Well, after the lousy weather yesterday and then the technical difficulties getting internet access last night, today was a complete turnaround.  Pretty skies, zippy connection, tired dogs — what more could I ask for?

Yeah, yesterday was depressingly ridiculous with pouring rain.  Huge distances between stuff in southern Alabama that ate up a lot of time.  Many disappointments as well — giant concrete tomatoes replaced with an inflatable strawberry, neon signs replaced with plastic ones, buildings replaced with vacant lots.  Many of these destinations were too remote so I couldn’t do the pre-check at Google or Bing maps to make sure they were still there.  And then there were some really bad road signs (lack of) compounded by lousy directions from locals that ate up even more time.  And far too rural to make the backroads or mis-roads profitable in terms of things of shoot.

Anyhow – let’s see what I did manage to find & shoot despite the challenges.  Lambert’s Cafe is quite a famous restaurant in Foley, AL — best know for their “throwed rolls”. 
http://www.throwedrolls.com/
Their huge building has this neat painted artwork on the side of it.  This is only a partial view — with a closeup of my favorite part (with the projecting roll):

I don’t think this sign in Mobile, AL was all that old – but I can’t resist a giant shoe or boot.  This is at the Mobile Shoe Hospital:

An interesting castle-y building in Mobile.  Can anyone chime in with what was originally here?

Another one from Mobile.  Cute as hell — and my favorite color:

Finally, around 7pm in Dothan, AL, the sun came out.  This dreary abandoned gas station was made cheery by the near-sunset reflecting on it:

OK – moving on to today.  I was close enough to the GA border to justify a quick trip over to Columbus and Pine Mountain.  I assume this is not the original sign (channel lettering) but I’m guessing that it’s a recreation of what once was here.  I’ll have to research later – unless some Columbus-ites can inform us now what the deal is:

This water fountain is also in Columbus.  Entitled “Fit for Man and Beast”, it contains three bowls at different heights for humans, horses and dogs:
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=22376

More Columbus.  The name “Sputnik” sent me into a quick U-turn.  Not much Sputnik-y about it though except for the doo-hickey about the “i”.  Still, I shot it because I liked the painted darts and beer can and just the general mix of the colors of brick & paint.

I’ve been studying A-frame restaurants for some time and this one has me stumped.  Maybe it never was a restaurant.  But I think it’s too big to be one of the chains.  Columbus-ers, can you help with this one?

Back across the border, here’s a sampling from Roanoke, AL.   I guess the mural helps the situation.  Maybe.

This place next door is still open.  I hope those vitrolite tiles can hang in there til the economic stimulus reaches Roanoke and the missing ones can be replaced:

This was some sort of weird complex of police buildings.  There were maybe four of these things:

It was hard to tell if this garage was still in business.  But I liked how the blue and white matched the sky. 

After shooting in yesterday’s deluge – I just wanted to shoot anything.  How about some weeds?  Well, that’s probably what they are — but to me they were interesting, pretty flowers.  My botanist pals out there – can you identify these for us?

And the weather just got nicer and nicer as the day went on.  The right light and clouds can make a pile of poop look pretty.  Well, almost.  Here’s an adorable sign in Montgomery.

The dogs were digging the sunny interior as well.  Here’s Grem also soaking up the heat from her very tolerant pal:

A couple shots from Montgomery.  Note to self:  splurge on a telephoto for the August Midwest trip.

This one had shade on both sides but I shot it anyway.  I’m in favor of this never being “restored”:

And last one for the day.  I had never been to Selma before and thought it was really great and interesting.  Cast iron balconies and interesting buildings & signs.  This sign fairly modern but I thought it was very clever.  Perched way high so you wouldn’t mistake it for a real stoplight — and also about twice as big as the real thing.  But still, drivers are so programmed to look at stoplights, how could you miss this thing?

11pm and I just finally got on-line — and this connection still truly sucks.  Super slow and freezing.  It was a low-volume photo day anyway with way too many miles.  So let’s just call it a night and I’ll have to catch up tomorrow night.  I could use a couple hours extra sleep anyway.

OK, so it was pretty much overcast all day — but still bright enough to make nice pictures.  I lost count of how many times I let the dogs run & sniff on the beaches.  Four?  Five?  Beautiful white sand — that I wasn’t letting anywhere near my camera — so no pictures of that.  And the water warm enough that Nik got to surf for the ballie.  Everybody had a great time and tomorrow I’m hoping for peace and quiet (unlikely).  The more you give them, the more they want.  Exhaustion seems to only last a few hours around here.  Theirs, not mine.  Are you finding my blogs getting stranger and less coherent as I go?  Not even halfway into this trip and I don’t know what will be left of my brain by the end.

No key trouble in the past couple days (yes, I still haven’t give up the shooting time to take care of that — and if I break down, I expect to hear a lot of “told you so”s), no stomach trouble today, and not one Grem Disappearance on the trip (yet).  Tomorrow, we’ll be moving northward into AL which is really hard.  Part of me would like to abandon my lists and maps and just loll around in this Gulf Coast Paradise somewhere.  Spanish Moss covered trees, sparkling sand with itty bitty shells in it, and chirpity tropical sounding birds that I hear but never see.  And another nice thing about Florida:  drivers think nothing about going 90 mph on the interstates and I’ve been happy to blend right in with them for a couple days.  The speed limit is 70 but the only Troopers that I’ve seen have been in the cities, yapping on their cell phones while driving. 

OK, here we go.  Strange building in Tallahassee, just south of downtown.  Anybody know what this was used for?

This was a major thrill since yesterday, I saw another one of these signs:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/4458334241/
I assume it was a mobile home chain then.  This repurposed sign was in Tallahassee:

Speaking of repurposed signs, how about a former Pizza Hut in Tallahassee:

Neat lights with canopy over a former gas pump island – in Blountstown:

The Domestic Laundry in Panama City — still in business:

This is how Gremmie rides about 80% of the day.  Drivers that notice to the left of me either smile or yell at me.  She’s balancing left legs on the door shelf and right legs on my arm.  She only weighs about 10 pounds so it doesn’t bother me that much.  If she sees a motorcycle, dog or something bark-worthy, she immediately jumps in the back, over my shoulder and goes nuts.  Been doing this for years now and it doesn’t distract me one bit.

So, at one of those Florida Welcome Centers yesterday, I had to stock up on this Southern snack item.  It was a hard choice between three types:  original (peanut, caramel & marshmallow), cashew (caramel & marshmallow), or peanut butter (marshmallow, no caramel).  I went with original and was not disappointed.  I’ve had them before but this was a super fresh batch — much smoother, meltier.  Wonderful!  Six of them and I think I have two left.

I shot loads of stuff in Fort Walton Beach for the website — but there were lots of bloggy things as well.  I’m not sure how old “Jimmy’s” is but the building appears to be 1960s:

Too bad “Donut World” was long closed cause you know I would’ve given them some business:

I asked some locals if this bank building in and little similar mall next door were old or new.  They assured me they were new (1980s or so).  [wrong!  see comments later below]

There was another similar bank about a mile north of here which must’ve been the same architect and probably the same bank, another branch.  Those lights have gotta go:

This gets my Strangest Building So Far award for this trip.  The roof of this house? business? had the same bulge in the middle above the back door.  And don’t overlook the other odd details on this thing:

An Arby’s — now Christian Center:

Quite cheerful for a pawn shop.  Note the 3-ballie pawn shop symbol sign on the far right:

With just minutes left before sundown, I was able to scoot out of Pensacola and grab some things on my list for Milton and Crestview.  Crestview must really suck if you’re a teenager.  At least they let you ride your bike:

I knew I could count on you.  A glorious day of sun, beaches for the dogs, and fun little discoveries en route to other destinations.  I snuck in some more Georgia stops close to the FL border this morning as well.  Not a high volume photo day since I was on the interstate logging lots of miles.  Tomorrow, should be able to finish this quick skim along the FL Panhandle and head into AL.  Probably three days of AL ahead.  Then similar amounts of time for MS & LA.

I’m trashed from all the driving and not much sleep.  Plus I had a mild bout of food poisoning today I think.  I’ll spare you the details but at one point in the afternoon, I needed a bathroom NOW and luckily was able to find one quickly.  So let’s get to the photos.

This church in Sparks, GA uses a model of their building for their sign:

This building looks pretty strange for a gas station but that’s what it must’ve been.  In Adel, GA:

This one in Hahira, GA goes into the “what were they thinking?” category.  I hope that gigunda canopy over the door doesn’t fall and crush someone one day.  And that wood covering is hideous – just my opinion.

A fairly intact former Imperial 400 Motel:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roadsidepictures/2312053908/

Since we were near the water a lot today in FL, my ears were constantly assaulted by over-eager, beach-loving dogs.  I posted a video over at Flickr tonight:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/4458334235/

When not making me crazy, most of the time Nik spends his time in the very back of the van snoozing.  I have a good set up for him of blankets on top of all the organized plastic bins.  So he has complete privacy, sun and a great view.  But every once in a while, he peeks up and I see him in the rear view mirror like this (over-the-shoulder photo taken while driving, of course).  I guess he’s making sure we’re all still there?:

And, in closing, let’s turn our attention to Florida’s Welcome / Citrus Centers.  I guess technically this one is a GA Welcome Center since it’s on the GA side of I-75.  Can anyone identify what this building originally was used for (cause I don’t know)?

This one has me stumped as well (now where was this? I’d have to go get my notes which are not handy right now):

But at least I know that this one in Jacksonville was a Stuckey’s restaurant, right?:

I limited myself to just a few stops in SC today.  Then decided to focus on a bunch of stuff I had in the Atlanta area.  Wound up settling down in Macon, GA for the night.  Since I’m so far behind, I’ll be up at the crack of dawn to get us as close as possible to the FL border by daybreak.  I could easily make a month-long trip out of all the VA, SC, GA stuff I’ve had to scratch on this trip.  But next spring’s trip will supposedly focus on TX & OK.  I wish there was some way I could make a living doing this stuff and I didn’t have this gotta-get-home-for-work time limit.

I guess it goes without saying now that it rained most of the day.  More grey & spotty photos.  The weather forecast is for some sun for a couple days then back to rain.  I heard on the radio that there was snow in northern MS so I guess it’s wet all over the South right now.  Atlanta only made it up to 40-something today.   The dogs are getting their exercise in vacant lots which have been plentiful. 

Let’s get cracking with the photos since I won’t get much sleep tonight.  Sorry if my posts haven’t been witty lately.  I’m beat!  If you’re new to this game, I write these things after midnight and I don’t proof or edit later.  It is what it is.

The Krispy Kreme in Spartanburg, SC has abandoned their old building and sign for digs across the street.  Actually, they moved about four years ago so it’s a miracle that these remains are still there.  There are very few examples of this style building/sign left now.  It’s very sad how dullsville Krispy has become.  The workers said they needed “more room” but also complained about how the place was too big — back and forth all day long from front to back.

Also in Spartanburg, this cleaners is still hanging in.  Hanger sign and butterfly roof – doesn’t get much better than that:

One of the main reasons that I went to Anderson, SC was to check out their giant fishes.  They were way better than the typical city art-project statues.  But they’ve gotten rid of them all.  And instead are now featuring little life-sized sculptures of wrens around town.  Once I got over my disappointment, I thought it was kind of cool.
http://www.downtownanderson.com/birdie.shtml

I actually did take a food photo for you yesterday in Charlotte.  A Banana Cream Pie sundae from Dairy Queen — but it came out super blurry.  So I’ll offer you this lame display today instead.  I’m not a fan of citrus drinks or any soda other than Diet Coke, but I got this SunDrop since it was produced in Gastonia, NC.  It wasn’t as bad as I expected.  The middle item is my beloved Stride berry-flavored gum.  I became a chain chewer about a year ago.  And then, lastly, Reese’s has produced a “dark” version of their peanut butter cups.  I love anything with peanut butter and anything with nuts so this was an easy sale.  Still prefer the milk chocolate version.

A neat bowling sign from Anderson, SC.  I don’t know if it still works under that plastic cover.  I’d love to know that it does and that the balls are lit sequentially into an explosion of pins.  Anyone know?

Biggar Antiques in Chamblee, GA has loads of interesting signs and stuff.  Unfortunately, they don’t allow photography inside the shop.  There was a great old waving chef sign that I would have loved to document.  They did allow me to take a photo of this guy.  “Ben” stands right at the register and keeps an eye on things.  He looked ready to ring up a sale.

I saw this graffiti/art in Atlanta.  I thought I might understand it when I looked at it later.  But I still don’t.  It also reminds me of some of the crazy flow charts I create at work that I don’t understand either:

And lastly, even though it’s one of the worst photos ever, I’ll include it.  Reflections, rain & bugs on the windshield – but I think you can still make it out.  One of Sparkle’s siblings working as a Checker Cab in Atlanta.  Never seen an Astro Van cab before!

It was a heckuva way to leave NC.  Wet shoes and wet dogs, and I just sort of slipped out the back door with about 10% unaccomplished.  The rain started as soon as I fired up the engine for the day and only got worse and worse.  Finally, I just bailed and headed south to SC where it was no better.  At one point in the afternoon, I even did the unthinkable:  stopped.  Turned the engine off and just waited.  Checked email and sulked for about an hour.  Then gathered up what was left of my roadside relentlessness and pushed on.  Feeling like I got nothing done, I was surprised tonight by the amount of photos I got and how few showed raindrops on the lens.  I probably wiped off “Dee’s” eyeball 10,000 times today.  Very frustrating.  Tonight, there are heavy winds which I’m hoping is blowing all this stuff out of here.

In the morning, when things weren’t so awful and torrential, I took the dogs to a dog park in Charlotte.  Barkingham Park was big enough for lots of running.  But I’ve really started to notice my dogs are happier and more relaxed when they’re just at some grassy lot somewhere.  Nik got chased and bit by a couple big dogs at the Durham dog park a couple days ago.  And today, some Huskies were pretty much all over him, nearly biting him.  He’s an easy target with his ball in his mouth.  Most dogs that are quite passive, become overly aroused and bite around Nik.  They’ve never seen a dog that fast and it brings out their inner predator and need to control.  My dogs are usually the only dogs running at these dog parks so they quickly get glommed on by other dogs.  Even Grem today got roughed up a bit and seemed a little down.  So I think we’ll just stay out of this mess for the rest of the trip unless the place is extra huge, deserted, or has a lake or something.

Let’s move on to the photos, shall we?   A couple sad theatres to start with.  They’re working on the Ansonia Theatre in Wadesboro, NC — but it looks so vanilla-fied now:

Sad, very sad — in Monroe, NC.  I believe closed since 1991:

Moving on to Charlotte, NC where most of the day was spent.  “The Blvd.” is a nightclub – maybe a theatre originally?  Hopefully, someone can help with the history of this place. 

A brand new building in downtown Charlotte – the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, designed by Mario Botta.  The sculpture was created by Niki de Saint Phalle who is most famous for this place in Escondido, CA:
http://www.agilitynut.com/h/califia.html

I have always loved this green building in Charlotte.  Gothic Deco?  I believe it’s faced with what they call “polychrome terracotta”.

This one is west of downtown where there are still some motels and drive-in restaurants hanging on:

Just a bit further west – an A-frame used car lot office.  I don’t know if that was the original use — but something tells me all those windows were added later:

The rain had the dogs kinda bummed as well.  Here both Fix and Grem were damp from an afternoon pee-break and using Nik as a warm sofa.  He was too tired to mind.  Grip was in my lap where she spends about 90% of her van time:

Further west, to Gastonia.  Old-time storefront on Main Avenue:

Also, downtown Gastonia.  I have no idea of the original use of this building but I really like the Art Deco details.  Notice the stairstep roof on the sides:

And then on into SC for even more rain.  The sun was nearly down when I got to York so the colors get pretty funky here.  This is probably not the original marquee — maybe not even the original facade for this theatre — but I’m glad that it’s operating:

Also in York, this cute little place sandwiched between two big buildings.  Looked bigger inside I guess because of the high ceiling:

And one more shot — from Rock Hill, SC where it was really too dark to be shooting anything.  I’ll have to go back and reshoot this one some day:

Cloudless, perfect weather today.  Lots of very pretty photos.  70-something degrees.  Founds lots of big lots for the dogs.  I’m thinking about finding them a lake or slow-moving river tomorrow.  Sparkle keeps on chugging without a hitch.  Although the key acted weird again today once.  I just slowly moved the gear shift from drive to park and then the key came out fine.  Hmmm.  Tomorrow, it’ll be time for a quick pit stop at Jiffy Lube as we’ll reach the first 3,000 mile milestone of this trip.

So, it’s time to catch up after taking last night off.  I just uploaded the double batch to Flickr and feeling very, very sleepy. So let’s just dive right into the photos.

The Blue Ribbon Diner in Burlington takes some of its styling from “real” diners.  I bet that neon ribbon is pretty at night.  Don’t know why there are no photos of it at Flickr.  There’s another one just like this in Mebane.

This cool dude is at Aim Undercar Specialists in Burlington:

This one also from Burlington:

This sign is in Graham – note the “Sealtest Ice Cream” at the bottom.  Yes — still open!:

Bringing you blossoms from Raleigh.  Especially for my pals up north where it might even still be raining.  Not sure what kind of blossoms there are but they were pretty as hell and worth getting on my knees for.  The poor tree or shrub had been cut down to about 5 inches tall — yet still had the oomph and audacity to bloom away this spring.  There’s a moral in there somewhere.

A lot of tobacco pride in Durham:

Quite nice that they left these old painted signs be (Durham):

I had to read every word and try to decipher each bit of food.  But I still don’t get the hand on the right (Durham):

Another pretty oldie – the more patina the better I say! (Durham):

Oh forgot to mention that I found a dog park so they could run their asses off.  And Grem wouldn’t have to wear that collar that weighs as much as she does (well, not quite).  In SW Durham — officially named Durham Dogapalooza — lots of room, big separate areas, and very pretty pine trees:
http://www.dogparkusa.com/north-carolina/durham-dog-park-piney-wood-park

Anyhow, on my way there, I came across this house which made me do a double take since it looks so much like a Pure Oil gas station (the general roof shape, the metal details around the window, the curved top of doorway, and round window in the door, the little lamp).  Heck, maybe this little semi-abandoned building was the inspiration for those hundreds (thousands?) of gas stations (ok, maybe not):
https://roadsidenut.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/name-that-station-1-phillips-66-vs-pure-oil-cottages/

This abandoned Dutch Boys sign in Siler City was one of my last shots of the day on Thursday:

Started the day in Raleigh where I found this IHOP.  It’s maybe the oldest one I have seen with that table leg sign (at least that’s what I call it):

This incredible sign is embossed.  I’ve never seen one like it before. (downtown Durham):

More blossoms.  Very sweet smelling.  Chirping birds all over today.  And a mosquito even found its way into the van at one point.  Is that like an insect groundhog indicating that it’s going to be a short spring?  I hope not! 

A very old American gas station sign with Amoco pumps in Manson.  The vacant station, not so pretty:

Incredible blood red vitrolite in Warrenton:

Neat backlit plastic Masonic signs in Louisburg:

The owner of this place in Elm City told me that this was originally the Southern 500, a truck stop restaurant.  That’s no photographic distortion – the arrow and sign are HUGE:

I’ve seen at least two variations of crazed-looking chef statues that stand in front of restaurants.  But I’ve never seen the creepy fisherman.  This guy is in front of Worrell’s Seafood Restaurant in Wilson:

And finally, I’ll leave you with a couple signs — this old Pure Oil gas station sign in Stantonsburg is extra special because of the little original porcelain light fixtures pointed at the sign:

And lastly, this pretty one from Wilson – great shadow-effect painting and subtle deco-ness:

I got together with a friend tonight so there won’t be any photos here or at Flickr tonight. I’ll make it up to you tomorrow night.  All is well.  The sun was out for most of the day.  The doggies visited a big dog park in Durham.  We’ll be in NC for at least two days more.

Now we’re talkin!  I’m never going home.  Never going back to my job.  I’m just going to stay out here  on the road taking pictures until Visa catches up with me.  Well, in a couple more weeks, I might feel differently.  But for now, it’s great to take my jacket off finally and get some pretty photos.  I made good progress – very little traffic.  But it’ll still take three more days in this state and I’m not even sure I can finish my stack by then.  It was great to finally reshoot some photos for my website that are from circa 2001 and look horrible.

The dogs got some good running in at a pet cemetery and some other quickie lawns here and there.  I do have some bona fide dog parks scheduled for NC.  Haven’t been to any on this trip so far.  No beaches for awhile though and probably too cold for swimming right now even in rivers or lakes.  I did see the very first sign of spring today — some cherry trees in bloom.  Very boring food today which included one of my regulars:  Panera’s veggie sandwich – delicious but not photo-worthy.

On with the show.  Here are a couple abandoned canopies from a former drive-in in North Wilkesboro.  This is all that’s left of the place:

Also in North Wilkesboro, the Liberty Theatre.  I’d love to know what it originally looked like:

A cute little restaurant in Wilkesboro:

Welborn’s Snack Bar in Hamptonville is still open despite what you might think from this weathered sign:

Seems there’s a BBQ place nearly every ten feet in North Carolina.  Mr. Barbecue is in Winston-Salem:

Now, this sign wouldn’t be noteworthy if it were in TX or OK – but seems out-of-place in northern NC.  This is also in Winston-Salem:

This former Shell gas station was in Advance (I think):

At the end of the day, I made a little trip back across the border into Virginia to shoot a couple things in Danville.  While there, I came across these two nice buildings:  an Elks Lodge and a Masonic Temple:

Now, don’t panic if you don’t hear from me tomorrow night.  There’s a very good chance that I’ll be getting together with a friend.  If so, there won’t be time for the usual Flickr and blog thing.  I’ll have to catch up and give you a double dose on Friday.