My Co-pilot

He got us back home safely.

Pink Edsel

Seligman Arizona who really plays their Route 66 card to the maximum for the tourist dollar.

We will be out of town for a few days and I'll not be back to Blogland until we return sometime next week.  

Arkansas Ozarks

Regular followers of our blog may recall my frustration at the time when driving the narrow roads through the Ozark region of Arkansas.  I was forced to pass by many great photo opportunities of little abandoned shacks and shanties for the lack of a place to pull the Little House on the Highway off the road.  I was able to catch a few, but none so much as the character of those left behind.  This later became one of several deciding factors in my choice for our next road trip - the Southern States.

Rt. 4 Box 39

Upper northwest corner of the Texas panhandle.  No towns for miles in any direction.

After hours of driving with nothing but dry Texas flatness for scenery,  I pulled over to a stop if for no more reason than to stretch my legs.  Besides a gentle wind, it was peaceful and quiet outside.  Only the sound of gravel crunching beneath my feet as I walked about.  Other than the string of telephone poles along the road, this was the only man-made object within sight.  I had seen no other cars for I don't know how long, and none passed by while I wandered about.  It is brief moments like this that are etched forever in my mind.  I thought of the rural carrier that made the daily trip to this mailbox.  Beats an office job any day.  I long to be on the road again.  Soon.

Back in the Saddle Again on Monday Mural

Collinsville, Oklahoma

I'm just wondering what the cowboy was saying, that has been painted over.

Judging by the expression on his face I'd say, "Oh my butt is sore".

Check on more murals on Oakland Daily Photo Monday Mural

N.O.S.

Lemmon, South Dakota

N.O.S. generally applies parts to something from long ago that you are restoring such as a car for example and means New Old Stock.  Like an original headlamp for a car, new and unused, still in the same box from the manufacturer and had been sitting on a shelf in a warehouse for several decades.  Well in the case of this post N.O.S. means Neat Old Stuff.  At the museum in the little town of Lemmon South Dakota, I was the only one there and the caretaker turned me loose in their back room.  There were was just so much to see, it was overwhelming. Here are a few of the larger items, some that may stir memories among the older viewers of this blog.  Enjoy.

Big Church, Little Town

Jud, North Dakota

The population for rural little Jud is around 70 people, give or take.  Back in 1910 when they might have been thinking about building a church it was 99.  The population swelled 202 in 1940 but has been on a steady decline from then on.

The church looks to have been unused for quite some time.  There must be a modern facility in town now but I didn't notice.  I wasn't looking for one either.  I was there for the murals, over 20 of them.

Would make for a good location for a scary movie except Jud is located all by itself way out in the middle of the plains of North Dakota 9 and 25 miles from the two nearest highways.

Here's lookin' at you kid.

Jud, North Dakota

No story behind this photo, except that it was only months later I noticed how the building was looking down at me with a white patch over one eye.

Bordeaux Trading Post

Chadron, Nebraska

This was an unexpected joy to find.  Fortunately there many more joys than disappointments such as yesterday's Starbuck Minnesota stop for example, during our tour of the Great Plains weird and unusual things to see.  Dug into the side of a hill as you can see, inside it was quite cool and pleasant.  Outside it was not on this day.  I imagine in the winter it was easy to keep warm in this below ground level abode.  Inside on the entire length of the back wall were shelves and a few goods, then in front of that the counter.  Unfortunately all of this was behind a glass window so the photos were blown out with the flash.  It was too dark for pictures without flash.  To the far right hand side end of the building were the living quarters - a bed, table, stove and fire place.  I assume James Bordeaux lived in the trading post itself and not in another house of some sort nearby.  

It was easy to just stand outside and gaze across the prairie grasslands and imagine yourself back in the mid-1800's and think this is how it was. 

Starbuck, Minnesota

I had very few disappointments on our tour of the weird and unusual through the Great Plains States.  

But Starbuck really took the prize.  

It's claim to fame was the World's Largest Lefse.  Naturally I didn't know what a lefse was and had to look it up.  Okay, some big bread-like thing.  I figured they'd have it preserved under glass or something.  At least have a life-sized sculpture of the beast.  Neither.  Just this photograph on the side of their         non-functional train station!

Starbuck was a three-fer for there were two other things listed - a deer statue fountain and a hobo figure in their park.  I saw the deer thing first as I turned off the road into town and thought  No, that can't be it.  Is this someone's idea of a joke?  Think of the deer statues you see in the lawn and garden department of Home Depot, set it up on a few boulders and squirt water over it with your garden hose and you pretty much have the scene.  I didn't even bother to pick up my camera.  And the hobo figure?  I think I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye as I was weaving my way through a construction zone while leaving town.  It looked more like a circus clown.  And worse still, there wasn't even a Starbucks in town.

Indian Pottery Shards

These fragments of broken pottery are from the Hopi Indian Homol'ovi settlement in what is now Arizona.  Archaeologists date their settlement from 1290 to 1400 A.D.   They feel there were 4 to 5 villages with the largest having upwards to 1200 rooms.  Today where the villages once stood looks no more than this.

 

One should never remove artifacts from any historical area.  Here people have found pieces of pottery and left them on rocks along the trail so as to make it easier for others to see without having to hunt for them.  The  rocks, someone must have thought were "stone tools".

You can see some pots had a texture to them while others were smooth with a painted design.

I bet the texture aided in holding the pot without it slipping from your hands.

Looks like a bird track on this piece.

I wonder if the Indians had curse words that were muttered when they dropped a bowl and broke it.

Chicks Pool Hall on Monday Mural

Coffeyville, Kansas

For more murals visit Oakland Daily Photo Monday Mural

Please Do Not Feed the Dinosaurs

Holbrook Arizona

Got Excess Time on Your Hands?

Here is a video I made 2 months ago.  I was experimenting with some techniques, trying out different things.  I've been sitting on it all this time, having done nothing with it.  My camera zooms in and out too fast for my liking and I have no way to control it.  In the future I'll not use the zoom feature.  So if you have some time to kill (9 1/2 minutes worth) come along for a short hike at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park which is just down the road from me about 5 miles.

 

Birdseed

I kept all my receipts for birdseed bought in 2012.  It totaled up to $359.95.  98.6 cents a day to feed the little flying piggies.  Cheap entertainment.

a blend including millet

nyjer thistle

black oil sunflower seed

Hmmm...maybe I'll keep receipts for cat food for 2013.
What do you think Sinbad?
For my little buddy, money is no object so I'll not bother.

Butterscotch Mushroom

Came across this yellow mushroom on my hike yesterday.  No, that is not the official name for it, its a name I gave it.  I like butterscotch ice cream and this is what it looked like to me. Mmmmm....

Having only my little point & click with me, it was called into action for these captures.

A few feet further along the trail was another of these tempting delights.

Since I got back onto the blog in 2013 I've been forced into using Google Chrome to upload pictures on Blogger.  With the old way, when I click on the insert image button, there is no browse images button on the composing page.  There is for HTML.  Anyone else have that issue?

I swear, its all a big conspiracy to get me to switch over to Google Chrome for everything.

Monday Mural

 Chillicothe, Missouri

Another beauty from Chillicothe depicting an important part of their history.
A side note, all the bricks are painted in; they're not real bricks.

This is linked to Oakland Daily Photo Monday Mural

Excess Baggage

Seen in the Sacramento Airport

There's some pretty cool looking luggage in there.