Alrighty then.  I’m going to try to catch up — but I’m feeling really beat.  I don’t know if I can do two posts tonight.  Yesterday, was all in the Phoenix area — and then my get together at night.  It was another super hot day — 107 I think.  I got the dogs back to the dog park with the lake in Gilbert early in the day.  A nice long romp and then kept them safely inside the relatively cool van all day.  When I hopped out to take photos it was shockingly hot.  Yet, people were out jogging, biking, all that.  These Phoenixians are sure sturdy stock!

On to the pictures so I might conserve some energy for a second batch tonight.  Another &*%^@% pole — this one in Tempe:

 

A couple of signs in Mesa:

 

While in Mesa, I stopped by Graham’s Neon.  They are restoring the Starlite Motel sign which crashed to the ground in 2010.  It’s a HUGE sign and is costing a fortune.  Fundraising is still going on.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/article_b98b26d0-38c1-11e1-be06-0019bb2963f4.html

I had hoped to get a look of the restoration-in-progress — but it was in storage in another building.  But I did get to see this bit of one of the diving lady’s faces that was too far gone and had to be replaced.  This sign had a lot of rust:

For context, here’s a shot of the sign that I took in 2004:

 

A sweet little Art Deco storefront in Mesa housing a flower shop (Zuzu’s Petals):

 

A few other signs from Mesa — note the piano on the left:

 

Unfortunately, Sally’s is closed so I don’t know what will become of this gargantuan sign.  I can only think of a couple signs that have a Star of David — and none other than this with the neon extended off the sign like this:

 

I don’t think I have seen these “flaps” for Vacancy / No Vacancy outside of the Phoenix area.  Usually, motels just have a separate switch for the neon “No”.

 

Another example of these perforated sign thingies.  These on top of the Westernaire Motel (I posted a night photo of that sign in the last blog — but these were not lit):

 

The Wagon Wheel Bar in Phoenix is gone — but this sign remains.  Apparently, someone is caring for the sign because it was lit at least as recently as 2010:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/camerabear/4486472144/ 

 

Rip’s Bar in Phoenix is still open.  A funky sign and roof:

 

Moving on to the evening’s big event — and the reason that I’m now so miserably behind in posting.  I got together with Doug Towne — the Editor for the SCA (Society for Commercial Archeology) publications which I write for:
http://www.sca-roadside.org/content/about-sca

Doug is always positive and enthusiastic about my columns — actually, about everything I think.  We’ve been emailing back and forth for about five or six years — but I hadn’t met him or spoken to him until last night.  He’s just as wonderful in person.  Doug is a better writer than I am.  He’s also a hydrologist and an artist and an accomplished badminton player.  We did Mexican — and here he is with his wife, Mo:

 

As much as I hate having my photo taken, here it is…

 

Mo also took a photo of Doug and I together.  Doug posted it to Facebook — not sure if this link will work but I’ll give it a shot:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4157037443081&set=a.1342781608444.2052742.1198326575&type=1

OK — I’m off to work on today’s stuff now.  If I can’t get it done tonight, I’ll try for the morning.