I took the day off from my grueling work schedule & hit the road with the “kids”.  I wanted to make sure the new computer is indeed wi-fi friendly, Sparkle’s running right, Dee’s up for shooting, and all that before embarking on the upcoming five-week trip.  All good except for the crappy inverter for charging the computer via cigarette lighter.  The piece of junk just falls out the hole every few seconds — glad to find that out now so I can get a replacement.

The weather was pretty cooperative.  Some clouds rolled in at mid-day.  We were also stuck in traffic for at least an hour in Paterson.  It seems the rain earlier this week really hit NJ hard & all the rivers are overflowing.  Bridges barely passable (scary!) and giant puddle lakes.  Police cars stationed everywhere like barricades.  This photo shows what would normally be an intersection.  I don’t know how these folks are getting to their apartments — I guess they aren’t:

The dogs were happy to be running in new territory.  Found some big grassy spots here & there (even in urban Northern NJ).  However, it was pretty soggy everywhere & I got my shoes & socks wet early on and was stuck that way without spares since we were doing just a daytrip.

On with the signs & buildings…
From Jersey City — the Court House Pharmacy (yes, just across the street from the court house):

another sign from Jersey City — love the matching fire escape:

A former Woolworth in Hackensack:

with terrazzo floor at the doorways:

Another five & dime store — a local one in Closter from 1960:
http://www.wards5and10.com/info.html

Some nice mid-century features at St. Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church in Westwood — dedicated 1964.  An electrician went in that side door and I had to stop myself from running in behind him to check out the stained glass & interior:

Glassman Drugs in Paterson is a real gem.  This photo not nearly so nice as it looked in person.  Neon over porcelain enamel tiles:

and the nicely weathered sign — with some remaining opal glass at the top.  Followers of my blog and fellow sign junkies already know — these translucent letters would have been lit from behind by bulbs:

A really nice skeleton sign (window sign) in Prospect Park at the King Garden Chinese restaurant:

And, lastly, a nice little Hess gas station office in Rockaway.  It seems these are really rare now — having been replaced with the big c-store buildings.  Guess this lot was too small for that.  Surely, the place was neat as a pin when the station first opened with no crap taped to the windows, etc.:

Exhausted from today’s sprint across NJ.  But the dogs & I are more than eager for the Next Big Trip.  Come on back y’all in a couple weeks!

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Notes to newcomers: All my blog photos are “clickable” (clicking on them leads to bigger photos).  Also, I simultaneously post different photos each night to the “agilitynut” Flickr account while on these trips:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/