Road Trip - Part 2

It rained and stormed all throughout the night. As if sleeping in a hotel room bed isn't hard enough, having lightning flash and thunder boom every five seconds makes it doubly so. I was tired from driving almost 600 miles the day before, so we didn't hit the road until about an hour later than planned. As the morning progressed, the sky cleared up and the weather became wonderful.

Our first destination was Kent, Connecticut. The main road to Kent was blocked as utility trucks worked to replace lines downed by the previous night's storm. Fortunately my TomTom found another way in, although it was a pretty rough mountain road. Maybe Enterprise giving me the SUV was a good thing after all...

We ventured into the outskirts of town to find the summer home used in the film "I Spit on Your Grave". If you haven't seen the film, it's a nasty little exploitation film from 1978 which was quite infamous in it's day. The house was easy to find and Sharon even spied the tree where one of the main characters was hanged by the Housatonic River. The owners of the house were nowhere to be found, but we met a nice gentleman who lived a few places down and he told us that they only stay there 1 or 2 weeks a year.

We then headed into Kent proper and found the church from the film and a graveyard which could be seen in a few shots. In the center of town, I took a photo from the film's opening credits (all while a local cop watched suspiciously) and then found another house from the movie.

After that was done, we headed east to find a location I couldn't wait to see - the campsite from Friday the 13th Part II. Finding just where this location was took hours upon hours of research as it's private property and is not at all publicized. But, with a little detective work and a lot of reading, I found this horror holy grail. We traversed another rocky mountain road before coming upon the road leading into the campsite. And a gate. A locked gate.

I could see a hundred yards or so beyond the gate before the dirt road disappeared downhill. In my mind, I imagined that the campsite was just over the crest of that hill, and I was going to walk there if I couldn't drive in. So I walked. And walked. And walked. I really have no idea how far it was. It felt like 10 miles but was probably more like 1. But after walking seemingly forever, I could see the cabins and buildings that I've seen dozens of times in Friday the 13th Part 2 before me. If anyone had been around and told me to leave, I'd have been crushed but fortunately the entire area was vacant. I spent quite a while walking around the area, exploring and taking photos. I was surprised that the "beach" area was actually only a couple yards wide. The staircase where "Mark" meets his demise was a prized find and would have been easy to miss as it is very overgrown and required climbing through a mass of weeds and thorn bushes. Seeing all of the spots I'd seen in the movie was amazing.

I think the entire area is just used as a hunting camp, or maybe a summer weekend retreat. I would love to buy the lodge and live there. The waterside location is stunning and and the history is just so cool. I took several photos before heading back outside and beginning the long and almost entirely uphill walk back to the main road. I was exhausted when I got back to the car, but it was so worthwhile. After catching my breath, we headed to New Preston, Connecticut to see the exterior locations from the beginning of Friday the 13th Part 2. I wanted to get lunch at Oliva's in New Preston as that's where the opening scenes from the film were shot, but they're only open for dinner so we had to pass.

After New Preston, we started driving south again. We stopped in Milford for some pizza and then took a break at a riverside park to enjoy the peace and the meal. Afterwards, we continued on and soon ended up in Westport, Connecticut, the one time home of Sean Cunningham (director of Friday the 13th and countless other films). Westport was also the town where Wes Craven directed his hit film Last House on the Left (Cunningham produced). Since most of the film was shot outdoors in the forest, I'd only been able to find a few of the locations through my research. Amongst those was the cemetery where Phyllis tries to escape from her captors and the police station that was home to the bumbling cops. Westport was a beautiful town built right on the river and I really enjoyed visiting it.

After we wrapped up there, we were on our way to New Jersey. Getting back to Jersey involved driving past New York again and dealing with the traffic. It wasn't too bad, but we lost about an hour. We eventually ended up in Cedar Grove, NJ where I found the Essex County Hospital. The hospital, like most mental institutions, was closed in the 90s and has been sitting empty ever since. It's impossible to capture the scope of the facility in photos. It literally stretches out for acres and has dozens of buildings. They're tearing everything down this spring and turning the area into a park. While I'm sure residents will love that, it's sad to know all of those beautiful buildings will soon be gone.

I'd only been photographing the buildings for about half an hour when a Sheriff's Jeep pulled into the lot. I walked over to the officer and asked if it was okay to continue taking photos, but he told me that no one was allowed on the property without permission from the county. He was very nice about it and we headed out. I do wish I'd have had another hour or two to capture a few more of the buildings.

It was near enough to dusk that it didn't make much sense to try to do much more driving, so we stopped by Petsmart to get Eli some toys and treats and then headed to Stroudsburg, PA to get a hotel room. I didn't feel like sitting in a hotel room for hours on end, so I talked Sharon into going to a movie at the local theatre. We decided on Prom Night, which was okay, but the theatre going experience was miserable. The place was packed with 13-16 year olds who talked throughout the film, texted each other on their cell phones and screamed like banshees at every single jump scare (and they really weren't even good jump scares). By the time the flick was over, my ears were ringing from the constant noise.

Regardless of that, this leg of the trip was fantastic and tons of fun. We had glorious weather and had great luck with all of the locations. It couldn't have been much better.