And so begins the summer trip.  37 days ahead.  The focus will be Colorado and Wyoming.  But before we get there — there will be about a week of other states.  A couple of days in Indiana & Illinois, a couple in Iowa, a couple in Nebraska, etc.   The rough sketch of the route is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/7546126074/

Before we get to today’s photos — a few notes for the newbies on the bus:
Each night on these trips, I post about a dozen photos to Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/) and then about a dozen other photos here at this blog.  These photos are clickable — clicking on them with your cursor will open them to a larger size.  For more info about how I plan these trips, manage traveling with four dogs, all that — see the special blog pages — links over there in the right column.  Also, info about the website in general at the “About” page:  http://www.agilitynut.com/about.html

OK — since I left you on the last trip, I’ve been trying to squeeze in overtime at work and planning for this trip.  I also managed to get about a week’s worth of photos (four more weeks to go) from that spring trip up at the site — you can always follow my progress & see where/when I’m heading next at this page:
http://www.agilitynut.com/whatsnew.html

 

Alright then — enough links & information — I’m working on two hours sleep so it’s time to get to the photos.

The trip began as they always do — immediately after work.  Since I work nights, that means I leave home at 3am.  Drive til about 5am and find a quite place to park for a couple of hours then get back on the road.  With jumbo coffee.  Construction on the Brooklyn Bridge meant I had to detour through the Lower East Side of Manhattan to get to the FDR.  I grabbed a few shots on the way:

 

 

Some “sanity stops” off the interstate for a bit in Pennsylvania.  This is from Benton.  The angle was not my doing — the sign is really leaning like that:

 

On the roof of the Creekside Family Restaurant in Orangeville, PA.    There is a little ice cream stand round back:

 

 

How about some storefronts in Williamsport, PA.  Sadly, this camera shop (established 1935) is closed now:

 

 

 

Franco’s (probably not the original name) next door — still open.  Unfortunately, the hanging sign was apparently updated — pretty hideously:

 

 

Really neat stationers — still open (established 1899).  The place has a great interior that wouldn’t shoot well through the glass (too early for them to be open):

 

 

And on to Ohio.  This one from Lansing — the used car lot still open.  However, the neon cars on this sign seems to be stuck on Car #1.  The cars are protected behind plastic.  This sign has probably been reworked numerous times — still crazy fun like it is:

 

 

A couple of signs from Dillonvale:

 

 

And lastly for the night — the Neil Armstrong Memorial Park centerpiece in Warren, OH.  I was actually quite into the whole Apollo space program as a kid.  Glued to the TV set for the moon landings and walkies.  So, seeing this mini replica of the lunar lander was kind of a thrill for me:

 

 

The dogs were in their usual fine start-of-trip form today.  Deliriously happy and barking like mad.  It takes about 3 days for them to settle into a groove, start napping, and stop thinking that every time I put the van in park that they’re getting out for some big party.  Although the forecast was for “mostly sunny” — the sun didn’t come out at all until 4:30pm.  I don’t know why I even bother to look at the weather predictions at this point.  Although there were lots of grey crappy photos, it was quiet a pleasant relief (70s?) from the heat wave we’ve been having back in NYC for weeks (90s).

Alright — I hope this post was somewhat coherent.  It’s midnight and I’m toast.  Ambitiously hoping to finish up Ohio tomorrow. Stay tuned….

dj & the dogs