This is a little time-out post from the Tennessee photos. I took a five-day trip with stops all over Nevada and attended the Neon Speaks festival “soft opening” of the new Light Circus Museum in Reno over the weekend. The photos (much, much more than shown here) are up at my website (roadarch.com).
Let’s start with the Dinosaur House in Henderson:
These lions in front of this fraternity in Reno were built in 1915 and originally installed in front of the Kern County Jail in Bakersfield, CA. Just before the jail was demolished, the fraternity bought them in the early 1960s and had them moved here:
A knight at the castle-themed Manor Suites in Las Vegas:
This bear is one of about five noisy and animatronic animals with fur or feathers inside Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall in Las Vegas:
A giant Dunkin’ cup in Las Vegas:
A giant hand and baseball at the Desert Diamonds Baseball Complex in Las Vegas:
A giant water bottle vending machine in Las Vegas:
The under-construction giant guitar building for the Hard Rock Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas:
The long-closed former Stuckey’s in Baker, CA:
A former gas station in Goldfield:
This former Phillips 66 station has been repurposed as a Union 76 station — quite a miracle after sitting vacant for years — in Las Vegas:
The court house in Pioche:
The former fire station in Winnemucca:
The glass facade at the closed Western Motel in Las Vegas is still there:
First stop of the trip was to shoot this sign in Wrightwood, CA — not a motel but actually a long-gone pool where you could take lessons, etc.:
A recently adapted sign (formerly the El Dorado Motel) in Reno:
The long-closed Nugget in Reno:
In case you didn’t know, Wendover Will in West Wendover had his neon replaced with LED. They also repainted his face and some other places pretty badly:
The Travelers Motel sign in Elko has gone back to its original red paint:
These two signs are in Pioche:
Although StreetView says this sign is is Ely (way further south), it is apparently in Lages Junction or Lages Station. The place appears to be closed and the “Bar Cafe” was painted over sometime after 2009. I would assume there was neon originally:
The cowboy and bucking horse are still hanging in there at the long-closed El Rancho Hotel in Wells:
The Marin Hotel directional sign in Winnemucca:
The long-closed Golden Motel sign is in Valmy. The bottom reads “Beautyrest” (mattresses) and “No Vacancy:”
This sign is in Las Vegas:
A recently restored sign in Las Vegas:
And here are just a few of the signs from Will Durham’s collection at the soon-to-officially-open Light Circus Museum in downtown Reno:
I’ll be back soon with more Tennessee photos.
Happy Trails,
dj & the dogs
RoadArch.com companion 