I took a day off from work (and myself – working hard on the website) to give Sparkle a little test drive before the upcoming biggie trip.  She’s had a little mechanical work done (wheel bearing, axle seal, etc.) and I wanted to make sure the A/C is blowing cold.  All seems to be in good order.  Got some good weather for the day and was able to bang through a little list of places.  Most of it reshoots of stuff that I shot long, long ago in crappy weather.  I’m guilty of neglecting stuff in my own backyard for far too long.  Hoping to make up for some of that with some little weekend trips in the fall.

Anyhow.  No photos of the dogs on this little daytrip.  But they got plenty of action.  Nik got to do a little lure coursing early in the day (that’s chasing a plastic bag attached to a wire that runs around a huge field).  He LOVES it.  And since there’s no guarantee that he’ll still be able to see next year, I wanted to get him over there at least once this year.  There were also a couple lakes for the dogs to do some chilling and retrieving.  It was at least 98 degrees.  A pounding heat that really saps you.  When I got home, I went straight to bed.  Not normal for me.

On with the photos.  I indulged in a pistachio ice at the Strollo’s Lighthouse in Long Branch.  Creamy, yummy and painfully cold:

 

On to Asbury Park.  I was very happy to see the Asbury Lanes sign had been repaired.  The plastic pin portion had been blown out in a windstorm in 2010.  And definitely new since the last time I was there — this UFO.  I also don’t remember the pin picket fence:

 

I don’t know where the UFO came from or anything about it.  It’s built on a wood frame and it looks like the plastic bubble on top could be lit:

 

From Belmar:  the St. Rose High School.  A little midcentury number with ribbon windows on the side and Mondrian-ish windows in front.  The front windows are textured clear glass (like headlight material) set in front of plastic paneling.  Maybe they are or were backlit?

 

Busy B’s Launderette in Belmar — it doesn’t get more adorable than this!  The bee is holding a laundry basket:

 

From Lakewood Township — the Ocean Lanes.  I cropped & spared you the modern message board below.  This bowling alley opened in 1959.  This is probably the original sign with some updating.  Probably new letters and painting — and maybe replacement panels.  But I’d guess at least faithful to the original.

 

These little Hess gas stations are getting to be rare now so I shoot them whenever I find them.  This one is in Brick.  Soon all these mini convenience stores will be replaced with bigger ones to keep up with the competition.  I’m guilty myself of patronizing those humungo WaWas.

 

On to Trenton.  Some Streamline flavor here — but probably built in the 1950s.   “Parking in Rear” might have been a clock originally:

 

The last couple shots for this post — still in Trenton.  Hamilton Jewelers with the Neon Bar in the background:

 

The blade sign on the right looks like it was a “spinner”:

 

So, it’s all systems go for the summer trip.  Mark yer calendars for July 21 when the dogs and I will be heading west again — this time focusing on Colorado & Wyoming.  Lots of other states both going out & coming home, too.  I hope you’ll share the adventures with us.  There will be the usual nightly postings here and over at Flickr  I’ll be posting the route map to Flickr next week.

I also posted some other photos from this daytrip over at Flickr just now:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

Have a great 4th of July!  

dj & the dogs