Back in the old days, before my time, and before you could teleport pretty much anywhere you wanted, roads and telehubs were an important part of how people got around in Second Life. Linden Lab set aside protected land and constructed roads, along which people built businesses, attractions, and homes. Curbside appeal mattered in a relatively small world.
As part of my exploration of the older parts of mainland Second Life, I picked a road across the bay from Clementina and started on a journey to see what I could see, and maybe find some more well-preserved Second Life artifacts. I began my trip in Noyo.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Noyo/89/179/41
Before I even got in my car I found something interesting. It’s the Spook House, a “scary” ride that claims to be the oldest in Second Life. It is cheesy, silly, and shows it’s age, but for L$10 it’s still kind of fun.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Noyo/79/191/65
Once on the road, I didn’t get too far because I saw a beautiful forest to my left. This was the Forest of Kahruvel, created by Salazar Jack as a recreation of a forest from what I guess was the beta grid. (Someone who has been around longer than me will have to fill me in on an event he calls “The Great Erase”). It’s a lovely, wild place to wander, full of little surprises. In a lookout post I found a notecard by Jack from 2004 that explained it all.
When my family and I returned here earlier this year, courtesy of the Lindens’ Second Life technology, I made it my mission to restore the great forest that used to stretch from Abbotts to Bolinas and south to Mavericks. I started replanting trees in Rodeo close to my great grandpa’s lookout that I rebuilt on land Shantilly Lily sold me.
The Lindens had named that section “Rodeo” when they extended The Grid to include it. It made sense for me at the time to name the forest the same. Since then, a lot has happened. The forest has grown much larger and now extends deep into parts of Stinson and Cowell. The combined forested area now measures over 75,000 sq. m.
I love how they terraformed land to look wild in those days, and seemingly built bridges and elevated roads to deal with the terrain. Of course, it was probably planned and designed this way before the region was even turned on. Still, in a world where most of what you see is saleable flat land (“Good for building!”) it’s nice to see a more natural landscape.
It’s an old costume store with old models! The costumes don’t look all that bad, considering.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bodega/206/89/40
Public works like this bridge showed people the potential of what could be done. I’m sure if that was the intent, but it still looks good, even today.
Watch yourself when driving into the Limantour region. The parcel at the border was full, meaning my car couldn’t enter the region, and the resulting bounce was akin to an orbiting. I was literally at 10,000 feet and flying at very high speed across continents and oceans. Luckily when I stood up to exit the car, it put me right back at the border of the region. I don’t know where my car ended up (luckily it was set to copy). It hasn’t autoreturned yet. Maybe this is why you find garbage hovering randomly in the air sometimes.
In Limantour I found a build by Blue Linden, the remnants of the original Cornfield (where Linden Lab sends people when they’re bad). There’s a new cornfield someplace, but you can’t get in (unless you’re bad, of course). Hopefully this is as close I ever get.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Limantour/1/188/30
Finally, I found a miniature recreation of Linden Street, the real-life place from which the company gets its name. This appears to be part of a larger experiment in creating miniature versions of real life places, the remnants of which are nearby.
As you can see, I didn’t have to go very far to find entertainment. Are you bored? Get in your car and drive on the mainland. You’ll find something to smile about.
This is still something I love to do, since my first days in SL.
I would walk out of the Shelter, hang a right and just walk.
Many things have changed since…some builds are still there though.
I should do this again soon
I’ve been to that spookhouse.
if you stop for a moment and think how that was actually created (built and scripted) within the first six months of Second Life’s door-opening, you can appreiate the huge andvanced ‘technology’ in it.
It was definately WAY before it’s time.
And that is why I’m stunned by it everytime I go there.
I also see your photography prowess did a good job of blocking out the surrounding builds. But here’s a little something – explore those builds. Take a look at some of the *original* retail spaces that have been there since (gasp) 2004.
A lot of those “NEW!” items are still for sale for L$100 – pre-prim-hair, SHOCKING LINGERIES! ZOMG! LOL
it’s worth buying some of that stuff just for the nostalgia aspect.
That was fantastic Garth. I’ll have to take a drive along the Mainland roads sometime.
Another place you might want to check out that is new is the Nautilus sims. In the center is a city atop a walled mesa called “The Citadel”, and is a fantastic new build (totally what the lindens could’ve done earlier if they had started off with zone planning in the first place).
Absolutely one of my favorite things to do (other than go to all the great places you have sent me to in the last year Garth) is to ride my motorcycle on all the roads on the old continent. You really can’t get that experience of actual travel and sightseeing anywhere else, and Im very glad in this days of 15,000 islands, that they have maintained those roads and so many open spaces.
The other day, I took a ride on my motorcycle down the mainland to try the route you described, although I ended up taking a few different turns and saw some different things. One of the interesting ones was coming across a haunted house (a different one than you saw, although I did see that one, and the costume shop) that seemed a bit popular. There was also a horrible ferris wheel where the cars kept floating off of it. The most interesting find was a collapsed bridge with a red treasure hunt box from 2004!
Near my previous sim, the Moles have quickly added a road, and also the ad farms that were along it have disappeared.