Another Roadside Attraction (Vol 2)

 

Hey.

You guys.

Remember forever ago, when I suggested we take a road trip this summer?

And then we didn't?

Well.

Blame it on sky-rocketing gas prices.

But they've dropped now, and there's still a few good weeks of summer left.

So buckle up, we're hitting the road!

We're making the run from wherever you are to L.A.

Specifically, Vine Street in the 1930's.

Oh. Did I forget to mention our road trip mobile was capable of time travel?

It is. Pack accordingly.

Los Angeles, for some reason or other, was ripe with bizarre, literal architecture in the early half of the last century

(think Brown Derby).

Buildings in the shapes of things; creatures.

There must be a metaphor in that somewhere,

in the town where people go to escape who and what they are, 

recreating themselves, becoming someone else.

Characters.

The Hollywood Flower Pot was no exception.

There was no questioning what might be found in this quirky building,

a giant pot filled with equally giant flowers.

And smaller ones for purchase.
The real deal inside the façade.

Brilliant stroke of advertising genius, really.

 A building, a flower shop, disguised as a flower pot.
Another character in a city chock full of 'em.
xo

 



Another Roadside Attraction (Vol. 1)

Road trips.

A quintessential summertime activity.

I had this idea, last year, that the lot of us could take a virtual road trip together.

Visit all of those tacky, kitschy roadside attractions that have pretty much no sense of purpose other than to lure in tourists with their quirk and eccentricity.

But I got lazy.

And it never happened.

So let's do it his summer, shall we?

It'll be fun.

Every Thursday, we'll put on our cut-offs and tank tops, jump into some rusty old clunker of a car, roll the windows down (with a hand crank, of course),

slip some Tom Petty into the tape deck, and set out on down the highway.

Every week, a new stop.

Each more bizarre than the last.

{This giant dinosaur, originally a Sinclair Oil gas station in Spring Hill, Florida,
is located just a few miles down the road from where my grandparents lived
when I was a kid.
It still stands today, just as it did then, operating as an auto body shop.
Image via Google images.}

Buckle up, kids.
This should be a fun ride.