2007 was a helluva year. As most of you know, my little sister Haley was murdered that year, and the aftermath of that loss affected everyone who was close to Haley, including of course me. It was devastating. LD suffered a loss as well, as my sister was getting interested in becoming part of the website... but her death came before her LD debut. She was photographing things, and trying to build up a few stories & photo sets for LD. I can so remember she & I going out to supposedly haunted El Paso High in the middle of the night, walking around the entire school a few times while trying to get photos... giggling because we both got startled a few times by noises... I still have those photos, and have never had the heart to post them on LD. In fact I hadn't had the heart to do much of anything since 2007, other than mourn my sister and try to just get through the aftermath and the trial dates. Unfortunately, LD was one of those things that was set aside until things could settle.

Things now are not totally 'settled', as usual in mi vida loca things never really are, but it's at a point where I can start to extend myself to LD (and my other artistic pursuits) once again. I've got a lot of fantastic things to add to the site, plus more coming up... right now the LD redesign is running into an IE6 problem, which my tech guy is working on. As soon as that's conquered, LD will be up & running, and running down some very dark & spooky corners.

Til then, you guys can totally stay updated on the LD facebook fan page... I will of course be posting updates there, as well as trying to keep you guys entertained/informed/intrigued with a steady dose of the weird, creepy, abandoned & mysterious. Invite your LD-loving fans to the page! Also, feel free to post your own creepy photos in the fan photo albums, or post your spooky stories in the discussion forum... it's great when you guys get involved.

I hope you guys are enjoying the ride so far... we'll seeya soon!

A U G U S T / 1 3 / 2 0 0 7 It is with great sadness that we must announce the passing of one of the dearest members of the LD family... our beloved Angeleyez, Shady's little sister and longtime LD contributor/Scooby. Angeleyez was murdered last week in her home; the suspect has been apprehended and we all hope justice will come soon for our beautiful girl.

Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the Haley Welsh Memorial Fund at any Wells Fargo bank. We will miss you so much, Angel........

In Loving Memory, Angeleyez RIP 1977-2007

Lost Destinations in local news- check out this article on the Airplane Graveyard that was featured in the El Paso Times today... cool stuff!

A P R I L / 1 7 / 2 0 0 7 Shady + LD have been out of commission for awhile due to some pretty serious circumstances (including a hospitalization), but we will be back very soon- with lotsa new stuff, and a new design too...

We've posted a statement about Shady's hospitalization and an update on her current status here, and we send sincere thanks to the supporters out there as well.

Happy (yet still somewhat dark and spooky) holidays from Shady & Lost Destinations...

D E C E M B E R / 1 3 / 2 0 0 6 Lost Destinations ventures into space! MySpace, that is. We now have a Lost Destinations MySpace page, it is true...

Lost Destinations MySpace

So join the LD friends list for bulletins about the latest LD updates all you MySpacers!

N O V E M B E R / 3 0 / 2 0 0 6 First off, we have a new Shady-toon to reflect the new streaks I now have in my hair. Booya.

Also, just wanted to drop a quick note- I have designed an El Paso calendar and it's ON SALE now (and for a few more days), so now is a good time to grab one. The calendar features twelve 8.5" x 11" full-color glossy photos I shot around my Southwestern hometown. Bonus- after you use the calendar, you can frame the prints... that's like 12 prints and a calendar all in one baby.

So whether you are an El Paso native or just like Southwestern photography, if you are in the market for a unique 2007 calendar check this one out. All proceeds go to my Starving Artist Fund. Thanks.

N O V E M B E R / 0 2 / 2 0 0 6 Viewer submissions, woot! I have been working hard to sort through all of the INCREDIBLE stuff you guys have been sending in, and have added some great viewer's stories to the following pages:

Evergreen Cemetery...... Clinton Road...... SI Monastery...... Desolation Diner...... Whipporwill Valley Road...... Boyd's Sanatorium...... and Jamesway (just scroll to the bottom of each page for the latest submissions)...

...also, I have sadly added the SI Monastery to the roster of places that are no more on the Destination Death Row list, as I've gotten several reports that the amazing old place was demolished by Wagner College. Boo, hiss! I am really, really bummed about this. Let's all have a moment of silence for the passing of this great UE legend... *silence*...............

Lastly, one more thing- due to a recent hard drive crash (more boo, hiss!) I lost a whole bunch of viewer submissions that I had yet to add here... *sob* So if you sent something in that didn't make it on here (this would have been anything not added that was sent longer than a few months ago), I may have lost it. Please resend!

OK you guys- we LOVE hearing your stories, so please keep the submissions coming my Virtual Scoobs, and I'll keep working on adding them to LD! And thanks again everyone!!

O C T O B E R / 2 7 / 2 0 0 6 In honor of my favorite holiday of them all- Halloween baybeeee!- I've just added a whole new section to LD: the Paranormal Files. Mwaa ha haa...

Filled with spooky goodness, it's just the thing to get you into the Halloween mood... there's a complete listing of all places haunted on the site, a whole page full of ghost videos, the true story behind the most disturbing photo I have ever shot, as well as pages for ghostly stories and unexplained photographs...

O C T O B E R / 1 9 / 2 0 0 6 New update- Casper shares with us a very chilling experience at the 'House Of Handprints', a spooky abandoned & remote house she bravely explored in Iowa. Brrrr!

Also- the Lost Diner chat night has been switched to Tuesdays- come join us for our first Tuesday-night chat tonight!! Check for the start time in your time zone here. And, I'd like to invite all of my fellow Flickr users to connect to me on my Flickr page... let's connect & get in touch- add me as a contact, I have lots of spooky (and otherwise) pics to share with ya!! So c,mon!!!

A U G U S T / 1 7 / 2 0 0 6 Yes, it has been quiiiite awhile, folks. I am so very sorry for my prolonged absence from the 'net, and I have missed you all. Life has taken some dramatic- at times painfully so- turns in recent months, but more on that later. Right now, I wanna share the LD news & newness...

First off there is an update- Evergreen Memorial Park- a fascinating old cemetery that Lobo & I wandered in Riverside, CA; where among it's stones we found many intriguing & mysterious symbols and intricate engravings. Check it out, cemetery-lovers.

After a long & involuntary hiatus, I am busily working on a lot of new stuff for this site, now that I am back in 'commission'. Without getting into too much detail (which I literally cannot right now, due to pending criminal and civil cases/legalities which I will be dealing with down the road, and no- they are not toward me, I haven't done anything criminal/illegal I assure you, but someone I was involved with has, and so unfortunately I am going to have to be involved in the aftermaths)... I had some horrible personal blows rendered to my life, livelihood, and health in the past few months. The actions committed by the other party left me literally homeless, without a dime to my name, and with a mound of legal issues and bills to try to sort out. And my health took somewhat of a nosedive due to the stress. So I have been dealing with a lot and thus, absent from the internet and my websites. I apologize for my absence.

Needless to say, my personal life has gone through an intense rearranging. EVERYTHING that can be different, is. I am still technically 'homeless' but through the charity of a family member now have a roof over my head for the time being as I sort things out, so I am 'ok'. My health is improving. And as for the more personal changes, this is not really the venue to discuss them but those who are interested know they can always read about such stuff over on my personal blog.

I am in the midst of trying to piece life back together, financially and otherwise... so I would like to remind you that we have a whole lot of urban explorer & ghost hunter goodies for sale, and to share a link to my personal photography site- HeatherShade.com- once again. If you enjoy my photography and would like to own an original print, I have 'em for sale (cheap!) over there (and keep in mind, all of my photos here on LD are also available for purchase too)...

And as for the LD front... Bowie said it best- ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. A look around this site will show those familiar with it that things are now a bit different around here. I feel I should clarify that the only official honchos of the Lost dot com now consist of myself, Lobo, and Casper. Those two are my closest, bestest, most beloveds and co-conspirators on all things LD, and they are my partners in this venture... could not do it without them... *thanks my loves!!!*

 And I do have lots of new stuff in the works. The next update will be a creeepy one, a very spooky place and story brought to us by none other than Casper, and after that, Lobo's first-ever Lost photoshoot, featuring an incredible place I think you will all agree is one of the most amazing abandoned structures we have ever posted on this site! And, I have not forgotten the Viewer's Choice Poll guys... I will be adding the chosen site shortly and then putting up a new poll for you all to vote on. The Full Moon Gallery & Calendar is also being updated and archived for the missing months, so there will be that, too.

We have not had a Lost Diner chat in quite awhile, due to my life-mayhem and dis/re-location... but we will be resuming them again so get ready to get your chat on. The regular night is going to change from Thursday to Tuesday once we get going- to help accommodate Casper's new work schedule- but I will update here about that when we are ready to start, k?

And finally, I am currently working on an entirely new offshoot to this site that I think many of you are gonna dig... I don't wanna give away too much info yet, but let me just say that those of you who like to be SCARED might be in for a horrorific treat... bwaahahaa. Stay tuned for details!

In the meantime, check out my brand spankin' new Heather.Shade photoblog, where I will be posting pictures from some of my more general random adventures in photography (which you can see even more in this Flickr account)... and/or, feel free to peek at a whoooole other side of me right here, where I post some of my modeling gigs, self portraits, and other such shots (oi how embarrass-king!)... if you are curious... *goofy grin*

Enjoy the update, and stay tuned for moremoreMORE!

A P R I L / 1 1 / 2 0 0 6 Once again, our (hot, redheaded) Iowan Scooby- Casper- brings us another tale of IA exploration... this time she veered down a mysterious river-side path to discover a whole host of forgotten structures in a place she calls 'Broken Alley'. And, check out the update to Casper's Black Angel page, with new information about this legendary dark monument...

Also, I wanna send out a great, BIG congrats to Cas- who is going to have some of her awesome work published in a book- yay! You go, girl!

Ahh, and, speaking of Riverside... yes I am still out in California... I think these damned ruby slippers are defective...*clicks slippers furiously... waits... nothing happens*

I still dunno when I will be returning home yet, though I am hoping it will be pretty soon. In the meantime, you can (as always) catch up with what I am doing by checking out either of my blogs- I have one on Yahoo 360, and one on Livejournal. Feel free to read either. Now... let me get back to working on these damned slippers...

*mutters 'there's no place like home, there's no place like home'...*

M A R C H / 1 8 / 2 0 0 6 Calling all Californians (and, Arizoni-ans)..! As you can see by the palm trees, I am now in loverly Cal If Forn I Ay. And, as I am gonna be here for awhile longer, I am sending out an appeal for info to all the Californians out there... 

I am in Riverside at the moment. Does anybody know of any good places for me to explore while I am in the vicinity (anything strange, scary, odd, abandoned, weird, unusual, odd, 'haunted', intriguing, or just plain odd...?)

....I would like to get out there and get some stuff for the site, but haven't had time (or chance) to do any CA research (been working on the book material) I would verily appreciate any tips/suggestions evah-so-muchly! Also, you Arizona folks- send me some suggestions, too! On the way back to Texas (whenever I do head home) we will be passing through AZ once again... maybe stopping over in Phoenix/Tempe...

I did get to check out some great AZ places on the way here, but they are all for the upcoming book. I'd really love to get some new stuff for Lost Destinations, so any suggestions would be great! (FYI- as my email tends to get jammed with a gazillion emails a day- mostly spammy- you can reach me much more quickly about this by posting a comment on my journal post or my 360 blog entry on this topic...)

Thanks in advance, guys... *smile*

M A R C H / 1 6 / 2 0 0 6 Lobo and I take a drive on the wild side! Check out our road snapshots as we seek out Arizona weirdness in cemeteries, small towns, desert backroads, and more (including Phoenix, Tucson, Bisbee, and beyond) for the upcoming Weird Arizona book!

We are still on the road, now in California, so stay tuned for some upcoming CA destinations as well. And don't forget- Thursday night chats in the Diner are back (and tonight is Thursday- come say hi!)

F E B R U A R Y / 2 3 / 2 0 0 6 Yay- the brand-new Lost Diner forum and chat room is now open! And to celebrate the event, we are having a LIVE Lost Chat tomorrow night, Thurs, 8 PM CST.

This chat will also be a Virtual 'Bon Voyage' Partay for Shady & Lobo (before they head out on a roadtrip in search of AZ weirdness) Join us!!! And check out the new Diner NOW. We command it! :P

For more details, check out Shady's journal. If possible, there will be reports from the road (technology willing!) so stay tuned to the Lost Diner and Shady's journal for trip updates.

We've had some issues that have prevented us from being able to be online/update LD as much as we'd like to lately... so we are hoping to add lots of new stuff in the near-future. The Scoobs will be making a side trip to California after leaving AZ, hunting up the spooky, the strange and the 'Lost' there- who knows what they will find (or, WHAT will find them?? *zoinks*) So, stay tuned...

N O V E M B E R / 1 7 / 2 0 0 5 NEW- the Lost Destinations RSS Feed! *woot!*

Now you can keep track of the very latest additions to this site via our feed- just add it to your Yahoo 360 page, your My Yahoo page, your custom Google homepage, your Livejournal Friends page, as a Firefox Live Bookmark, or anything else you can add an RSS Feed to:

URL of the Feed:
http://www.lostdestinations.com/rss

Enjoy! And thanks, once again, to Lobo, techno-geniusssss-extraordinaire... *hugs*

O C T O B E R / 31 / 2 0 0 5 HAPPY HALLOWEENY, my friends and fiends!! 

I hope that you are all enjoying a spooky-fun (and safe) Halloween.... and in honor of this ooky-spooky holiday- I have some treats, so don't go playin' any tricks on me, you guys...! 

*waggles finger at you all*

First, I have added the mysterious and mystical Mt. Rubidoux (in Riverside, CA)- which boasts a medieval-like tower and bridge at it's summit, amongst other things... and it is haunted by some legends and superstitions that you just won't believe! Check it out here. 

Also, I've added the latest winner of the LD Viewer's choice Poll (with 60% of the 537 votes)- the 'Wander Inn'- an eerie, abandoned indoor/outdoor complex in Freehold NJ. Check that out here. Enjoy...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM SHADY & LOST DESTINATIONS!

O C T O B E R / 1 7 / 2 0 0 5 Heyheyhey friends & fiends... Lobo & I are back from our epic California trip (...wanna see a pic?) and are back in El Paso... didja miss us?? *wink*

This trip was for personal business, not work/exploring... but, we still managed to squeeze in an exploration anyway...*smile*... I will be posting pics of that soon, so stay tuned...

Also, I wanted to direct your attention to our new & improved 'Scooby Villains' Name Generator Thingy!! Here is my result, which I think you will all agree is very, very fitting haha ha...

What Scooby Villain Are You? You are the outta control type who likes to run amok in deserted amusement parks. Yeah, you know what we're talking about. You are Charlie The Robot.

Ah, so so Shady... right??! Now check it out and find out what classic SD villain you are. And don't forget- you can now copy/paste the results to show off your monster-iffic new identity on your own journal/blog/webpage/whatever. Oh, and feel free to mutter: "And I woulda gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids....." ;)

(BTW the Scooby Villain thingy will be up there in the site menu from now on, under 'Interact'... enjoy!)

One last thing- my Heather Shade site is up and fully functional now- so head over there and take a look through the photo galleries if you are so inclined. Thanks!

S E P T E M B E R / 1 4 / 2 0 0 5 I've added the photos from the most recent Weird Texas book signing, check them out here (thanks to all the El Paso folks that came out to meet 'n greet us- you guys rule!)...

Also, I wanted to share a sneak peek at my new website- HeatherShade.com - it's not 100% complete (photo galleries will be opened soon), but you guys can preview the site now if you wanna... *wink*

A U G U S T / 3 1 / 2 0 0 5 I just added a page to keep up with the Weird Texas news and events... check it out!

A U G U S T / 1 1 / 2 0 0 5 I have just added a page listing my upcoming appearances (book signings, radio shows, etc)... for those of you keeping track... *smile*

A U G U S T / 1 0 / 2 0 0 5 YAY- the Weird Texas book is finally out, and holy smokes was it worth the wait!! The Marks have done it again- it's AMAZING. I am super-proud to have been a part of the project... *big grin*

I wanted to mention that I will be doing book signings here in El Paso, on August 20th, 3:00 PM at the Barnes & Noble on Viscount, and September 3rd, 3:00 PM at the Sunland Park location... so you local people come out and say 'hi'!

...also for the El Paso area folks, this coming Monday (the 15th) at around 8:30 a.m. I will be on the KLAQ (95.5 FM) Morning Show. In addition, I will be on KWTX-FM Waco TX with Darren Taylor and Chrissy, on Wednesday, August 31, 2005 at 8:40 AM-8:55 EST, for those of you in the Waco area. I may be doing some more radio interviews, I will let you all know more about the details of those as they come up.

In honor of the book coming out, I have posted an update featuring one of the weirder places we found while out exploring for the book- the creepy 'Chinese Graveyard'... an odd cemetery in San Antonio with an interesting urban legend. Enjoy!

J U L Y / 0 4 / 2 0 0 5 I know I haven't been 'around' in awhile... it's a long story, and I've posted a little note here for the curious... feel free to read it, you all... *wink*

Also, as chosen by you guys in the Viewer's Choice Poll, Building 265- an odd structure of unknown origin where we found much strangeness- has just been added. And, if you haven't looked at the Full Moon Calendar and Gallery in awhile, check them out... I've added all the newest moon pics. Enjoy!

A P R I L / 1 1 / 2 0 0 5 Heyhey amigos... been very busy wrapping things up for the Weird Texas book deadline while recovering from the Houston trip... whew. I will have a new 'weird' update for the site soon... in the meantime, you can check out our Houston roadtrip shots here (sorry no drunken-Shady-dancing-on-the-bar pics like the last trip, haha)...oh, and this month's Full Moon pic is up, and it was shot in Houston during the trip; check it out ;)

M A R C H / 2 2 / 2 0 0 5 We leave for Houston this morning, for the last roadtrip slash exploration for the Weird Texas book. We are supposed to have internet in our hotel room, so we might get online and maybe even let you spy on us in the room via our webcam, wooo! 

So in the meantime... keep an eye out for us online, check my journal for possible updates from the road, and we will seeya next weekend.... ta ta friends!

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