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2001.11.03, Pittsburgh, near Carrie Furnaces

The Carrie Furnaces are an abandoned furnace system, for making steel, or something. You can see them if you go to the Waterfront in Pittsburgh, or drive through Braddock or Swissvale.

After seeing Ryan's pictures of the furnaces, I was obsessed and wanted to get a close view for myself. We tried to go there on 2 different trips. The first time, we walked along the traintracks, but realized that we couldn't get there this way. We considered just jumping the fence and walking across the field to get there, but Amy talked me out of it and thank god that she did.

Security at this place is tight. I think the owners are afraid of somebody going in and getting hurt. There's a blue truck that takes a lap around the site every 15 minutes. We know because we sat and timed it.

Our second trip there, we found the way to get in, but the infamous entry hole in the fence had been covered up. About two seconds after seeing this disappointment, I saw the blue truck driving straight toward us. We quickly hid behind some trees. It was just too risky.

On the walk back, we walked down into this chasm that may have been an old entrance to the site. There was a dead dog down there which was very spooky. The blue truck drove by again just as we entered, about 20 feet away from us. We're lucky that bastard didn't see us.

We even drove down there on Thanksgiving. We sat in my car and overlooked the area. The blue-truck was still there! I guess the guy doesn't get vacation.