Bon voyage is a french phrase meaning good journey, or have a good trip. Fitting name for a highway side motel, especially now that it is in the latter days of its existence.
Travelers once pulled off highway 115 in Clarington, midway through their own journeys, in search of a temporary resting place. For decades, the small rooms played host to a parade of sightseers and tourists, commuters and drifters. Each room complete with the basic necessities, a washroom, bed, fridge and stove, some of which are still present, but are merely rusting and decaying decorations at this point, stripped of their functionality. Children once played in the grassy field out back, which is now overgrown, and the rear walls are blanketed with a carpet of thick vines. This area is now silent, but for the whizzing of cars racing by on the highway out front, passing this old place by like a Pharcyde chorus. Children's toys litter the floors of some of the rooms, never to be played with again. Nowadays, mould is the only living thing inhabiting these rooms, and small critters come and go just as people used to do. Wallpaper and paint are sagging like the skin of an aging woman. The colour is fading from the upholstered chairs and floral drapes. Void of the activity that once bustled, the Bon Voyage has seen its best days, and its journey is coming to an end. It is aging rapidly and falling apart. With no monetary value, the motel has been abandoned and is no longer cared for. It is a senior citizen now, and after years of giving sustenance to its owners and shelter to passers by, no one stops by to visit anymore. It has been deemed worthless, and left to rot and decompose all alone. The doors that once opened wide and welcomed travelers are now bolted shut. The OFFICE sign has fallen, and rests on the cracked sidewalk outside of Room 4. The rooms are void of human activity these days, just as the signs have been removed from the large metal posts that once encased them.
No one ever stops at the Bon Voyage Motel anymore, they just continue on their good journeys.
Sign of the times
Bon Voyage Bon Voyage
OFFICE
The office is now closed
Red light district
The tree that grew from concrete
4
12
Sign language
Please be seated
The silence is deafening
MO
Purple rain
Bed frame side table
No one ever plays with me anymore
Water bottle dreams
Shed some light on the subject
No one gives a shit
Green with envy
Pinky and the drain
Poop dreams
NO VACANCIES
Please kick me
Bon Voyage Caillou
Shitty deal
No rest for the wicked
After a long day of exploring, we said Bon Voyage to the Bon Voyage, just as we had done at several other locations on this day. And like many others had done for decades, we exited our room, entered our vehicle, and continued on our good journey.
***UPDATE***
October 13th, 2014
The old Bon Voyage Motel has escaped the fate of demolition and has recently been repurposed as a sales centre for Boatland Canada.
click here to check out all of jerm & ninja IX's ABANDONMENT ISSUES
2 comments:
Amazing! (but what else is new?) haha
Is this place still around? All I could see was a field.
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