Despite my best efforts and all-day sun, I still have a few hours worth of stuff left to shoot in Minnesota tomorrow morning.  Then, it’ll be off to Wisconsin.  Tuesday and Wednesday there.  Thursday and Friday in Illinois.  Interstate hell on Saturday and putting my life in order on Sunday.  Back to work on Monday.  That’s the plan.  If I’m a good girl, I’ll stop shooting on Friday.  But if I’m bad, which I usually am, I’ll shoot until Saturday afternoon — making the drive home even more gruesome.

So many lakes today for the dogs that I lost count.  Grippie always seems to find the dead fish first — making up for her blindness with her sense of smell.  Luckily, no dead-fish rolling incidents on this trip which makes the van reek for weeks despite dousing with Febreze.  Don’t believe those TV commercials.

Let’s start with a sign from Mankato.  I assume these must have been mass-produced but this is the only one that I know of like this:

 

I’ve shot this sign in Waseca before — but never really investigated the place other than that:

There’s also a giant chainsaw carved hamburger:

There’s also this “land yacht” that you can dine in (note picnic table installed instead of seats):

And these two Amphicars which you can, according to the sign: “ride for free on the lake”.  WHAT?   I see from other people’s blogs that it’s true.   Okay, I MUST take the dogs for a ride in an Amphicar.  I will definitely find out about this for the next time I’m in the area.

 

Hoff’s Bar in Owatonna has several great neon signs — including this one:

 

Another one from Owatonna:  (the city name kept reminding me how I’m gonna owe-a-tonna money for this trip — about $100 a day for gas alone).  Looking at Costas’ website now, I’m regretting not stopping in for some sugar.  I haven’t had hardly any indulgences on this trip:
http://www.costas-candies.com/

 

Another from Owe-a-tonna:

 

Moving on to Faribault.  A pole in the way forced this angle — but I think it was a blessing.  I shoot way too much dead-on:

 

More Faribault — a movie theatre fallen on hard times.  A great asymmetrical marquee from the 1940s.  The building appears to be vacant now (“for sale” sign) but it was a church in recent years.  More about its history here:
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8145

 

A black & cream vitrolite facade:

 

From Albert Lea:

 

Another eagle in town.  This sign appears to be a replica (rather than a restoration) to me.  Restoration is such a subjective term anyway.  To some, it might mean just repainting.  Or it might mean completely refabricating something in the style of the original.  Well, anything beats a plastic box sign:

 

Another from Albert Lea.  I had to shoot into the sun for this one — but I think you can make out that this part of the building is completely brick glass.  The rest is pretty boring auto repair shop bays.  I have no idea what this was originally:

 

One more from Albert Lea:

 

And from Austin — where the dogs and I have collapsed for the night.  Another head-scratcher — I can’t tell if this was ever old — or replaced — or what.  I can tell you that it wasn’t lit tonight:

 

 

Kind of sad that there are only four days of shooting left.  But I’m pretty exhausted from the driving and late nights.  It’ll be a miracle if I can get all of this year’s photos up — and my credit card back to zero — before next spring when we start this craziness again.

Some grey and rainy weather in the morning.  I let the dogs run and sniff and swim a couple of times just to wait for things to clear.  Grassy fields and Lake Hanska.  Lots of green grass everywhere which is sure different from all that Wyoming stickery stuff.  The dogs are much happier about that.  It really does feel like more than a month that we’ve been out here.  Five weeks at a time of this insane lifestyle is enough for me and the dogs.

Where did the time go today?  I thought I’d get a lot more Minnesota done.  But, first, there was the weather for a slow start.  And then, there was all kinds of traffic in and around Minneapolis.  Even though I didn’t have many stops there, they were widely spaced apart.  And there you go — a low volume day.  Tomorrow, should be more productive in the less city-fied areas and the forecast is for a big orange circle all day:  SUN!

I started shooting today in Spirit Lake.  Gotta love this monster — a florist and garden center:

 

 

Still Spirit Lake.  See those annoying grey skies….  Fareway is a regional supermarket chain based in Iowa.  I haven’t seen any old style signs like this one before.  It might have been updated from this design:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/heathervescent/3406778171/
I think there are still a couple of those left out there.

 

I think there are still a few stores left with these rooftop signs — including the sensational mid-century building in Marshalltown:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/4867349849/

 

 

On to Minnesota.  In New Ulm, I came across these now very rare Eliot Noyes’ round Mobil gas pumps.  Though they’re not in use as the place is now Terry’s Auto Service.

I assume this station had the mushroom canopies (also designed by Noyes) originally like this:
http://u1.ipernity.com/11/52/03/5375203.3e40314f.560.jpg

There are still four pumps in use in Denton, NC — towards the bottom of this page:
http://www.agilitynut.com/gas/ncice2.html
Those are the only ones I know of still in use (or at least they were in 2010).  But this place in New Ulm wins for quantity — six pumps.  Although they are bit rusty & banged up:

 

 

Ahhhhh.  Finally, the sun — and what a difference it makes.  Even this brown sign (can’t be the original color — or name) looks great!  From Minneapolis:

 

 

Another from Minneapolis.  The former Boulevard Theatre.  At least the marquee was saved.  Sorta.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8152

 

 

A couple from St. Paul.  A nice flatiron building (triangular lot) with lots of neon.  It looks like it should be lit at night but I don’t see any photos at Flickr:

 

 

A Google search tells me that this is the Czech and Slovak Sokol Hall.  But I still don’t get where the “P” comes from:

 

 

Back at it tomorrow here in Minnesota.  A giant fish just down the block here in New Prague to shoot just as soon as the sun is right.  I’m hoping to move on to Wisconsin by Tuesday afternoon.

This morning, things were not looking so good:  pouring rain.  Which was kind of good since, for the second night in a row, I had to finish the blog in the morning because I couldn’t keep my eyes open the night before.  And I couldn’t find the energy last night to get the Flickr photos up.  I was absolutely dead tired.  So, after doing all that, it was 10 am and the rain was still coming down.  I considered giving up and going back to bed around.  I checked ol’ reliable (not) weather.com for the forecast.  And the forecast for Sisseton — 2 1/2 hours to the north where I was heading today.  While weather.com is pretty inaccurate with forecasting, at least they’re better with announcing the present conditions (though even that they screw up sometimes).  I’ve tried other weather websites and they’re no better.  When I saw all sun up in Sisseton, I fired up Sparkle and off we went.  Sure enough — loads of sun.  And by the time we got back to Sioux Falls, it was sunny there, too.  Well done!  So, a travel tip for when you encounter crappy weather:  find out where the sun is and skedaddle to there.

Hello, Sisseton!

 

 

This will be a shorter than usual post since I spent about half the day on the interstate or nothing-to-look-at highways.  But actually, the clouds were stupendous all day.  Just amazing.  But I won’t bore you with photos of those.

Back in Sioux Falls:

 

 

I’m guessing that the El Riad Shrine (Shriners Temple) in Sioux Falls was built in the 1930s or so.  Really hard to tell and I’m finding nothing about the building’s history on-line.  Probably a lot of remodeling.  The neon signs are probably modern but still great.  I hated the modern carnival-esque entrance marquee at first.  But now it’s beginning to grow on me:

 

 

From Brandon.  Trees in the way forced this angle — but maybe better than straight on anyway:

 

Moving on to Iowa for a little bit.  This Rexall drug store in Rock Rapids appears to still be in business.  I couldn’t tell if there was a lunch counter — the place was closed when I arrived.  This store probably also had a hanging neon Rexall sign originally.  If you’re into Rexall signs, I’ve got a mini section over at my website:
http://www.agilitynut.com/signs/rex.html

 

 

Last one for the night — ran out of daylight here.  I’ll be reshooting this one in the morning for the website.  But you don’t mind a bit of washed out color, right?  From Spirit Lake, IA.   A nice bit of historical info about the place here:
http://www.vickscorner.com/history.htm

 

 

Tomorrow, I’ll finish up a very short Iowa list and then be on to Minnesota.  Most of it small towns on the southern edge of the state.  A few Minneapolis/St. Paul stops — but not many.   I did a fairly thorough job of all that last year.  In bed at midnight for the first time in weeks!

Since this is a shortie post tonight, it’s a good time to mention to late-arrivers that there’s a whole ‘nother parallel universe taking place over at Flickr.  Yep, I post different photos here and there every night on these trips.  Here’s what you might be missing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

A gloriously sunny day — but a good percentage of it sitting in place just barreling down I-90.  Three mediums cups of coffee for me today.  I think a new record.  But I got all the way from western to eastern South Dakota with many stops hugging the interstate on the way.

We started the day in Rapid City.  And one of my goals has always been to replicate the vintage scene here at the Dinosaur Park with my own dogs:

And all my dogs know how to beg, readily, eagerly, easily.  It’s one of the first tricks I teach.  But today, Day 28, I experienced one of those “do we HAVE to, Mom?” moments.  Nobody wanted to do nothing.  I think at least Nik might have — but since he knows a finger signal more than a verbal signal and the nearly blind boy was facing the sun, he hadn’t a clue what he was supposed to do.  Fixie and Grem were on strike.  Grip can only sit up for a couple of seconds since she’s losing a lot of muscle tone in her aging rear end.  Ah well.  I think another trip, another time.

 

Then, photo-op #2.  I saw this statue in downtown Rapid City last night and knew we had to do it.  But the bronze chair was so slippery from so many human butts previously posed on it, that my guys could barely stay on.  It was like glass.  The statue is of Warren Harding and his Airedale Terrier, Laddie Boy.  There are these smaller than life Presidents on nearly every corner downtown.  I had to shoot quick since it was rush hour traffic just a few feet away and Grem was scoping something.

 

On with the roadside stuff then.  More Rapid City.  Love this 1970s era sign:

 

From Hill City.  This guy advertises for Chute Roosters restaurant:

 

Another from Hill City.  With meshie protective covering:

 

Several signs from Custer:

 

And  no I-90 trip through South Dakota would be complete without a stop at Wall Drug:

For those of you that have never been, there’s all kinds of creepy statues — animatronic like these — and others just to pose with:

Photo-ops — like this faux Mount Rushmore and a saddled Jackalope for you to climb on.

And of course, an incredible amount of souvenirs, stuff to eat, and all that.  ‘Tis amazing.  This dinosaur is a fairly new addition sure to give the kids nightmares:

 

On to Interior to check on the giant prairie dog statue — looking good.

The other times I’ve been there, it’s been deserted.  The gift shop closed.  I had no idea that there were prairie dogs everywhere around the statue.  Maybe they only come out during working hours?  The gift shop sells some kinds of special peanuts or something — you’re not supposed to feed them anything else ($$).  And there were maybe a dozen kids and families there with the critters eating right out of their hands.  The fattest little prairie dogs I’ve ever seen:

And of course, the dogs were enjoying the show…  That’s Grem barking madly in the front seat and Nik jumping up and down.  Grip gets in a participatory bark now and then.  Fix is pretty much wishing we were back in Brooklyn already.

 

A couple of signs from Murdo:

 

From Chamberlain:

 

On to Sioux Falls.  I arrived at dark and was totally unprepared for shooting neon — but knew I had to find the energy somewhere.  It means even less sleep but who knows when I’ll be here again.

Just enough light to make out that one lonely car.  I put the pole sign from this place over at Flickr tonight.

This one has to be a modern sign — but I still like it very much:

 

I should be able to finish up South Dakota and get started on Minnesota tomorrow.  I thought I was maybe a day and a half ahead of schedule.  Thinking how nice it would be to get back on Saturday morning and have all weekend to get my life together before work on Monday.  But looking at the thickness of these Minnesota and Wisconsin packs — wow, not so sure.  I have a feeling it’s gonna be another killer drive home from Chicago & I’ll be home late on Sunday.

The dogs and I spent about half the day in Wyoming — and then we moved on to South Dakota.  I feel very sad leaving Wyoming officially with that little doggie probably still wandering around somewhere.  My friend Sue (post a few nights ago) was giving a seminar in Cody just north of there and even stopped to see if she could find him.  No trace of him.  I’ll keep calling the cops every few days for a while but it sounds like this will forever remain a mystery.  He’s so wonderfully cute and I’m still pretty much heartbroken and just plain down about it.

My dogs are all doing splendidly.  They have the routine down now and are sacked out a good part of the day.  Grem’s recall has improved SO much since last year.  She now hops out, looks for prairie dogs or rabbits and then pretty much comes to me waiting for me to throw a ball so she can earn some sausage or cheese.  Fixie got her front feet bit by fire ants yesterday and licked her feet for about 20 minutes.  She now checks the landscaping before she’s willing to jump out of the van.  I always leave the door wide open so she can make the decision.

The weather has gotten about 20 degrees cooler in the past couple days which is a big relief.  And today, it seems like we’ve finally left the hazy forest fires or brush fires behind.  Lots of gorgeous clouds — the type that make photos prettier rather than interfering with the sun.

Let’s start with Dayton, WY:

 

 

Moving on to Sheridan.  This one is gorgeous at night:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/732mpd/6482980047/

 

I’ve never seen bulbs arranged in a rectangle like this before:

 

 

Fun stuff!  Probably so against sign & building codes in most cities:

 

 

Still in Sheridan:

 

A couple of signs from Moorcroft:

 

This one has been crudely painted to represent the Devils Tower National Monument.  I have no idea what this sign originally looked like — or if the name has been changed.  The shape is quite similar to the Pierce Cleaners sign in Columbus, OH:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/7130215899/

 

 

From Sundance, WY.  A single-sided sign with the sun directly behind it forced this funky angle:

 

 

And finally — on to  South Dakota.  I’ve had better light shooting this sign — but here was today’s sun/shadow problem.  But with the back in the shade, I was able to shoot this video to show the way the animated bubbles work.  I don’t know what that irritating click/click/click in the background is.  I’m not doing anything but it seems to happen on all of my videos.  Maybe time to get familiar with the real video camera and stop relying on Dee’s video function:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leYrnKC_zfo&feature=youtu.be

 

 

A couple more signs from Spearfish — this one refurbished recently:

 

 

Neon, plastic, bulbs — and a yes/no –>  this one’s got it all:

 

 

Onward — to Deadwood:

 

 

Such a strange design — probably not “Penny” originally — and who knows what the bottom looked like:

 

 

A novel use of a dead tree — Flowers by Rose in Sturgis:

 

 

While in Sturgis, I went over to the Full Throttle Saloon to get the Muffler Man in better light.  You might be familiar with the place from the TV show?
http://www.fullthrottlesaloon.com/

The place was quiet — not the usual crazy busy biker scene.  So I wandered a bit and discovered some signs:

 

 

Finally, caught up to where we are calling it quits for the night — Rapid City.  I was shocked and disappointed to find the Rapid City Laundry building vacant and this sign was missing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/2746094344/

 

Apparently, the business closed around 2010 & the owners took the signs with them:
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_0f740664-c2e1-11df-94c7-001cc4c002e0.html

While the article said the sign is believed to be from the 1930s — I think that only the text part is from around then.  The washer woman part appears to be from the 1950s.  This plastic sign remains — with a reminder of what the neon sign looked like:

 

 

Let’s close out with a couple of night shots:

 

 

Unless there are complications, we’ll probably be in South Dakota about a day and a half more.  Most of the stops will be hugging I-90 as we slowly work our way eastward towards home.

 

 

I wish I had good news about the little black doggie.  I started looking for him at 6 am.  Walking back and forth through his territory until 9 am.   No sight of him.  Nobody else had seen him either. Maybe he’s a late sleeper or maybe he moved on to another part of town.  I had to get on down the highway and leave it to the locals.

It doesn’t seem like anybody else cares much about this little guy.  I called the vet in town and they said “There’s nothing we can do.  We can’t get involved.”  Bunch of crap.  I told them maybe they could at least mention it to their clients that were into rescue.  I called the police again to make sure they had my information.  I sent an email off to a contact person in Wyoming for IMPS (MinPin rescue group).  Haven’t heard back.  And today, a cold front had moved in — temps about 20 degrees colder. Reminding me that winter is coming and this guy doesn’t stand a chance if he’s not rescued in a couple of months.  Much  crying during today’s interstate driving.   I’m absolutely devastated.

Trying to put it out of my mind — but can’t.  Back at it though.  Some things from Casper.  This gas station is gone but the sign remains:

 

The Goodstein Building from 1960 has a lot going on.  Including the plastic bubbles over the entry on the right.

 

This building is just across the street:

 

This place was originally a Tastee-Freez.  There is still a T-F menu board there on the far right.  I have never seen a T-F sign like this before — but the company did use diamond shapes in the 1960s:
http://www.agilitynut.com/eateries/tastee4.html

 

Also in Casper:  Sanford’s Grub & Pub.  This place opened a few years ago.  There are a bunch of dinosaurs and oddball fiberglass statues in front including a couple of forty footers of Daffy Duck & Bugs Bunny.  There’s something on-line about Daffy & Bugs coming from Coney Island — but I would think I’d know about that since I live in Brooklyn.

Inside, there are a bunch of signs.  Many of them repros.  And you have to steel yourself since there is much modern Betty Boop, Marilyn Monroe type crap there as well.  Terry’s Turf Club this place ain’t (loyal bloggers may remember all the vintage signs from Cincinnati).  But I believe these signs have enough dings to put them in the “real” category:

 

This one’s a modern sign but interesting since it uses the old Ford design:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/7648198266/

 

From Wheatland.  Obviously repainted, most likely renamed.  But I love that gumball-filled arrow. And anything covered wagon gets my attention:

 

Also from Wheatland.  Love this super funky liquor store — the way those orange letters slant on the 1970s? shingles.  The curvy arrow sign and the mammoth brown sign.  What a freaky letter “A” that is.

From a rock shop in Torrington.  A spinner sign!!  Love the visible pulleys & belts.  Not super fast — but still fun and oh so rare now.  Here’s a little video I made to show you the speed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z58ISL8_5UM&feature=youtu.be

There are also other videos I’ve shot of signs at this YouTube account that you might want to look at when you have the time:
http://www.youtube.com/user/agilitynut

 

A couple from Newcastle to close out this post.  Obviously, neon on the sign originally.  Maybe also a different name.  Love the bisecting giant arrow.  I’ve seen bisectors before — but never this big:

This place is still open — though this skewed sign in a big field might make you think otherwise.  There’s actually a fountain there that looks like this, too.  Aren’t the fonts great — and the water ripples?

 

We should be able to wrap up Wyoming today and move on to South Dakota.  About a day and a half ahead of schedule.  Got through so much of Colorado and Wyoming on this trip.  But with 10 days of shooting to go — it’s not over folks!  Now comes the “sample pack”.  About two days in each of these states:  South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois.  And then the highway home from Chicago.

Turns out I’m both a very good wrangler and a lousy one.  Details to follow.  Hoo boy.

The day started sedately and normal enough.  Except there was this strange haze in the air.  Like smog or fog that wouldn’t burn off.  Yep, turns out there are forest fires somewhere here.  That’d be all over here in northern and central Wyoming.  Hopefully, I won’t be bumping into any up close and personal.  So, that meant that all my photos have a kind of dull rusty horizon background.  And a good part of the day, despite the sun’s trying, it could barely filter through.  By the time I got to Cody, it was sort of ridiculous.  Very thick and irritating to breathe.

Here’s the hazy horizon that I’m talking about — from first thing this morning in Lander:

 

 

More from Lander:

 

 

 

 

On to Jeffrey City for this one — not much else there.  Not even a gas station which I had sort of counted on.  But I had just enough to make it back to Lander.  See that brownish haze on the horizon?

 

 

 

A Sinclair ghost sign in Hudson:

 

 

From Shoshoni.  The motel is gone but this sign remains:

 

 

From Worland.  I believe this was a Neo-Lectra Jr.:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintageroadside/1536110020/

I don’t know what happened to that arm on the bottom:

 

 

A couple from Greybull, WY as the sun was nearly gone:

 

 

********************

OK then.  Today’s big adventure — or misadventure — depending on how it all turns out.  To be continued tomorrow.  No, Sparkle’s running just fine, day after day, hour after hour.

So, in the metropolis (not) of Thermopolis, it all went down.  As I was shooting the A&W Family, I noticed this little black & tan dog with a red collar, scurrying about.  I watched to see if anyone was paying attention — it crossed the road — 4 lanes — supposedly 25 but lots of cars going faster.  Not good.  I watched for a while, then put the camera in the van and knew what I had to do.  I got some cheese and a leash and followed the dog slowly around through people’s back yards, front yards, a trailer park, a car service place.  Asking folks if they’d seen the dog, anyone knew the dog.  Nope.

So definitely a stray situation — and a very timid dog.  Not overly skinny but I definitely had a feeling he’d been on the streets more than a few days.  And the clincher:  absolutely my type.  One of the cutest dogs I’d ever seen.  A purebred MinPin but longer legs than my Grem.  Narrower face.  Agile and FAST.  I’ll admit, had it been a fat Cocker Spaniel or a big German Shepherd, I would not be as determined.

I managed to bring the dog in to me by lobbing bits of hot dogs and cheese ever closer.  And rather than approaching, I walked away slowly & encouraging the dog to follow me.  Talking softly and praising when he did.  Letting the dog make the choice.  After about an hour, I had the dog nearly taking food from my hand.  Every time I’d move my other hand though, he’d scurry off.  I had a leash looped for a noose if he got close enough.  But the slightest movement of that leash and he’d scamper.  So, finally, I saw my chance, I put my index finger through his red collar (no I.D. by the way) and the wrestling match began.  I had a spinning, flipping, screaming baby gator on my hands.  Quite literally.  I don’t have a photo of the dog but I’ll share the gore with you:

 

Uh, yes, it hurts to type.  Yes, it’s swollen.   About three punctures — one very deep next to the base of my thumb.  But I’ve had worse from Gripper when she was younger.  It’ll be alright.

So, I thought I’d gotten the noose around his neck but it slipped off and that was that.  He won.  Or actually, we both lost.  All in about 3 seconds, everything had changed.  He no longer trusted me and I kicked myself all day about how I’d only made matters worse because there’s NO WAY he was gonna ever get close to a human again.

I continued trying but he was even more frantic.  He even dove in the nearby river and began swimming upstream.  I have never seen a stronger swimmer before, any size, and my lust to catch and own this dog only tripled.  All together, I probably lost about two hours of prime shooting time.  And then I thought about him all day.  When it the road signs said “steep grades ahead” and it was in the direction of all the smoke, I thought better of it.  I looked at the map and decided I would try to catch that damned dog, again.  I worked out a new route that wouldn’t involve mountain passes.

Arrived back in Thermopolis at dusk — asked folks, yep, they’d seen him just a half hour ago.   So at least he wasn’t hit by a car today while I was hauling butt back down here.  His strategy seems to be getting snacks from the A&W and the McDonald’s — and hanging out about mid-distance between.  There’s a river for drinking and some green grass which he seems to like sleeping in.  The cops all know the situation (and me now).  They ARE the animal control in town.  And they seem both uninterested and unskilled at dog-catching.   I’ve spread word with the neighbors who’ve gotten used to my presence on their properties.  Although I saw him a few times when I got here tonight, I didn’t want to push it since cars were driving faster on the road and there was less visibility.  Tomorrow, I’ll give it my best shot for a couple hours.  He’ll be hungrier then.  I’ll set a deadline and then hit the road for Casper, either way.  I think my odds of catching the bugger are very, very slim at this point — but just something I have to try.

 

 

 

 

Most of today was spent up in the mountains.  Rockies, near the Tetons which I had never seen before.  Pine trees, rivers, lakes all that.  The passes were not as steep as the ones in Colorado for which Sparkle and I were grateful.  But there were several of those “wait for the pilot car” road construction delays.  Then, coming back down the east side of the mountains, it was flat and yellow again within minutes.

The morning started with a watermelon party in Evanston.  I’ve been hauling around this melon since Green River, UT which is quite famous for them.  Finally, time to crack it open.  It was the smallest one they had — which was huge — and only about $4.  Juicy and delicious as advertised:

 

I tried to get a doggie & melon photo-op — but just as I started to snap at this park, one of those rotating sprinklers came by.  Fix immediately jumped off the table and ran back into the van.  Nik and Grem closed their eyes but stayed in position.  Grippie didn’t seem to even notice the oddness of the spraying water.

 

Grip wanted no part of the melon.  She and Fix are not fruit eaters.  But I know from experience back home in off-leash Prospect Park where picnic-ers discard banana peels, spare rib bones, birthday cake, papaya pits, etc., that my youngsters would help me out with this thing.  Rind and all.

 

Moving on to Cokeville — the Valley Hi Motel.  I don’t know if those neon bits are meant to be snowflakes or flowers — but I love them.  If you like freestanding neon like this half as much as I do, you might want to check out my Flickr group:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/neonextensions/pool/

 

A quick little sidetrip over to Montpelier, ID.  This has got to be one of the world’s smallest A-frames.  Vacant – I’ve no idea of its original use.  Office?  Seems too tiny for even a bed.

Still Montpelier:

 

And up into the mountains we go.  Lots of stuff in Afton.   There’s a male counterpart to this cowgirl just up the road:

Some fun signs from Afton:

 

I’m pretty sure this circle-with-points was a stock design used by sign shops.  I like the extra effort of the colored letters of “COLOR TV”.

 

On to Jackson — which was far, far too touristy for me.  Mobs of lookie-lous & cars & traffic.  Amazing location though with steep ski mountain declines that just about drop right into town.

xx

 

The other side of this sign has neon – but was facing into the sun.  This is the side that faces away from town.  I prefer this side which reads “Nretsew” instead of “Western”:

 

 

Still in Jackson.  Obviously from the holes and the odd gap after the “r” in Kudar — that this place had another name originally.  Still, I like the shapes and the quadruple bullnose:

 

On to Dubois – quite a fun little town.

A log-shaped sign:

 

And we landed in Lander for the night.

 

Lots of northern & central Wyoming tomorrow.  If there are no hitches, I think we might be done with Wyoming by Friday and be a day ahead of schedule.

First, I should mention — especially since we have a lot of newcomers to this blog — that if you’re not following along with the nightly Flickr uploads on this trip, you’re missing half the show.  That’s where I post the higher quality, website-worthy subjects:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

Secondly, if you check my blog post in the morning and, say, you’re on the East Coast and the sun is up — and the post isn’t up yet.  Fret not!   It means I just could not keep my eyes open any longer and needed to finish up the post in the morning.  If you are curious where the dogs and I have sacked out for the night — I update the notebox on this map each night with our location.  It’ll put your mind at ease that we weren’t killed and eaten by a bear.  Favorite it if you like:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/7546126074/

The forecasters got it right for a change:  beautiful sun all day long.  Quite different from yesterday’s aggravation.  And it meant I covered a lot of miles today.  Since it was Sunday and we were in remote places, traffic was light.  Still no tickets yet — but I was sure flying down those secondary highways today.  I think I’d better lighten up on the gas pedal tomorrow as my luck is probably running out.

The only bummer today was towards the very end of the day, I discovered that I had my camera on a wrong setting.  Which meant the photos were ALL somewhat overexposed.  Argh!!!  Fixable with Photoshop and you can hardly tell the difference — but I can!  Just not quite the clarity and color I should have had.  This happens to me every time I do a lot of night shooting like last night — and then I forget to reset.  I’m a little stupid with fatigue after 23 days.  Usually, I notice this within the first hour or two — but never the whole day!  I hope I’ve learned my lesson this time.

The shooting started in Laramie — so let’s begin there.  A Moose Lodge — wasn’t the Jackie Gleason character on TV a member?  Shooting directly into the morning sun here — best angle I could get:

More Laramie.  Busted neon projections:

Still Laramie.  A real tragedy.  I was really looking forward to seeing this sign.  What the hell happened?  Could wind or weather do this?  Here’s what the sign looked like originally:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/turbguy/2762911265/

From Saratoga — where the dogs got a nice dip in a big lake til they were all shivering like mad:

Lots of great stuff in Rawlins.  I couldn’t make out the original name of this place from the ghost letters.  Black & white vitrolite:

A comical mid-century updated Elks Lodge:

This eagle has seen some tough times.  Looks like it got banged up, a chunk replaced, repainted crudely — and now almost unrecognizable — without the name, I’d not even be able to make out what it was.  Don’t forget, or if you’re a newbie to this blog, all my photos are clickable (clicking on them takes you to a larger photo):

Moving on to Rock Springs.  Remember film?

A Wonder Bread quonset hut.  Still housing Hostess Foods and a Wonder Bread panel truck nearby.  The quonset hut building is suggestive of a loaf of bread, no?

On to Green River:

An incredible brewery building.  Note the giant chalices on top.   There’s also a keg detail on the side of the building.  More about the place here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetwater_Brewery

On to Pinedale.  Way out of the way — but I went there for a giant trout.  And was rewarded with several incredible signs.  Here are a couple “junky” ones that don’t rate the Flickr stream or my website — but love them still:

On to La Barge to check out the situation with the Moondance Diner.  I had heard it was closed so I was prepared for that.  Great ambitions but I guess this little town (population ~ 400 people) and the scant amount of tourists couldn’t sustain it.  The diner was moved here a few years ago from my hometown of New York City.  It cost a fortune to transport it and fix it up.  Very sad.  Supposedly, built in the 1930s but you’d never know it now.  It looks so unauthentic inside and out (as it did in NYC before being moved) that  you gotta wonder why they didn’t just start from scratch and put up some modern Starlite diner or some icky fake-o retro build-on-site thing:

Shot thru the window:

Daylight ran out in Kemmerer.  Kinda funny portrait sign:

So that’s a wrap.  And a late one since it’s now 7am and I’m sitting in a grey haze in Evanston.  Not so lucky today maybe.  Although this stuff has a way of burning off.  I’m staring at a bunch of dinosaurs across the street that deserve some sunlight.  At the first glimmer of light, or after an hour, we’ll be off.  Northward and up into the mountains today.

Wyoming gave us quite a greeting:  the weather was changing every five minutes.   Winds, dust, rain, clouds, sun, hot, cold, and repeat.  And mix-it-up, repeat.  I really got to know Cheyenne well as I raced from one end of town to another — just missing the sun, waiting & then getting one of two shots in before it would start raining.  It was just crazy and time-consuming.  But I’m glad I stuck around and got things done right.  I have about a week to do my Wyoming list which doesn’t seem all that thick compared to the one from Colorado.  But I’m sure there will be traffic, weather, mountains, & distances that will get in the way.

The day started with finishing up in Colorado.  There, it was pretty miserable and grey.  But I had no time to wait it out — just had to shoot what I could with the weather I had and will have to make it up one day with sunny shots.

Let’s start with some stuff from Greeley, CO where the day began:

 

This one was lit last night — but I shamefully did not shoot it.  A beautiful turquoise.  I was just. so.  tired:

 

The store below this sign is now unrelated.  I assume the sign advertised for a photography studio:

 

This used car lot has a variation of the “bulb stick” — the red angled metal projects towards the street — now mostly holes where the bulbs would have been:

 

Now on to Wyoming — starting with Pine Bluffs:

 

I always visit this abandoned truck stop when I’m there.  Nothing has changed in forever.  The Valentine diner (not shown) is still there — quite a mess inside.

 

Today was a good day to stop at this place:  Mel Gould’s Buryville in Cheyenne.  All the whirlagigs were spinning like mad in the wind.  More about this place here:
http://detourarttravels.blogspot.com/2009/09/mel-goulds-buryville-in-cheyenne-wy.html

 

 

 

I know I posted a hellish map the other night from Denver.  For contrast, here’s a much more manageable one for Cheyenne.  I’m happy to be in smaller cities for a while.  Must remember to schedule bigger cities first if I have a choice efficiently so that I have the energy for them.  Better to taper down the insanity as the trip progresses:

 

 

On to Cheyenne.  An interesting building — looks like maybe a restaurant before it was a liquor store?  Strange alignment of the roof with the walls — I suspect a lot of altering took place:

 

 

Another oddball — with nicely done faux castle paint job:

 

 

From Wyoming Adventure Mini Golf — a simulation of Devil’s Tower National Monument:

 

 

 

 

And a whole bunch of fun signs from Cheyenne:

 

 

 

A former drive-in restaurant — still there on a used car dealer’s lot:

 

 

At a closed liquor store —

 

 

Now a fireworks stand on the lot.  I don’t know the original business for this lightning bolt sign:

 

 

Sorry to see that a lot of the neon for the Lincoln Popcorn Palace (yes, it’s official icky name)  was not working.  Maybe there was a recent hail storm or something:

 

 

OK — westward at the crack of dawn in the morning — on to more southern Wyoming.  The forecast is for all day sun. We’ve still got 15 more days left on this journey.  The dogs and I have settled into a groove now.  But 15 days will certainly be enough!