A very hot day. Covered hundreds of miles. Took hundreds of great photos. But. Something horrible has happened with my camera cards. Which means I can’t get them to read through the card reader and now when I insert them back in the camera, I’m getting formatting errors. My worst fear is that the card reader has “eaten” my photos. The cards were brand new and I tested them before this trip. I’m off to an electronics place as soon as I can find one open to try a new reader. If that doesn’t work, I’ll be calling Olympus to see if there’s some place that can extract the files.

I feel like crying as repeating that portion of the trip (Lansing, MI to Lansing, IL) would be gruesomely exhausting and just not as exciting the second time around. But that just might be the case. Maybe next year. Meanwhile, I’m freaking out with worry about the photos to come. I just can’t ever have this happen again. I guess I’ve got to start backing up to my computer several times a day just to be safe. I’m off to copy the files from my computer to disk right now.

Hopefully, I’ll be back in swing and have photos to post here later today.

I’ll get this one off quickly since I’m already behind schedule. It was a late one last night just getting to Lansing and working on the Flickr stuff and the regular email pile-up. So I didn’t get to this blog until this morning and the sun is already almost right for more picture-taking.

Yesterday was a tough one heat-wise. Low 90s I think and there was no miraculous healing of my A/C. If there’s anyone that can lay hands on my van and get it fixed (quickly) in Chicago area or Wisconsin, please let me know! Today’s supposed to get to 95 — not looking forward to that. At least the van is white and reflects some of the heat.

Let’s get on with today’s pictures. The day started in Ann Arbor with a sighting of a faux coffee pot of the non-architectural kind. This AirStream trailer (correct me if I’m wrong) has been converted into use as a drive-through coffee concession in the parking lot of Zingerman’s Roadhouse. More about the place here:

http://www.zingermansroadhouse.com/content/pages/home.php

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Here was one of the low points of the day — look how lovely this abandoneded gas station was:
http://flickr.com/photos/71288712@N00/402164567/

and look at it now as it appears to have been torched:

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One of the high points of the day was the sign collection at the Dort Mall in Flint, MI. I posted a couple photos of the signs to Flickr and there will be more to the website. But there’s also an amazing collection of non-sign stuff: advertising related objects, a miniature children’s carousel, boats, bikes, you name it! This is all the personal collection of Bob Perani who owns Perani’s Hockey World, a chain of 15 hockey equipment stores. More about the place here:

http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-44/1183870865155320.xml&coll=5

and here:
http://www.peranis.com/

I’ll include a photo of the giant elephant described in the article above and this Moxie promotional piece. I’m not sure if this Moxie car is real or a replica. The stirrups were used as accelerator and brake.

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A better photo of another Moxie car can be found here in New Hampshire:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/NHLINmoxie.html

Today’s Misc. Topic: Michigan Traffic Signals:

I have been to Michigan a number of times now but I never get used to seeing these. I believe they are unique to this state. Has anyone seen them elsewhere? And what are they called anyway? Signal boxes? I’m in too much of a time crunch to do any Google research so hopefully someone can fill me/us in with the history and info about these things. Some are cubes and some are slightly flatter. They are illuminated from within at night.

A glorious sunny day: perfect for picture-taking. I took about two hundred photos for the website (and put about 18 up at Flickr). I’ve got about a dozen for this blog as well.

Today’s news: The A/C in the van is officially dead. I stopped at a Chevy dealer and they poked around and assured me that it would be a big job: at least half a day to fix. So I’m going to tough it out til I get home. It’s been in the upper 80s in Ohio — not as bad as the 110 degrees in CA and NV right now. I’m managing to find lots of streams and lakes for us to play in to keep cool. In the afternoon, a lake proved to be more mud than water and the van’s interior is a lovely shade of gray for probably the duration of the trip.

I’m wiped out so let’s get to the pictures. Do keep in mind that I write these blog entries at the end of the day, just before going to bed. So I won’t be held accountable for spelling, grammatical errors, or incoherency.

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Maybe it’s the heat, but these ice cream stand signs are masterpieces in my opinion — from Wapokoneta, OH:

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Speaking of Wapokoneta, here are just a few of the fantastic buildings downtown:

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Wapokoneta has something for everybody, including the Armstrong Air & Space Museum. Here are the kids (looking hot and tired) with the Gemini space capsule mock-up:

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from Bucyrus at a replica Sinclair station is this cool police cruiser:

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and from somewhere in the middle of nowhere (I saw a LOT of corn fields today) are these two antique & restored tractors:

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I usually don’t photo painted wall signs — but this one in Lima, OH got my attention with both Vernor’s and Teem sodas:

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Here’s another nice, old Vernor’s sign from Tiffin, OH:

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Topic for Discussion:

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I’m sure you’ve seen these around — the Honda showrrom above is just a small example. What do you think of these modern retro Honda buildings? Do you like them or do they annoy you? What about the trend lately to incorporate “googie” elements into shopping malls, etc. — is that a good thing or does it dilute the impact/significance of the original buildings?

After a long drive from NYC, I started this trip with stops in Youngstown, OH. Then it was on Cleveland destinations. I managed to squeeze in some things in Elyria, Medina, Akron, Canton and elsewhere as well. During this trip, I will be summarizing the day’s events here and posting some misc. shots that won’t be appearing at the website or at Flickr.

The weather started out gray and dreary but changed into much nicer blue skies by afternoon. Something’s up with my van’s A/C. Sometimes the fan works, sometimes it doesn’t. The cooling effect also seems limited even when the fan is working. I could take it to a repair place but I don’t want to lose a day — or even an hour — of precious picture-taking time so I’ll just have to tough it out. Luckily, Wisconsin has lots of water for the dogs to romp around in if need be.

One of today’s highlights: I was letting the dogs stretch & sniff near a high school. Usually, the girls stay right nearby while I hurl Nik’s damned ball a few million times. But I noticed them missing — they’d only been gone a minute. I peeked around the corner and saw an open door and knew that must’ve been where they went. Sure enough, they were wandering among the high school girls who were having some sort of swim meet. I’m glad Nik hadn’t discovered the place of he would’ve been right in the pool with them. It was embarrassing enough!

OK — on to some sights from the day.

some nice Art Deco detail from Youngstown, OH:

an abandoned gas station in Cleveland, OH:

an abandoned theatre in Cleveland, OH:

a nice old building in Elyria, OH:

Elyria has a lovely little downtown. Each of the intersections on the main street has these flowering baskets & light posts:

Question of the Day: When will we have satellite technology to replace all the wires and poles so that we may take pictures of puffy clouds, buildings, and signs without them interfering?

I probably should’ve been driving home since I still had such a long way to go but I couldn’t resist making a few stops on in North Carolina. Got to see a few things that have been on my list for years. Downtown Durham has a lot of neat old buildings like this one (Brightleaf Square, a former tobacco warehouse):

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Got home at midnight and will now be working on getting the photos (approximately 1,000 of them) to the website. If you haven’t been following the flickr stream, I have about 200 photos from this trip there.

The Next Big Trip will be in July – focusing on Wisconsin and Minnesota. I’ll resume these blog entries then.

Ya know, I just realized this is Day 12, not Day 11. I don’t know how my numbering got messed up and I’m too wiped out now to try to figure it out & fix it.

We started the day in downtown Atlanta. I only had a couple stops there but some big running race event was going on and it took me about an hour to get across town. But for a giant chicken, it was worth the wait!

The other stops were in Atlanta suburbs, south and north. An old Zesto’s must’ve been bulldozed for new development. Got yelled at by the woman that lives in the giant guitar house in Fayetteville for taking a picture. You can’t really tell it’s a guitar unless you’re up in the air anyway. The Giant Knight made of car bumpers in Marietta is gone. The Chateau Elan Winery doesn’t know where their giant wine bottle is anymore. Also in Braselton, the Mayfield Dairy’s giant cow is also gone. I got a few midcentury buildings and a couple repurposed gas stations (both now restaurants). Those are the random things that come to mind right now.

In Hapeville, I ran across this now hideously encased Burger Chef:

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In Riverdale, the Hindu Temple of Atlanta is pretty spectacular:

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We crossed over into South Carolina at the end of the day. In Ware Place, I found this cement statuary place that had quite a few fiberglass figures. Those photos will be going up at the website when I get home. For now, I’ll share a cement doggie photo with you:

A near record high today in northern AL/GA — mid-80s. In the afternoon, I managed to find a stream for the dogs to play and swim in. Great fun! And how could I resist some homemade peach ice cream in Clanton, AL:

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In the morning, I spent some time at the Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman, AL. Ya gotta love Joseph Zoettl’s obsession with architecture. I was delighted to see in his California missions section a representation for my hometown (born & raised in Ventura):

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Zoettl also had a sense of humor as evidenced in this nicely detailed sidewalk chipmunk crossing:

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These creepy characters were in front of a restaurant in Rome, GA:

Got some good stuff in Meridian in the morning. Managed to sweet talk some park maintenance guys into letting me into the carousel house for some pictures. This was the second time I’ve been there and both times not during operating hours. The carousel is simply spectacular. I was also relieved to find a Pure Oil station that was closed and derelict the last time I was in town has been fixed up (although the bright yellow paint is a bit much).

I love this little store (now a pool place) with a “pick one” facade:

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Lots of other nice architecture in town as well, including this little building (a bank?):

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And some nice mid-century “almosts” (not quite nice enough for the website). Most people probably find concrete ugly, but I love the stuff! Here’s a bank downtown:

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And another mid-century bank with elegant columns:

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In Meridian, I also found this fading away hotel sign:

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Crossing over into Alabama, I drove a little out of the way to see the Forkland Follies (in Forkland, AL). These creations, made of hay bale and scraps, are the work of Jim Bird. It turned out to be a treat as much for me as the dogs. There was no one around and they had a helluva good time sniffing and running in the big open field.

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This piece appears to be wind-powered. I don’t know if it still works as there was no breeze when I was there.

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More pleasant announcements that Spring is here in the South. Lots of wisteria in MS and AL along the route now. I know it’s destructive to the plants it grows on and buildings but it’s oh so beautiful.

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I don’t know how the Colonel would feel about this “it’s down the block” modification to his bucket in Tuscaloosa, AL:

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I went looking for the Barber’s Milk sign in Birmingham. I was at the right intersection alright but was told that it came down over a year ago during Hurricane Rita. At least the wonderfully misproportioned Vulcan statue was just up the road and I had this nice building detail to cheer me up.

Miles and miles between stops today. Not a very fruitful day in terms of quanity of pictures. Used the air conditioning a bit today which always seems like an indulgence (this van is the first vehicle I’ve owned that’s had A/C).

Went pretty far out of the way to Ackerman to find there is definitely no Muffler Man there. Then went a couple hours out of the way to find no polar bears in Saltillo. Here’s all that was left of them:

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But I did get to see some lovely countryside on the way. The Natchez Trace Parkway is beautiful. Here’s a photo of “Sparkle” basking in the sun and pines:

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The kids had great fun running in the woods:

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This is Nik trying to climb into the water bowl (it was HOT!):

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Since I don’t have a lot of miscellaneous photos to share, I’ll give you a little behind the scenes peek at my “system”. From my huge master list, I make lists for each trip. This is the Mississippi list for the day. I make notes on it to add to the master list when I get home.

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Each destination has a “stickie” a partial mini post-it note stuck to the atlas page. I binder clip a piece of cardboard to the atlas so that it stands up next to me and is easier to look at while driving. The cardboard also protects the stickies on the other side. (sorry, not the best photo — a huge swath of sunlight reflection there; taken while driving, bored, at 75 mph; that’s also the laptop at the ready to check emails at the next “free-wi-fi” hotel I pass; and Grip dozing in the passenger seat).

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Each destination also gets its own local Mapquest map so that I can easily find my way there and get onto the next stop efficiently.

The last day in Tennessee and it was a killer. Finished up a few odds & ends in Arkansas first and then spent about seven intense hours driving around Memphis hunting down everything on my list. Easily 100 places. The skies were glorious but the sun was almost too bright and caused some wash-out problems when I had to shoot in its direction. I saw a bank clock (why is it that banks are the ones that have clocks anyway?) in the late afternoon that said 82 so it must’ve been hotter than that. No wonder the dogs and I were panting — quite a changes from the 20s I left back in NYC a week ago.

Highlights: Joe’s Liquors spinning sputnik sign is nothing short of mesmerizing. Memphis is loaded with neon both old and new. Wish I had the energy to go shooting at night. Someday.

Disappointments: Memphis’ giant shoe is most definitely gone.

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This interesting structure on Elvis Presley Blvd. in Memphis was most recently as a used car lot office. I’d love to know what it was originally.

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A nice little midcentury bank on Elvis Presley Blvd., now a Bank of America, not quite good enough for the website:

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This cute guy is part of a sign in downtown Memphis. I call him the “Money Man”. I don’t know how long he’s been here.

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And lastly, a couple little midcentury details from Memphis buildings.

The first photo from “Nagasaki” a Japanese steak house. There were these intersecting corner beams all over the place. In this corner, there was a little fountain. I doubt Nagasaki was the original occupant. Does anyone know more about this place?

The second photo is just a random office building. Very honeycomb-like — appropriate for worker bees.