The dogs and I are sneaking off for a few days.  Might be three or four days depending on the weather and my productivity.  This mini trip is an attempt to finish the previous NY trip where I had to ditch the entire Buffalo to NYC southern path when time ran out.  Two interfering circumstances on this little trip:

#1:  We’re in a “mixed weather pattern” — having just had a brush with a Nor’easter.  I’ve been studying the forecast all week.  Expected sun today but got clouds and sprinkles.  Dammit.  As soon as I finished some stops around Albany and hit the interstate for a few hours, naturally, the sun came out.  Didn’t get to my destination (just west of Buffalo) until late afternoon — so I didn’t get to capitalize photo-wise on the weather but it was very pretty, fall foliage and all, and the dogs enjoyed the spa-like dozing.  With occasional outbursts from the two yung-uns who didn’t get nearly enough exercise today.

#2:  I’ve got a nasty cold.  I never get sick.  Never ever.  But I had the misfortune of sitting in a super cold corner at work a couple nights ago and that was that.  A saner person would be home in bed instead of fighting traffic and cranking through lists.  The dogs hate it when I cough — they usually jump sky high with shock and fear.   But they’re getting over it now.  Despite only three hours sleep, I think I might be pulling through this thing.  My throat is sore and I’m loaded with congestion but the fever is over.

Enough whining!  Let’s get to the photos so that I might get a reasonable night’s sleep tonight.  Five hours would be great!  Peekskill was on the way to one stop so I did a quickie pass through town.  Though I’ve been through many times before, I missed a few things.  Including this nice trio:

The big guy on the right appears to be a 1940s-ish department store.  Guy in the middle a deco-ish bank with neat lettering.  And a far left is a Woolworth-y building & sign but GREEN.  That really throws me.  Kresge & Woolworth were always red.  And this didn’t appear to be repainted.  Not this side or the identical sign at the back of the building.  Anybody know the deal?

Also in Peekskill — a couple of nice vitrolite-faced bldgs.  This one with those nice stainless steel freestanding letters — and unusual display windows:

This one also incredible display windows and some terrazzo:

I’ve been wanting to shoot this guy in Albany for awhile now.  Went to the Huck Finn Warehouse hoping to get a close-up but there’s absolutely no way to shoot him from over there.  You’re stuck pulling over on the shoulder of I-787 and hoping a trooper doesn’t catch you.  There was a huge grassy field between the shoulder and Huck that I was really tempted to walk through to get closer – but thought better of it.  I’ve no idea how old this sign is but it’s BIG (note stairs on the right for scale):

A couple mid-century buildings across the street from each other in Schenectady:

More brick & stone — and colored brick glass:

And lastly, let’s not forget my traveling buds.  Tis the season:

I didn’t mess with posing much for this scene.  WAY to dangerous with busy traffic on the road behind these guys.  Took three photos and had them hop immediately back in the van (Sparkle’s tire at left).

The serious seniors (Fix & Grip):

The challenging youth (‘Nik & Grem):

Big day in Buffalo and beyond tomorrow.  Sun would really be nice.

Time to finish up this trip.  Back home, back to work.  Time to really hunker down and get to work on 6,000+ photos waiting to be inserted into the website.

The sun was out about 35% of the day — about the best it was the whole trip.  I hear it was sunny back in NYC the entire time.  The big news:  no smudgie on the lens today – thank goodness!  The day began in Auburn — here are a couple photos from there.  John Stevens is gone — don’t know what the business was but there’s a coffee bar there now.  Nice little Art Deco fins:

About 50 feet down the block is this sign.  No longer a bar there — building is vacant:

Okay, okay — I know you’ve been waiting for the junk food shots.  Had to show my support for the recently reopened Donuts Delite in Rochester:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/5015836430/

Fixie knows something good is in this box:

With a long drive ahead, I stocked up.  Two of these actually made it home with me.  From left to right, clockwise:  raspberry (with raspberry gumdrop on top), peanut butter & jelly, banana cream, and sour cream.  The PBJ was sensational.  Jelly inside lumpy like real preserves, pb icing, pb cup on top with Reese’s pb pieces, peanuts.  The sour cream was heavy — in a soothing way — a meal in itself.  Banana cream was so-so (I forgot that I don’t like powdered sugar).  Raspberry was good but that white icing was a bit too sweet for me.  They had much more traditional donuts as well but I usually go for the exotics.  Surprisingly, I didn’t see the apple cider donuts which are big everywhere at this time of year.  Even the gas station c-stores seem to have lots of them on hand.

Some more stuff from Rochester.   The Dancing Wings Butterfly Gardens, part of the Strong Museum of Play, is about five years old.   It is meant to resemble a butterfly in flight:
http://www.museumofplay.org/about_us/press/dancingwings.html

Here’s a classic, mid-century modern “butterfly roof”:

I don’t know what business was here before (gears?) — but very nice tilework was left behind.  The building is now “available” but part of it is inhabited by a post office.  Hopefully, this artwork will survive:

Finally, some doggie pix.  These guys had a great trip.  Lots of water and fields everywhere we went.  The water was pretty cold which would have Grem & Nik shivering mightily for about 20 minutes after swims.  Fix & Grip rarely went in past their knees.  If you’re new to these blogs — that’s Gripper on top of the dog crate (pantry) and left to right Sputnik, Gremlin & Fix.

The crew is waiting patiently for the okay to hop out into a few minutes of paradise and chaos:

You’ll have to use your imagination here to visualize Nik’s manic barking and swimming after ballies being thrown into the water.  Grem and Grip were mostly busy scoring chicken bones.  Fixie was off flirting with a fisherman nearby.

I’m a big fan of plumbing signs – particularly those with depictions of leaking faucets.  If you’re a member of the SCA, I did an article about them recently.  Some of the signs that I covered are here (not updated yet there is the Moyer sign which was restored a couple months ago):
http://agilitynut.com/sca/plumbing.html

If you’re unfamiliar with the SCA (Society for Commercial Archeology), it’s a great roadside organization that I’ve been a member of for more than 20 years.  I’ve also been writing the Signs columns for their publications for a few years now.  There’s a conference coming up next month in Arkansas that sounds like a lot of fun:
http://www.sca-roadside.org/

Anyhow, yes, plumbing signs.  This one came as a surprise to me.  I was here to see the painted sign in back (see below) — but no one has ever posted photos of this neon sign.  Perhaps it’s because of the crappy plexi paneling that protects it.  I ran into the owner and he says the sign is lit at night.  Next time I’m near Rochester at night, I’ll be sure to check it out.  The owner said it used to be animated but that’s forbidden by the city now.  He also said there was a different neon sign before this one — taller with sequential drips.

I’ve been shooting giant apples for years:
http://agilitynut.com/food/apples.html

but only found out about this one in Medina recently.  It was installed around 2000.  The “kids” were happy to pose for scale:

After all, it was dinner time, and mama had the bowls and can of food with her. That’s the Erie Canal in the background.

So, that’s it for this trip.  If you missed the Flickr photos (different ones from the ones posted here), you might want to check those out here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

I’ll probably do another little four-day trip in October  (some stuff in MA, CT that I didn’t get to this year).  And possibly an Xmas trip to finish up some of the NY stuff from this trip that didn’t happen.  The next biggie trip will be in the spring (TX, OK & more).  Dates & details & all the updates can be found over at the “What’s New” page at the site:
http://agilitynut.com/whatsnew.html

I hope you enjoyed tagging along with us and that you’re able to sneak off for some adventures yourself before the weather gets nasty. 

Stopping soon in Albany for the night — then heading home in the morning.  400 miles from Buffalo to home and I just can’t do it in one fell swoop right now.  Plus I need some sleep if I’m to be civil at all tomorrow night at work.  All is well — lots of fun photos for you.  Check back on Thursday for the final post.

So today — sunny blue skies!  The dogs had lots of rivers to swim in.  All was right with the world.  Lots of miles between stops at times which felt like a waste of good shooting time.  But I did enjoy the scenery.  Pine trees, dark blue rivers, clouds, and cool air.  Fall is here and too soon will come:  much dreaded winter.  Dreaded by me anyway.

An email deluge while I was out and about today.  Replied to most of them and it’s late already.  Picked out a selection of photos from today and then noticed from the very first one that I cropped:  a smudgey area at bottom center.  All day — every single photo.  I know I looked at the lens many times today and it looked fine even with my glasses on.  Now I know that method can’t be trusted. Dog drool?  Maybe it’s been that way for two days but I never noticed because of the grey.  It’s absolutely heartbreaking.  And means even more reshooting in my future.  Shall I just repeat this entire trip next year?  Ugh, I’m so depressed about it.  Tomorrow, I’ll be cleaning the lens like a fiend.  And when I get home, I’ll order 6 lens caps.  I lost the cap on the last big trip and never replaced it.

Okay then — bring on the smudgies (actually it looks like the first few are okay — but you’ll start noticing later):

A couple from Schenectady.  Always relieved to see this place still there:

This sign is quite the mish-mash:

From Howes Cave.  Spot be damned!  Right there a soupy area right below the “o”.  Anyway — the original owner’s son now runs the place.  He said the main reason that he can’t bear to sell the motel is that he knows the buyers would get rid of the sign.  A sign shop quoted him $5,000 to repaint the sign which he can’t afford.  He plans on doing it himself.  I asked about what might have been on the pointy thing on top.  There was some kind of a flashing mechanism.  Not sure what.  I didn’t ask if they ever heard from Holiday Inn about this sign:

Barking, drooling, spot-producing monsters!  Can I blame them for my agony?  Nah.  I’m sure it was me being sloppy with coffee or some such thing.  I’m really surprised that Fixie tolerated this.  Not like her to put up with physical nonsense.  I think they were both too tired to notice.  (As required by my own law, photo taken while driving.  The other two girls knocked out in the back.)

In Duanesburg — it was Moving Day at the Merli Ranch.  Merli Manufacturing that is.  Although not that big a move really.  A few hundred yards or so onto a proper foundation.  This is the former 9&20 Diner:
http://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/former-9-20-diner-moves-to-museum/

foundation at left:

I didn’t stick around to watch the whole process.  The event was purely accidental on my part.  I was just driving by and there it was all loaded up.  I did meet Joe Merli.  And I watched the truck move back and forth for awhile.  Someone said there was going to be a crane involved.  A diner in the air would have made an exciting photo – sorry I had to miss it.  I did grab a shot of the train (engine car? what do I know of trains) that the diner will be named after.  They’re now within winking distance of each other on Merli’s property which will be used as a mini tourist village one day.

Moving on to Mayfield.  This neat geodesic dome could be yours!

From Syracuse.  Sign as canopy — or canopy as sign?  I just think the whole thing is very clever and colorful.  Although the guys working there just thought I was nuts and/or up to no good:

And last subject for the day — from Liverpool.  Not sure what gives better sense of scale so I’ll include them both.  Full sign:

and with Flamingo’s feathered friends:

OK — let’s hope for more sun tomorrow and a clean lens!  That’ll be Day 4 and final day of the trip.  Not sure if I’ll be blogging tomorrow night or making you wait.  Traditionally, I drive home and head off to work and publish the final trip post the day after.  But this is a much shorter drive home than usual.  I’ll probably just chime in a quick hi tomorrow night unless I’ve had coffee and feel ambitious.

This weather blows!  No, I don’t mean that it’s been windy.  It’s just grey, greyer than grey.  Eternal dusk.  And I’m bummed about it.  So much for the weather forecast of sun all weekend.  Okay, so it didn’t rain or snow — but it just as well might have since it means I’ll have to do a repeat trip of this one to get everything in proper sunlight.

To compound my misery, I was in very familiar territory today.  I used to come up to Saratoga Springs once or twice a year for agility trials.  Memories all over the place, round every corner.  I do miss the courses, some of the people, the obsessiveness, etc.  But right now, I don’t have teammate that’s enthusiastic enough to compete with.  Grippie was an incredible champion and loved the sport.  Nik and Grem have other obsessions (toys and critters, respectively).  Fixie has never been into sports — as someone said once “she’s a reader”.  So for now, I just “practice” once a week — which is fun — but seems kind of pointless at times.  And it isn’t such a bad thing as it means all that time and money go to the website and traveling, respectively.  (word for the day:  “respectively” – kind of obnoxious, no?)

Speaking of dogs, they got tons of running, sniffing, peeing, swimming, rolling time today since I was not exactly motivated today to squeeze in as many shots as possible before sundown.  After all, the entire day was sundown.  A few squirrels were chased.  A few squeaky toys no longer squeak.  Good times.  Respectively.

So, despite my melancholy and the lack of sun, I still have a big batch of photos for you.  Let’s get on with it —

Central Ave. in Albany used to have tons of neon signs.  I’ve seen quite a lot of them replaced with plastic box versions — and I’ve only been coming up here for about ten years or so.  Here’s one hanging on — but maybe not for long.  It looked like construction workers were “doing stuff” to the property:

This sweet drive-in has been closed for years now.  I remember when it was open.  I always hold my breath when I approach it — never sure if it will still be there:

The main reason I stuck around Albany a bit this morning was to finally shoot the restored Dare carousel at the State Museum.  A couple blogworthy things inside en route:  the Rocket Car built in 1929:

an Automat display:

If you want to read the items available, click on the photo:

Another rusty crusty with wire mesh like the Olympic sign from yesterday.  I guess this was a pre-plexiglass method of protecting neon?

A residential (I think) window display. Is this scene depicting anything in particular — cowboys, cowgirls, Indians…  Are these famous figures that I’m clueless about?

This sign from Watervliet – business still open:

In Troy.  Ever have that feeling that you were being watched?  Look up.  Way up.  Lounging on the precipice of death.  Like he owns the place.  Wishing nothing but pure evil on me and my van full of barking dogs.

A few more shots from Troy.  Just lovely despite the rust:

Rudy’s is having (or had) a going out of business sale.  I bet this sign could be had for the asking.  Unless Rudy has some personal affection for it.  Both sides had some crunched plastic — but still, plastic integrity here.  These signs were mass-produced with the different biz name at the bottom:

Maybe a different sign here originally judging from the metal roof support?  Still open:

A few of these brick column signs in Saratoga Springs and environs:

Late afternoon, the sun came out for about 10 minutes.  Hallelujah!  So I had to quick grab this one.  As you’ve probably noticed if you’re a fan of this blog or the site, I’m a compulsive cropper.  But I’ve left this one large because of the sunflowers and winding road scene:

And lastly, here’s one from Warrensburg.  The lodge is indeed a big white house.  Which is now for sale.  So this sign might be gone soon.  Like the fall leaves.  If I wasn’t so tired, I could probably come up with something more philosophical about it.  Something about the changing times and the passing of all these great roadside treasures.  I’ll let you fill in your own nostalgic, conclusive verse here.

Heading west tomorrow — send us some sun, will ya!

Did you miss us?  The dogs and I are taking a break from the routine and doing a little New York state four-day trip.  I have long neglected my own backyard thinking I can shoot stuff here in my home state any old time.  But that time never  seems to come and the dreary, blurry, ancient photos at my site are proof.  So this ambitious trip is an attempt to remedy that.  No map for this trip so I’ll just say it’s a giant loop north to Lake George-ish, then west all the way to Buffalo, and then down south-ish through Binghamton, etc.  My stack o’ maps looks like a week’s worth so time may run out by Buffalo.

I haven’t even begun working on getting the summer Midwest photos inserted at my site.  I came home to an avalanche of emails and other must-deal-with stuff.  I also made a valiant attempt to make updates to the site:  stuff that’s gone, repainted, remodeled. etc.  I have a list of at least a thousand things to update and only made it through a few hundred.  Maybe I can catch up this winter.

Back to today… According to the forecast all week, today was supposed to be stellar sunny.  But it was really mostly dreary grey.  Today’s Flickr photos won’t reflect that since I post only the prettiest & sunniest stuff there.  But the sampling of photos I share with you here are unfiltered weatherwise.   Here goes.

Stop #1 was in Yonkers for a couple things including this sign that’s been on my list for awhile.  I assume this was a restaurant but that’s just a guess.  Nothing there now that seems to be related.  Not website-worthy but delightful nonetheless:

The “Wedgwood Professional Center” in Hartsdale.  Painted Wedgwood pottery blue?  I know nothing about this place’s history but love the faux barn & cottagey building.  Also a fun weathervane-y windmill on top of the entrance gate.  A guy walking by with his dog said he thought the place was “spooky” looking.  I would say “cute” or “quirky” but don’t see “spooky” here, do you?

From Elmsford.  The neon was on during the day but it was more apparent in person:

A nice projecting clock at a furniture store in Poughkeepsie.  It was way up there — maybe 4th story or so:

I can only think of a few neon realtor signs from around the country.  This one in Saugerties is unfortunately penned in between trees so it doesn’t allow for pretty photos.

At a tire store in East Greenbush.  A Michelin Man and his dog.  Did he have a dog?  This is a wood carving so I assume it’s a one-of-a-kind statue.  Looks like someone backed into the poor dog.

Here’s one for you rusty-crusty fans.  I assume that metal mesh was put there to protect the neon ages ago.  I can’t imagine that this sign is still lit at all now.  There’s something inspiring about this sign’s resilience, no?

A two-fer — both signs at the same business.  Bulbs, plastic, neon — this one’s got it all!

A florist’s window on Central Ave.  I’m assuming this neon is modern — but maybe not.  Very nice either way:

So simple, so wonderful:

Meet you back here tomorrow for more!

Sorry to make you wait.  Lots of distractions and stuff needing attending to since I’ve gotten home.  The heat continues here in NYC — 90s and humid.  What a long summer it’s been!

Let’s move on to the trip stats.  I took about 5,000 photos on this five-week, 14,660 mile journey.  Spent about $1,500 on gas.  I don’t keep track of hotel/food expenses.  Only got one ticket ($140 in IN) and two warnings (IL & KS, free!).  I certainly deserved more speeding tickets but I’m not complaining!  Thanks especially to KS & MO where I was doing 80 mph on a regular basis.  That was a big time saver.

About three days of shooting were lost early on during this trip for mechanical repairs — a grand total of $979.72 (O2 sensor & wiper module, cam sensor & distributor, and A/C fix).  Plus three oil changes.  Not bad for a van with 263,000 miles on her.  I’m hoping for another 100,000.   These Astros are tough!

And now, for the final batch of photos.  Back in time to Day 26 in Indiana and Kentucky.  These neat foam statues were affixed to the side of Mr. Muffler & Brake Center in Owensboro, KY.  I’m told they hold brake tools & parts.

This guy was modeled after the guy in the photo below who was nice enough to give me that big smile:

Another photo from Owensboro.  This Mid-City Plaza sign sure looks like an adapted Frisch’s sign to me.  The shapes are right but the top part would have been red (not green) porcelain enamel.  Here’s an example from Ohio:

Very cool lights at the Holiday Drive-in in Rockport, IN:

Also in Rockport.  It appears that H&B Kustoms is now J&M Fireworks:

Oh dear, I’m not finding this one in my notes right now so I can’t tell you where it is.  I just liked the combination of this one:  the painted business name & roosters, the old plastic dairy products sign, and the building’s false front.  I think this was a Mexican restaurant now but I’m not sure:

I’ve posted at least a couple Dog N Suds signs over at Flickr earlier in this trip:

ttp://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/4844779861/

Here then is an example of an adapted DnS sign in Dale, IN:

I can’t think of any neon signs with representations of cigarettes.  Cigars, yes, but not cigarettes.  This is at Carefree Cheap Smokes at the Marengo, IN exit off I-64.

A pretty blue porcelain sign in New Albany, IN:

Another one from New Albany:

Pretty summer flowers in New Albany.  Out of my league here – zinnias?

Still in New Albany.  I can’t think of any signs still around with representations of moonshine stills:

I came upon this VW van in Jeffersonville.  My first van, more than 30 years ago back in California, looked just like this.  It was probably the same year, also white, but missing the artwork of course:

Sparkle poses, respectfully, in the background.  The bumper sticker made me laugh:  “Honk if Parts Fall Off”:

Apparently a combo house / business in Louisville.  I was going to take some photos of the other side of this place where there’s similar chaos but the owner was giving me death glares.  I’ve already gotten yelled at twice on this trip by crazies and just didn’t feel up for it today.

Moving on to Day 37, Sunday.  I gave myself a firm deadline of noon.  But I was a naughty pony and kept shooting til 3pm.  Which meant not arriving home around midnight.  But instead — snoozing for a few hours at a truck stop, running the dogs in NJ in the morning, facing some rush hour City traffic, and napping a bit later on.  But I’m none the worse for it and maybe 100 photos richer.

This octagonal building is from Lexington.  Now the “Standardbred Stable of Memories”.  After poking around on-line a bit, it turns out this was built in 1882 and used for floral displays on what was then a fairground.  There’s a trotting track right behind this building now.  The dogs had a great time barking at all the real and fake horses in Kentucky.

A couple more photos from Lexington.  A Chicago style sign hanger.  I don’t think I saw many (or any) of these in Kentucky:

This sign looks soooo familiar.  Perhaps it was mass-produced?  I’m tempted to say it was a car dealership but that might be way off.  I’m counting on you Lexington-ers to identify this one.

Last stop of the trip and last photo for this blog post marathon.  After a few stops in Winchester, KY I gas-ed up and picked up this soda for the long road home.  It was Ginger Ale-y and great.  Produced right there in Winchester.  Pronounced “A late one”.  More about it here:
http://ale8one.com/history

And so concludes what was an awesome trip.  I hope you enjoyed sharing the highs and lows.  The dogs and I will be hitting the road again in March for a similar-sized trip focusing on Oklahoma and Texas.  I will probably do some quickie trips & blog posts between now and then.  I’ll also be hard at work adding stuff to the website.  You can follow my progress at the “What’s New” page:
http://www.agilitynut.com/whatsnew.html

Thanks for posting comments and giving positive feedback during the trip.  I looked forward to that after a long day of driving & shooting.  I hope that these posts have inspired you to take more roadtrips and photos of stuff near and far.  Have a great summer – what’s left of it – and that appears to be a lot!

Just a very quick “hi” to say we arrived back in Brooklyn this morning.  I have lots of fun & pretty photos in Kentucky from the past couple days to share with you all.   Stop by tomorrow for the big wrap-up post here and final Flickr batch for the trip.  It’s nice to park for awhile.  The dogs are knocked out cold.  Wish I could join them but I’ve got a million post-trip tasks and work tonight (ugh).

This is just a quick hello since I’m at the tail end of the trip and tomorrow’s going to be a killer.  Sensible people would spend the evening getting halfway into Ohio to shorten the distance between here and home.  But I’m not sensible.  I’ve given in to my inner child, again, and will be doing some stuff in/around Lexington, KY tomorrow morning.  I already had to skip that stuff on two trips now and I refuse to let it happen again!  But I’ve given myself a firm cut-off of noon.  Which puts me in NYC around midnight (or later with naps).  I do have to be to work Monday night and be in somewhat reasonable condition for that.

The photos & final post will wait til I get home.  I’m calling it a very early night here — it’s 10pm.  The extra rest will help get me through the tedious awfulness that awaits me tomorrow.  A 12 hour interstate drive is one thing when you’re just heading from one place to another.  But it’s excruciating after 36 non-stop days.  Nighty night.

Just another beautiful day out here.  I’m pretty sure it’s raining back home and down South.  This portion of Southern Indiana and Illinois has been a section of the country that always got ditched on previous roadtrips when I ran out of time.  So it’s good finally to get ‘er done. 

Lots of new stuff (old stuff that’s new to my eyes) and some unexpected stuff. Like Wilson’s General Store & Cafe which is way west of Evansville (but Google says still in that city).  The owner has a nice collection of old signs.  This guy had me making the big U-turn initially.  I’ve always been a big fan of bellhop signs.  A waving arm like the Dairy Queen Curly the Clown (see Flickr post tonight) signs and some others.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/4844753289/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/781564569/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8171213@N03/517394231/

 

This one has the light behind the hand like the DQ Clown signs.  For DQ, that was a way of showing when they were open — so probably for bellhops, that was a way for motels to show they still had vacancies.  This bellhop sign has a little plaque on the side showing its origin: Wilson’s also had an old KFC weathervane sign — though that piece is missing now.  Here’s what it would have looked like:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roadsidenut/2768197468/ 

 And the nicest of all — to me anyway — is this super oldie — a “marble sign” (my name).  The marble letters reflected at night when car headlights hit them. 

 On to Evansville where there was lots of great stuff.

 

 

I’ve seen the design of this one before — here’s an example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/4498401999/
but the diamonds between the poles are new to me.  Maybe they all had them? The Fares Ave. stretch in Evansville used to have many motels.  Now most of them have been converted into used car lots — most now closed.  Very sad.  Here’s one survivor: At the Zesto on my list, I noticed this old ad in the window.  I didn’t know about the other two locations so I asked.  The one on Franklin still there — so I went. I was told the one on Boonville Highway was torn down.  It was near Midget Links where I was heading anyway.  While I was there, I noticed this building and I’m feeling pretty sure that this was the Zesto.  Now a car repair place, sort of.  Didn’t notice that old Coke machine til just now.  I’ll have to do an address match when I get home.  But the building style looks pretty typical Zesto — minus the glass block at front which has been messed with / removed at many locations:
http://agilitynut.com/eateries/zesto.html Moving on to Princeton.  I spotted this building from several blocks away and knew what I was dealing with.  An unexpected sighting of a Conoco gas station — now an Enterprise car rental.  The curved glassy backside is a giveaway.  I’m not sure if I’ve seen one of these Conocos this far north before.  Here’s a bunch in Louisiana:
http://www.agilitynut.com/gas/lacan2.html This station would have had two canopies originally:

 Although the tile on the front of this one has been stucco-ed or painted over, at least the tile inside the curved bay remains intact:

 From Vincennes — I’m sure the “White” was a reference to the cleanliness of the kitchen — not the clientele: Also Vincennes — the rink not so much a “paradise” any more:

 And to end this post on a sad & grim note — here’s what’s left of the Paoli Drive-in:

 Much more cheerful stuff to come — but I’m going to make you wait.  I’ll be shooting more Indiana & some Kentucky tomorrow.  Then, I’ll check in briefly here and hit the road towards home.  Sunday will be all coffee and interstate.  I’ll post the final day’s photos at Flickr & here on Monday or more likely Tuesday.

To hold you over, if you’re a blog follower but have not been following the simultaneous Flickr uploads, here’s what you’ve missed so far on this trip:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/sets/72157624506040652/