Flights over Pennsylvania…
August 8, 2021, 9:00 PM
Back on July 20, Elyse and I made a trip up to Pennsylvania for a little photography. This was one of those adventures where we had a specific mission that brought us out that way, but that mission was too small to justify the time and distance on its own, so we built a trip around it in order to justify the mission. In this case, the main objective was to purchase some newly released cans of G Fuel (an energy drink) at a Sheetz that had them, and send them to Shock in order for him to do a review video. Elyse called around ahead of time, and located the flavor in question at a Sheetz location in Gettysburg. Then in order to justify the trip, I planned a route, adding some stops. In this case, Sheetz in Gettysburg was a must, but then I added some stops in Waynesboro and Fairfield to the mix to round it out, creating a little arc across south-central Pennsylvania. We were originally going to run it all the way out to Hanover, but decided to cut it off at Gettysburg in order to get home at a more reasonable hour.
Our first stop in Waynesboro was the Wayne Heights Mall. This was by no means unfamiliar territory for us, as this was where the Gordmans that we photographed was located. Gordmans has since closed, but it was a good flight target nonetheless. Elyse liked it because she could visit Tractor Supply while I was flying. So here we go:
Straight-on shot of the sign on the former Gordmans. I was not able to get an angle this direct when I photographed this previously in August 2020. One of the perks of having a drone…
This made me feel a little bit sad, noticing that the sign was prominently advertising the former Gordmans building for lease below market, i.e. it’s going for cheap. I feel like they are admitting that they can’t attract a bigger name, therefore they’re going to have to settle.
And here’s the Hardee’s in front of Wayne Heights Mall:
By the way, if these photos appear a bit more “atmospheric” than what I usually do, it’s because the air was a bit hazy on this particular day due to smoke from wildfires out west that made its way to the eastern US. My understanding is that the smoke got caught in the jet stream, which brought it this far east.
After Wayne Heights Mall, we went down the road a little bit to the Walmart Supercenter. I don’t know what it is about flying my drone over Walmart stores, but I tend to do it a lot, as I can think of six other Walmart stores that I’ve flown over in the recent past (though I have not yet published material from some of these flights as of this writing). So here’s this one:
Flying over the roof of the store, I was surprised that the edging around the top of the store was still red. This store was originally painted in the 1990s style red/gray/blue color scheme, and has been repainted at least twice since. I suppose it was never painted over because most people will never see this.
I also flew around a nearby Sheetz:
After this, we headed up the road towards Gettysburg, taking Route 16 to Route 116. We soon found ourselves in Fairfield, which is a really tiny town in Pennsylvania with a population of about 500. Elyse spotted the fire department, which naturally led us to look for a siren, since Elyse has a very strong interest in sirens. We found it, but this one was some distance away from the building, in the back corner of the property:
And while I was already up in the air, I got a photo of a nearby cell tower:
And then I raised my altitude and got some aerials of the town:
Note the “atmospheric” quality of the first two, from the smoke that had blown in.
Then in Gettysburg, my flight centered on Lincoln Square. First, I did some shots looking straight down over the center of the square (I lined it up with the flagpole), and then I rotated around to get photos of the town:
View from Lincoln Square facing northwest, towards Gettysburg College.
View from Lincoln Square, facing approximately east.
And that was pretty much that. We shipped the G Fuel to Shock at a little pack-and-ship place in the outlet center before we left Gettysburg, and then we headed back home via US 15. All in all, not a bad time. I like these little trips where we have a small mission that requires some travel to do, and then we build an adventure around it to make it worth the trouble. I often get some pretty decent shots out of it.
Categories: Gettysburg, Photography, Waynesboro (PA)