I had a couple of days to shoot before the big SFSpeaks Neon Symposium event this weekend in San Francisco.  Three action-packed days of speakers, sign-lovers, sign-restorers, films, walking tours, displays… start making plans for next year!  I assume it will be at the end of April like it has been the past two years.  If you love signs even a little bit… this thing is fantastic:
https://sfneon.org/

I was one of the speakers and, as requested, I gave a presentation on Roto-Spheres and Sputnik Signs.  I have three pages at my website that cover these signs here:
http://www.roadarch.com/sca/roto.html

I didn’t take photos during the event since I was pretty busy talking with folks, signing books, etc. and there were three designated photographers for the event already.  There are lots of photos at Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/neonspeaks/

Here’s a sampling of some photos I took on Wednesday and Thursday.   It was too early and there was barely any sun but I shot this liquor store sign in Fillmore anyway:

 

A couple signs from Bakersfield:

This one will be going to the Kern County Museum in Bakersfield where it will be restored and displayed in their outdoor sign garden:

 

From Wallace:

 

From San Jose:

 
From Oakland:

 

A “skeleton sign” (window sign) from Palo Alto:

A couple signs from San Leandro — the Three Rings Wines & Spirits:

The Cordial Bottle Shop:

 
Since I was there on a weekday when they were open, I finally got to see the signs at CNI Signs in Fresno.  Here are just some of them:

If you’re into Foster’s Freeze signs, I’ve got a couple of pages devoted to them here:
http://www.roadarch.com/eateries/fosters.html

 

I also checked out some of the new signs (on the right) at the Big Fresno Fair’s growing sign collection:

A former Shakey’s Pizza Parlor sign in Visalia:

 

From Sacramento — this Orbit gas station was repainted a couple of years ago (previously white) but I was there too late in the day for good photos.  More Orbit stations here:
http://www.roadarch.com/gas/caorbit.html

Also Sacramento but shaded by a new building going up across the street:

 

From Tracy:

From Lodi:

From Healdsburg:

A couple of signs from San Francisco:

Actually, it turns out that I did take a few photos at SFSpeaks before I got caught up in the whole situation:

 

Some other photos from this trip over at Flickr here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

And now, I’ll get down to business to prepare and add the dozens of other photos for
my website.
Sparkle ran great:  1,500 more miles under her belt on this trip.   I’ll get her checked out by my mechanic in the middle of May and then… it’s off to the South for the month of June.  The next posts in July will be a sampling of each day’s photos from that trip once it’s over.

Happy Trails,

dj & the road-trippin’ dogs