Two issues with Sparkle today.  An unexpected blow out in the middle of nowhere, south of Henderson.  Completely unexpected since I’m always looking at my tires:  plenty of tread, plenty of air.  Anyhow, I only lost a couple hours (an hour for the tow; an hour to install a new tire at a Walmart).

Then, later in the day, it was completely my fault.  I was making an impulsive quick cut-through a parking lot to make a U-turn.  I got hung up on a hidden piece of concrete in the grass.  Couldn’t go forward or backward.  So much for all-wheel drive!  Over an hour til the tow truck would come to lift up my front end so I could back out of the jam and get on my way.  Stupid me.

But!  Despite these setbacks, it was one of the most glorious sunny days with clouds in the background where they belong and NOT in front of the sun.  Let’s get going then!

I was happy to see that this sign in Center, TX was still there AND had been repainted.  Although the rectangular sign stuck on top is new:

 

A cafe sign in Carthage but no cafe in sight:

 

In Jacksonville.  A weird sheen to the porcelain enamel that I’m told only requires buffing out and it’s as pretty as new:

 

Moving on to Tyler where there are lots of signs and interesting buildings to shoot.  Let’s focus the rest of this post on some of those.  I love the combination and bulbs on this one:

 

Don’t overlook the holes on the sign pole:

 

This crown detail tops an otherwise unremarkable plastic sign for D’s Coffee Shop:

 

Was that arrow added later?  What happened to the pointy end?  Or maybe there was something else in that square-ish gap originally?

 

I was in Tyler a couple of times before but FINALLY this year in the sun!  Interesting plugs in the tubing holes:

 

This one is lit in green and red at night! (not that I got to see/shoot that since I was had no headlights at this point in the trip):

 

A great rooftop sign at Lew’s Welding Service:

 

At the long closed Gilbert’s El Charro Cafe:

 

Let’s close this post with one photo from Kilgore which is a big oil industry town.  Here’s a neon clad metal oil derrick sign at Woodlawn Fabrication:

 

Still more posts to come from this 28-day trip.  I should be able to catch up completely by the weekend.  If you’re not following along at my Flickr stream, you’re missing a LOT of pretty photos which I’m uploading simultaneously with these:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/
Happy Trails,
dj & the dogs