Well, so much for the “four days” that the Roswell mechanic promised.  By late morning, I cranked on the AC.  Blowing hot air.  Again.  I stuck to my route despite the fact that the nearest Pep Boys was in Abilene.  I set up an appointment with them and  loaded up the water jugs for two days of misery and all-day driving/shooting.  I suppose a saner person would have just holed up in a motel until then.  But, hey, the sun’s out and vacation time is short.

Let’s start out with some signs in Midland with this Holiday Inn sign copycat:

And this “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign copycat.  The Vegas sign was designed by Betty Willis who never had the design copyrighted and it has been lifted for many modern signs lately.  Here’s the Vegas sign:

and the one in Midland:

This truck & rooster are at Big Sky Towing in Odessa:

Manuel’s Restaurant in Odessa has a number of signs:

I would assume that the hot Texas sun has turned the Mexican kid green:

Southern Maid Donuts.  This just might be the best donut I’ve had in my life.  And I’ve had a lot.  Orange glaze with coconut on a puffy, lovely light cake donut.  Gawd.  I could eat six of them in one sitting if I had them.  They have a huge variety.  You must stop if you are driving between El Paso and Dallas on I-20.

The Ector Theatre in Odessa…

… will soon be getting a makeover as evidenced by this development poster in the “Coming Soon” movie poster case:

No such promise for the Scott Theatre in town which I like better:

Fun painting at the Western Drug Package Store:

One more from Odessa.  This funky welding sign.  The chain link fencing prevented me shooting the sunny side.  I’ll try to translate.  A hand in a welding glove on the right and some sparks on an abstract object.  I think.

A couple of signs from Fort Stockton:

This wonderousness is being consumed by trees and pointing at nothing that’s open:

Let’s end with one of my (many) favorite themes:  boot signs.  This one in Big Spring:

And this one at Wood’s Boots in Colorado City:

I’m off to photoshop like a demon for the rest of the night.  I’m hoping to get the rest of these blog and Flickr posts up this weekend.  Then, I can settle down into the groove of working on the website.  I figure it’ll take me maybe six months to get the nearly 2,000 photos inserted there.

Don’t forget, I’m simultaneously uploading a sampling of each day’s photos from this trip over at Flickr (different photos than this blog):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

dj & the still recuperating dogs