Archive for the ‘Mail Pouch Barns’ Category

I try to take my “Photo Trips” on Saturdays as to not miss church, but this trip was a last minute decision after church on May 16th. It had been a while since I went shooting and was itching to get out, so I decided to head north towards Preble County Ohio to find a couple of covered bridges. The Brubaker covered bridge and the Roberts covered bridge.

As usual, I found much more to shoot along the way to my final “target”. For one, I ran across the partially abandoned Crystal Tissue Company’s factory just south of Middletown, Ohio. I seriously considered jumping the fence and shooting the inside, but Betsy has scared me into re-thinking trespassing with her threats of not coming to get me out of jail. I had to settle for shooting the water tower from outside the fence. Maybe I’ll go back one day!

I also ran across a couple of very cool abandoned farm house. One of which at the time it was abandoned was occupied by a retired U.S. Air Force officer. It was rather eerie walking into one of the upper bedrooms and seeing his uniform hanging on the closet door. I also found a box with his discharge papers and his military records in it. Sad to think of it, but all my uniforms and paperwork are in my attic. I’m hopeful that no one finds it when shooting photographs of an abandoned house in Fort Thomas in the future!

I also ran across a previously “undiscovered” Mail Pouch barn, although it’s more of a garage, and new, but all the same a Mail Pouch sign. And the last shot of the day was a rather sarcastic political statement of a local pizza parlor’s owner.

Here’s the entire gallery from my Preble County trip. Enjoy!

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Last weekend we decided to run up to Dayton, Ohio to visit with my son and his wife and our grandson. It’s a quick one hour drive to Dayton so we try to get up and see them whenever we can. Along the drive I mentioned to Betsy there “may” be a covered bridge on the way and maybe I’d stop for a “quick” shot of the bridge. But really… I knew of a bridge and yet another Mail Pouch barn we may happen to “stumble” across!

All said and done our one hour drive to Dayton took about two and a half hours. Not only did I shoot the bridge and barn, but I also found a previously unknown Mail Pouch barn. I have such a understanding wife. Not only did she accept the fact I was dragging her along on another of my crazy “barn storming” trips, but she didn’t even complain when we got to Dayton and my son and I went off to find a Mail Pouch sign he had seen and wanted to show me! She’s great!

Here’s the entire gallery from our trip. Enjoy!

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If you receive emails whenever I post a new story on my blog I’m sure you’ve decided I have a sickness when it comes to Mail Pouch barns. I don’t even remember how it started. I’m told people with addictions don’t even know it till they wake up one day and say to themselves “I have a problem”, then it’s to late. My wife has learned to live with it. Waking up on any given Saturday morning to a note saying “I’ve gone “barnstorming” for the day, call me if you want to do something”. The way I see it I could be out at strip bars, so she should be thankful I have this sickness!

Here’s the latest gallery in my collection. A barn in Fallsburg, Kentucky. Enjoy!

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I was in Columbus, Ohio this past week on a 2-day photo shoot with my boss. We were shooting his father’s collection of antique pharmacy products (gallery coming soon). Since we were going to be there for 2 days I of course looked into any Mail Pouch barns in the area. There are quite a few barns around the Columbus area but since I wasn’t driving and had to talk him into a diversion from our original mission, I had to find the closest barn to his parents house in Galena on the Hoover Reservoir. I located a barn a mere 16 miles away! Which to me, who will drive 150 miles to shoot a new barn, seemed reasonable.

After a peaceful night stay in the beautiful farmhouse he grew up in, and his father keeping us up late with “old timer” stories (meant to be respectfull not sarcastic) we were headed to breakfast then off to shooting more. I think Pete’s dad was rather confused as to why he had to wait for his breakfast so I could take a picture of some old barn, but he was a good sport about it. The drive from the farmhouse to the barn reminded me of my days in Minot, North Dakota. Cold, windy, flat lands with snow blowing across the roads. It was actually a beautiful drive and if I was alone I would have stopped quite a few times to shoot some barns and a couple of little churches spotted along the way. But we were on a mission, find one particular barn, then get Mr. White to breakfast! Thanks to Google maps and our iPhones with GPS we found the barn with no problems and they dropped me off to get some shots while they turned around. Wow, it was cold! But I was very thankful we made the trip because it turned out this barn was very nice, and I always love to shoot the red Mail Pouch barns.

On our return trip Pete and his dad messed with me being so into taking pictures of barns. I know in reality Pete understood, but I’m not sure his dad really did. As a matter of fact the rest of the day while we were at his pharmacy shooting he would mention to people, “You wouldn’t believe it, this morning we drove way out in the country, just so this guy could take a picture of a barn”. I enjoyed knowing that maybe from now on I will be part of one of Mr. White’s “old timer” stories!

I know this is a rather long story just to end up with more pictures of a Mail Pouch barn, but I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed sharing it. I will be posting some of our photo shoot at White’s Pharmacy soon, of course with more “Mr. White” stories!

Here’s the rest of the barn shots. Enjoy!

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I was on my way home after a very long day of shooting through east Kentucky not quite knowing how I was going to get home when I “stumbled across” Grayson, Kentucky. Which is the eastern end of the AA Highway, a straight shot home. Right as I pulled on the AA Highway I ran across this Mail Pouch barn. It’s always nice to be surprised by one of these, afterall I had spent my day driving 4 hours to shoot one further south (which I did), so this one a welcome added bonus for the day. The lighting was very bad. Almost dusk, just all around bad light but I wouldn’t walk away without shooting it. I will go back at some point and re-shoot this one.

Here’s the gallery with the rest. Enjoy!

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The Old National Highway runs 3,157 miles from Atlantic City to San Francisco. Last August I drove a small section of the historic road from Wheeling, West Virginia to Columbus, Ohio. Prior to my trip I researched Mail Pouch Barns along the highway and decided my trip would include some GPS guided photo shoots. This is a collection of 6 barns along the way. These barns are either on Route 40 or just off the main highway. There are quite a few more than I shot, but my son and I were on our way home from a 3 state, 7 skateparks weekend trip and we were ready to get home.

I have decided that if I ever have more money than I know what to do with I would buy this building and have the sign on the brick wall cut out and moved to my house. I’m not sure what I would do with it, maybe install it in my basement. After all I have more money than I know what to do with, so my basement has 12′ ceilings. Of course I’d have to talk my wife into it, and the chances of that are the same as me having more money than I know what to do with!

Here’s the entire Old National Highway gallery. Enjoy!

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For the past few years I’ve gotten up on New Years Day and gone out for an all day photo trip. This year I missed New Years Day by a couple of days. This gallery is from my first photo trip of 2010, January 3. My goal was to shoot a Mail Pouch barn in Adams County, Ohio. I did end up shooting that particular barn (Adams County barn), along with 3 others, a couple of Churches and some other barns. The last Mail Pouch Barn in the gallery is the only Mail Pouch Barn in the country with all four sides painted with Mail Pouch advertising. There are a few close-up shots of Harley Warrick’s signature.

Here’s my first road trip of 2010 gallery. Enjoy!

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Betsy and I took a ride a few days after Christmas just to get away after all the holiday craziness. Well, for me it was to find this barn. I’m assuming she came along for the ride just to get away?

This is on Route 128 just outside of Miamitown, Ohio. I hate finding a barn with a bunch of “modern” stuff around it, which this one did. The light was also messing with me so I just shot a few. I have at least one shot showing each of the 3 sides. This particular shot was with the sun right behind the barn so I didn’t expect much. With some work, I think it turned out fine.

See the other sides here. Enjoy!

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