look almost pleasant compared to the decayed part of the asylum.  It is easier to imagine how this facility really was designed to help people and the difference to a prison is more evident.

While the rooms may not be pleasant, compared to what else was available at the time (restored to look like the 1910s), it probably was.

If you listened to the Lore podcast - this is Lily's room.  I wasn't sure what to make of the kid's toys (props?).  Draw your own conclusions.

Walking between buildings is interesting just to look at the differences in construction with age.

We opted for the box lunch which was pretty good and a much better option than driving somewhere to eat. 

Then it was time to tour some of the other buildings.  We started with the Auxiliary Women's Building.  From the outside it looks ok.

Once inside, I was surprised they let us in.  But to be honest, I'm glad they did.  Some of the opportunities for photography were too good to pass up.

This building had one of the few elevators in the facility.

But I think I'll take the stairs.

There were many, many bathrooms through the tour.  Most of them have only little in the way of privacy.  This has to be the worst though.

The Criminally Insane building was designed to be escape proof.  And while more solid than the main building, it was apparently escaped from many times.  It is definitely much more ... almost soviet bloc looking.

The door to the building was quite stuck and guide Amy had a hard time getting the door open.  I helped by jiggling the key while pressing the door and got it to turn and Amy wrenched it open.  I joked that nothing was going to keep me out of the Criminally Insane Building - while most residents would have said the opposite.

The building inside is in fairly good condition.  The visiting area definitely looks more prison-like (with good reason).

And here we all are dutifully wearing our masks.  Which does need to be talked about in this time of coronavirus.  Social distancing was difficult, but I was surprised how well everyone did with masks - even the younger kids.  While I may have sort of questioned the absolute safety, I never felt uncomfortable with it in its entirety.

This guy showed up.  So either it was an insane deer, or the overall area has gone through a Renaissance of sorts over the years.

Then it was on to the medical building.  This was the building that I did find quite creepy.  I was surprised that Gregg said it was used not only for patients of the asylum, but as a hospital for others in the area.  A few of us joked that we would have opted to pass on any treatment.

Yes, there was a morgue.  By records, there are about 1900 people buried on the property - in reality it is probably much more.

The remnants of an old steam autoclave for surgery.  In this context - it is horrifying.

We were allowed to go to the second floor of the Medical Building as well.  Condition was not good, but not as bad as this picture appears.  But water damage is considerable.

I was interested in how different wards had remnants of their use.  Almost all the hospital rooms had these same cheap hook/shelves.  I can only assume they were made on-site and possibly by patients.

As the tour wound down, we worked our way back to the tent.  Thunder and lightning shook the area, bringing an almost surreal end to the tour.

I first heard about the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum about five years ago.  I'm not glad the current coronavirus pandemic has killed most travel, but I am glad I've used it as a reason (or excuse) to tour the asylum.  Overall, the tour was really interesting and a great photography opportunity.  In hindsight, and especially with such a long history, some context around 150 years of defining and treating mental illness would have been interesting.  It wasn't that it wasn't included at times, but it wasn't cohesive.

Even though the tour was a bit light on history, heavy on paranormal stuff, I probably would have been left wishing I could see more by one of the shorter tours.  The Discover the Asylum tour is done with experienced guides and it showed - both Amy and Gregg were fantastic.

Putting on our motorcycle gear was not something I wanted to do, but with rain still threatening, there wasn't any choice.  Thankfully, we made it back to the hotel just a few minutes before the rain really started.

Once the rain let up, dinner was take-out from Sheetz from across the street.  It was ready speedy-fast and quite good.

Incarceration Tour Day 3

Total mileage for the trip so far:  886.0 Miles

June 13 was the scheduled day for the Missouri State Penitentiary Tour - the reason for the motorcycle tour to Missouri.  The tour didn't start until 9:00 AM, but I was up early as usual so I took advantage of the time to do some walking and to see the State Capital.  Jefferson City was almost scary quiet on an early Saturday morning which gave me time to walk around the Capital grounds some.  The only other person I saw was the woman in the guard shack who appeared to be doing laps inside the shack as exercise or something.
The Capital building itself is impressive, but I could not get inside at this early hour.  There are many statues around the building, most commemorating the territorial acquisition.

The Capital sits right on the Missouri River.  Unfortunately, a set of train tracks separates the city from the river so it is not possible to enjoy it.  It did look like it might be more accessible farther down the river.  The sunrise over the river was still very pretty.

After the nice morning walk, it was back to the hotel for more hotel waffles saturated in syrup before heading out for the very short drive to the Missouri State Penitentiary.
The building itself is imposing and looks like several other prisons.  The tour group was already congregating when we got there.

Once inside, our tour guide Ray gave some stories on the history and mayhemic background of the prison.  Gretchen, the other tour guide, was nice enough to allow our motorcycle coats to be put up in the Guard Control Room for the bulk of the tour.
The Missouri State Penitentiary was built in 1836.  It was added to multiple times after opening, typically using inmate labor.  Interestingly, inmate labor was also used to build prestigious houses in the area.
The prison grew over the decades to, at one time, become one of the largest prisons in the US, if not the largest.  It seemed to ebb and flow from being progressive to regressive in treatment of inmates, but like many prisons of the times, inmates were often seen as a lesser form of human.
One of the most notable inmates was "Pretty Boy" Floyd.  It was also notable for female inmates and being the site of Missouri executions.  Since for a time, the US government did not have its own facilities suitable for executions, the Missouri State Penitentiary was used for federal executions.  It is noted as the only site where a woman was executed by lethal gas - any personal feelings on the death penalty aside, I'm not sure there is any reason to treat males and females differently with respect to punishment for  similar crimes.  Women's Lib?  Take your medicine...
James Earl Ray was housed in the Missouri State Penitentiary.  After numerous escape attempts, he finally made it out about a year before assassinating MLK.  If there were "numerous" escape attempts, one wonders why he wasn't watched closer ... conspiracy theorists, have your say!

Like other prisons I've previously visited, the structure is an imposing stone building which I'm sure is designed to serve as a mental imposition to the imprisoned.  It was in use from being built in 1836 through 2004 (seriously? - yes, only about 10 years ago - yikes!).  It was the site of a major prisoner riot in 1954 and was labeled as the "bloodiest 47 acres in America" by Time Magazine in 1967 - an achievement noted on the tourism web site for the prison.

Rather than give a stone by stone account of the prison, below are some pictures from the tour:

One of the cell blocks.

A prison cell.  Can you imagine spending years in this?

Another prison building off of "the yard."  All these stone and metal buildings are so metaphorically cold, even on the hot and humid day that we were there.

The Honor Building.  This is the oldest prison structure and served various purposes over its life.  In the last incarnation, it was used to house inmates who had proven themselves to not be troublemakers.  This building is different from previous tours I've been on in that the cell blocks are on the outside wall, not free standing.

Inmates were even allowed to decorate their cells to some degree.  There were many murals painted, some of which remain.  Apparently, some decorations that no longer exist were very ornate.

This is "The Hole" which is also known as the Dungeon.  Much mistreatment of inmates went on down here.  It was dark, dank and hard to imagine staying a few days down in it, let alone years.

Death Row.  It was actually not as unpleasant as some of the other cells, but the reality is, it was probably the worst - mentally if nothing else.

The death chamber.  They said they needed a two seat chamber since they had four double executions, but I still think it is odd in a scary sort of way.

Overall the tour was well done.  I thought it was longer than it had to be since we didn't see that much.  Much of the time was spent with Ray telling stories of the prison which did help bring the tour alive and bring some perspective to the event.  There were some times when the talking did get to be a bit verbose.  And some of the "ghost" stories were somewhere in the silly realm.  It actually felt a bit rushed at the end, where we all drove to the Death House - which is where the tour ended.

Overall the tour was enjoyable.  Having toured three prisons (and a jail the previous day), these prison structures are probably in the best shape of the ones that I've seen.  There were 33 people on the tour which was a bit too many.  I guess I would have liked it to be shorter, with not quite as much talking and a few less people.  As it was though, hanging back when the group walked on allowed some really great pictures without a lot of other people in them.

The three prisons I have toured; Mansfield, Ohio; Rawlins, Wyoming; Jefferson City, Missouri do paint an interesting historic picture of incarceration.  My plan is to only see these things as a free, motorcycle-riding tourist.

Once the tour was over we hit the road.  The plan was to ride down 2-lane roads except for right around St. Louis.  We hit some really heavy rain before St. Louis, but muscled through it.  There wasn't any thunder and traffic was light.  The rain only lasted about a half an hour until we were back into the heat.

We continued on through Illinois for the afternoon.  I didn't hit "the wall" during the ride, but I did find myself wondering where the Indiana border was.  

Eventually we did find the border.  We were chasing rain through much of the second half of Illinois and into Indiana.  Rain could be seen in the distance, and in some places the road was not dry yet.  We stopped a little way into Indiana in the town of Washington.  We didn't make reservations, but found a very nice reasonably priced independent hotel with a pizza and wing place next door.

Now that we are out of prison, it is time to head home.

Motorcycle Trip Out West 10 Years Later, Day 5

Total Mileage 1802.6 (337.0 for the day)

Woke up a little slower since there was no reason to be in a hurry, but still was on the road by around 7:30. We took I-80 west. Temperature was near perfect, in fact it was near perfect for most of the day, ranging from the low 60s to the low 70s until the last half hour or so of the day when the elevation dropped.

I-80 through Wyoming is generally lightly traveled and with decent scenery for an interstate. On this day, I set the cruise control as we were leaving Rawlins and didn't touch it or the throttle again for well over 100 miles - I had to turn it off due to some evil RVs, otherwise I probably could have left it on without any manipulation for the full 145 miles we were on I-80.

At the interchange before we were supposed to get off, I noticed a sign saying it was the last services for 28 miles so we got off for fuel at Little America. The station was absolutely overrun with Mormon children in pioneer dress headed off to some Mormon Pioneer Day celebration or reenactment. It was actually hard to walk through the very large gas station with all the kids. Surprisingly and thankfully, the bathrooms were still available.

We got off the interstate and took US30. US30 through Wyoming is mostly straight but with a few notably interesting parts in and around some of the hills. Traffic was non-existent and what traffic there was was mostly truck traffic. The scenery is typical of Western Wyoming with brush ranch and range land. There are also many gas and/or oil wells dotting the area.

I actually like riding on these less-challenging roads sometimes since it is great thinking time. Both I-80 and US30 were enjoyable for the morning.

We went past Fossil Butte National Monument, but didn't stop. I didn't know much about the national monument, but it looks like most of the activities are hiking and camping. Not surprisingly, digging/taking/buying fossils is prohibited, so there wasn't much point to stop anyway.

We continued on into Idaho, taking ID-36 just outside Montpelier (I didn't realize we had gone all the way to Vermont). ID-36 is restricted for truck traffic and goes through the Cache National Forest. This National Forest stretches all the way south to D's cabin where we might be going later in the week.

Idaho 36 was wonderful. Much like Wyoming 130, it has lots of great curves, including some very steep stretches, up to 7% grade and a few switchbacks. There are enough straight stretches to allow passing, but there was so little traffic that it didn't matter.

As we descended out of the mountains, it did start to get hot, but this was tolerable since we were nearly at our destination of Preston, Idaho. Preston was larger in both people and geography than I would have thought, having a population north of 5000.

Preston, Idaho is where the movie Napoleon Dynamite was filmed. This is a cult classic film. It is one of the films that Netflix "finds maddenly hard to predict who will like it." I first saw this movie several years ago while flipping through satellite when we had it. I watched part of it and thought it was terrible. But, I couldn't get it out of my mind and searched for a replay of it several times until I found it on again and watched the whole thing. My mind changed and I bought it and have watched it several more times since then. To be fair, in preparation for this trip I watched it again a few weeks ago and it was a little hard to watch.

Lots of people have come to Preston to do the Napoleon self-tour. We stopped and bought a small brochure with a map. I had previously mapped out most of what I wanted to see, but the printing on my map had rubbed off over the last couple thousand miles in the saddle bags. The store with the Napleon map had other Napoleon Dynamite stuff including "Vote for Pedro" shirts, but I was very able to ignore those.

Napoleon Dynamite's house is down a very gravel road. There is a paved road nearby, but I didn't know this initially. For the second time this trip, the Goldwing played off-road bike as we went about a mile down much more slippery gravel than the first gravel road a few days previous in Iowa.

The house itself is still a private residence and apparently none of the movie was filmed inside the house as the inside scenes were filmed elsewhere. I did not see anyone shoot a cow across the street. However, the brochure I bought did say that "Lyle" (or Dale Critchlow) will sign autographs if you find him at home. I didn't look to see where he lived.

The Pop 'n Pins bowling ally is right by the Plaza Hotel where we stayed. The hotel was very nice and comfortable and they were able to check us in early since it was a relatively short drive on the bike from Rawlins. The bowling alley is seasonally closed so if anyone wants to bowl with bumpers, it sounds like it must be a winter thing.

We ate at Big J's burgers. This is not the original Big J's from the movie as that was apparently torn down a few years ago. The original sign lasted longer than that, until the building that now stands was built. The food was really great for lunch. Without a bit of humor, they serve tater tots as a side and the girl who took our order really did call them just "tots" without any irony.

Preston High School looks just like it does in the movie. There was even a bike rack out front, but no Hispanic "cousins" out front with their "sweet hookups" protecting the bikes from bullies, nor was there an Uncle available to pick us up after missing the bus.

I'll end this little Napoleon Dynamite expose' the same way the movie ends with the tether ball court. This is not really at the high school, but a short ways away behind the elementary school. It looks different in person, or maybe just getting the perspective right was more difficult.

Dinner that night was at the New York Style Steak and Deli. The steak was surprisingly good for a place that also had take-out. It was better than many restaurants dedicated to steaks I've eaten at previously.

I'm not sure an entire stop revolving around a polarizing movie makes sense, but Preston was really a nice town to visit for a night.