This past Sunday (05/01/05),
Vickie and I took a trip up to Bronson cave, more importantly known
to us as "THE BATCAVE." This time, I went back with costume in tow.
One just has to do things like this every once in a while.
For those who have followed any of my previous adventures, or
have been up to the cave yourself, you'll know that there is a bit
of a hike to get up to the cave since the roadway to it is gated and
locked. But this time as we drove by the gate, it was opened with a
sign that said, "Trucks, Film" with an arrow pointing up the trail.
I was a bit worried that the area would be shut off from us if they
were filming up there. There's a lot of film friendly terrain up
there to choose from for locations and the park is often used. I
wasn't in costume except for my tights under a pair of sweats and we
walked up the path first to see if the coast would be clear.
Eventually, we came to the area and saw cars, trucks, trailers and
craft services (food). A guy dressed in black slacks and equally
black Polo style shirt that read "CAST SECURITY" approached us as we
came closer to the area. I had a bad feeling about this.
He informed us that there was filming taking place. I told him
that the cave that wasn't being used in the shooting (which was
taking place about 80 yards away on a cliff face) was the original
Batcave for the TV series and that I had brought a costume to do
some poses in front of it. He looked around over his shoulders as
if to see if
anybody else was seeing us and said, "Go ahead, you
can
park over there" That was great to hear that I didn't have to make
the hike in the suit since it was already getting pretty hot.
We went back down, drove back up and I suited up. We walked back
over to the cave area. There was a huge power generator staged near
the entrance of the cave that was being used for the shoot so this
limited the angles available.
We started to try and take some pictures only to find out that
the batteries had been low and the camera was shutting off on Vickie
instead of actually taking a picture. We brought a pack of
batteries, so that was an easy fix although things like, " I told
you in the car..." "Well I was busy unpacking your utility belt..."
playfully went back and forth.
As we started again, I noticed a lady coming up the road with a
little boy who was possibly three or four years old. She stared
with her mouth dropped and the boy looked at me standing in front of
the cave in awe. I gestured to the boy that it was okay to come up
to me and smiled. He came trotting over and took my hand and stood
by my side as if waiting to get a picture. His mother was much closer
now and said, "I brought him up here to see the Batcave because we
now have the movie on DVD and I kind of remembered it was out here.
Wouldn't you know this is the ONE time I don't have a camera and I
take one with me EVERYWHERE." I could imagine their surprise. I
mean, what would you think if your mom took you to the Batcave and
BATMAN was standing there! Sure, you would tell your friends and
family, but would they believe you. And years later as you got
older, would you even think that it really happened or was it an old
childhood dream.
I asked the lady if she
had an e-mail address and that we could
take a few pictures for her and would send them. She was VERY
grateful. So I asked the little boy his name and he said, " enk... grbl..um...
zhgfjst.."
He was still in shock. So I asked his mother. She
said his
name is Zion. What a sweet kid too.
No sooner than our photos with him finished, people form the
filming crew and security start coming up. "Oh no, we're getting
shut down," I thought. I was wrong. They all brought their own
cameras and cel phone cameras with them for pictures with Batman. Too
funny. Unfortunately, I didn't get any of my own pictures with them
for myself. That's often the case. In the end, we
managed to get some nice pictures and met some wonderful people.
Click on
thumbnails below for full picture
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