THE STEAM TUNNELS   Went for a two hour expedition to the steam tunnels of OSU campus tonight. There's a door which doesn't close all the way by one of the buildings. You have to pick up a grate and climb down a ladder in a very well lit area. That's rather difficult, expecially because people were walking by on a regular basis.    After descending a the ladder you could enter the basement of the building. There we found many large machines. Located in all the basements are large air conditioners, back up power generators, air filters, industrial strength heaters, large fans, and other unknown things.    A small door provided access to the actual tunnels. Suddenly we were surrounded in red brick, stone work, pipes, and an arched ceiling. It was noisy, loud clicking was coming from all over as the pipes expanded and contracted. It was also very hot, they're steam tunnels, that's what they carry. This was a main focal point of many tunnels. In one direction there were two levels of tunnels, one right on top of the other. We headed north.    The tunnel turned periodically. It also had many obstructions. Being tall, I had to bend over to walk. The tunnels are narrow too, narrower still as they are filled with pipes. At seemingly random locations there are odd looking valves etc.. There were gauges and safety releases and countless convolutions of the pipes. At times we ran across small leaks, steam hissing out and making strange puffs in the air. Some places were very damp as well. Red water collected in pools that complimented the red brick walls. Some of the bricks carried the inscription 'Made at ASO prison'. The brick work also was very irregular at places.    After a long journey we surfaced into the basement of one of the abandoned buildings. Later we gained access to many other basements. Most of these were not lighted, as were portions of the tunnels. The lighted portions of the tunnels are simply evenly spaced bare bulbs. Some tunnels were very long, you couldn't see their ends. Junctions were very confusing, and periodically involved a height change.    We entered one building which is having major reconstruction work. The basement was entirely dug up, and there is only rolling hills of dirt. Small 'bobcat' bulldozers sat there, abandoned, waiting. We walked up one hill to find that it opened into a four story auditorium. At least that's what it used to be. It was just open, the three stories above us exposed with no walls. Behind us the curving wall had large holes broken through for the construction work. It reminded me of the ruins in Rome. Some mosaic tile work even clung sparsely to one wall. There was an atmosphere which can be described as such; 'Here was once something very great and beautiful, many people came and did many things, but now it is broken and crumbling. It is empty and ghost like.'    Roaming around that basement we came across two cement circles. They were each surrounded by fences of rusty metal rods. In the center of one circle was a large table. Laid out on the table were large blueprints of the building and a can. Scenes like this were very surreal. We ran into small wooden desks with work spread out on them. Everything was so still though, the workers gone. Everything seemed abandoned.    Walking through the tunnels we came across vent holes periodically. They look very much like miniature manholes. We peered out to see a small glimpse of the night. The cool air was refreshing. It had started raining outside as well.    After two hours we eventually left. We had covered quite a bit of ground. However, we had only barely covered a tenth of the total area serviced by the tunnels. I'll go back soon, to see the other things, to be immersed in the ultra industrial atmosphere.