It was over 100 degrees, again, today.  We’re all hanging in.  Forecast for tomorrow is more of the same.  The weather’s supposed to change on Friday — 20 degrees cooler and rain.  So I’d better shoot as fast as I can.  If I do run into crappy weather, I’ll consider it a blessing and pull over and sleep.

Otherwise, nothing noteworthy.  I’d hoped to bang through all the KC stops in one big push.  But only got through about half.  Road construction and detours east of Independence didn’t help either.  So tomorrow, I should be able to wrap it up and start on the Kansas chunk.  I’ve allotted four days to cover that state’s stops — not enough I’m sure.  Little blue circles all over that map in the atlas.  And a hefty one-inch thick stack of printed maps.

Let’s move on to today’s offerings.  We dipped our toes into Kansas a couple times today for a few things.  Here’s one from Leavenworth.  Of course, I’m a huge mid-century modern fan but, really, what were they thinking here?

Not to be confused with the Best Western chain…  This one in Independence, MO:

Several more from Independence.  A little bit of this and a little bit of that in the Sterling Lanes sign (near Sterling Ave.).  Google actually calls this Sugar Creek, MO.

I was glad to see the “winking man” signs were still there.  There’s this one and another one next door at the used car lot.  Both building and lot have been abandoned for years.  Any KC-ers know the original name of this dealership?  Did this character have a name?  I’ve never seen these plastic ball signs used in repetition like this before.

I posted a close-up of the Save Gas sign but here’s another gratuitous shot just to show you more incredible clouds.  The gas station’s been closed for awhile apparently.  I worry what will become of this sign.  Lots of new development all over the place.

I can’t remember what was here before Bob’s Cafe (help, anyone?) but they’ve done a nice job of repurposing the sign:

A cute plastic sign from Raytown:

I posted the Fun House Pizza sign in Raytown over at Flickr tonight.  Here’s another example of a C-152 Lectra sign.   Bonus bulb arrow and concrete block.  These C-152 Lectra signs were quite mesmerizing at night.  Here’s a video of the Fun House sign:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-m4xcocevI

A couple shots from Kansas City proper (more tomorrow).  Some swirly Art Deco detail:

And last one for the day — I can’t tell if this sign is a new retro build — or a repurposed sign.  It looks sooo familiar but so many signs used this or a similar design.  You’d think Dave’s could have added neon to the mid-section.  The sign looks so odd and half-assed this way.