I got some Texas stops in as we headed ever eastward towards Florida. But the weather was pretty crappy (clouds) and there was some giant accident on I-20 in the middle of nowhere that had us at a standstill for hours. There will be a lot more Texas later in the trip since I had a detour to pick up a “passenger” in Oklahoma.

I’ll have to return to Sweetwater sometime to get this Masonic sign in the sun. What about those wires? I even PhotoShopped a few out:

A ratty looking (but still wonderful) former Whataburger a-frame in Abilene. I’ve got loads more at my website here:
https://www.roadarch.com/eateries/aframewhata.html

Abilene also has a former Burger Chef which I shot but it’s not worth sharing here (it will go to the website) because it’s pretty much unrecognizable. But what makes this location special is the sign — pretty ugly & painted over:

but it still has that chef piece on top – very, very rare – but I don’t know if there’s enough paint left on either side to ever be restored:

The sun was out in El Paso so I’ll add a couple photos from there. There are still many Arby’s hat signs out there but will be rare enough soon. The chain’s plastic signs are just so hideous, aren’t they? If you’d like to see a long list of the surviving hats (and ever rarer, covered wagon buildings), I’ve got a bunch here:
https://www.roadarch.com/eateries/arbys.html

The smaller American Furniture sign on the side of the building:

Fashion Cleaners in Midland has two signs — wish the sun was out to do them justice:

These magnificent mushroom canopies in Midland were built for Gool Office Machines. The lot has housed numerous used car dealerships since then.

This surprise discovery was tucked inside the Hotel Wooten parking garage in downtown Abilene. Turns out, it only went by this name for a short while. According to Wikipedia: “For several years, the Wooten was rechristened ‘The Abilene Towers Apartments.’ It became notorious for the chunks of masonry and debris that would often rain down on unsuspecting pedestrians below as it crumbled beneath the west Texas sun.”

If you look at the blue part of the panel, you can make out ghost letters for “HOTEL.” If you stare long enough at the red part, you can sort of make out or imagine “WOOTEN.” The sign is now mounted on a wall but it was obviously a projecting sign originally:

Let’s end this post on with a sunny shot — this one in Sierra Blanca. You can see that wonderful ripple tin (lighter than steel’ the crimping strengthens it and holds paint better):

I’m off to add photos to my website — back next weekend-ish with another post. If you are new to my blog, I also add different photos to Flickr simultaneously when I’m working on these posts:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

Happy trails,
dj & the dogs