prison break-in, part I

Yesterday we broke into a prison. We had advice from others who’d been there on the best places to enter. But when we arrived in the manicured community we found a Labor Day Weekend block party just exactly at the intersection we needed to depart from for the short trek back into the woods to the prison fence. Children were hopping round everywhere like crickets. Adults were glaring at us as though illegal aliens might shortly invade their picture perfect day and require escorting off the premises. We drove around looking for another entry point; none was visible, but we did find a park that backed up onto the woods about a quarter mile up the road. The park’s lot, and all the surrounding dead end streets (that’s how you can tell an exclusive community) had temporary no parking signs tacked to naked birch stakes and pounded forcefully into the ground. They did not want anyone who didn’t belong taking part in their local festivities. What had we been thinking that a holiday weekend would be good for an adventure because people would be away? What?

We changed into our exploring clothes in the park’s completely empty lot and left the car in front of a house where we hoped the inhabitants would not summon the police to investigate our out of state tag. Then we walked back into the woods. As we trudged I had the nagging feeling that making our way back might be difficult; there were no landmarks and it was impossible to tell what direction we were going. Eventually we encountered the first layer of fencing, but the prison was still beyond our sight. That first fence was high, at least 20 feet, the links were small and it was topped with razor wire that still looked as though it’d been put up yesterday. We knew that somewhere there was a hole in the fence, but the grounds map was in the car. We walked a length in one direction and then in the opposite direction. Finally, around a corner, was the large enough for a hippopotamus hole. Great. Second layer, we were sure there had to be a simple way in. This fencing was temporary, put up to protect the construction site. The uprights anchored in concrete blocks, the links the standard larger size. And off to the left was an open gate. We were on the prison grounds.