Perfect Place for a Friday Night... 5 of 365

Who here remembers tropical storm Hillary? Show of hands? That's right... nobody. I wouldn't either, if not for the fact she ruined a few solid hours of shooting in Tucson with her high winds, cloud cover and rain. I hung in there with the best of them, but after I started getting pelted with pebbles I decided to pack it in before any equipment was damaged. You can bruise me, scrape me or make me bleed, but I'll be damned if you're going to scratch my lens. But back to Tucson...

If you've never been to Tucson you absolutely MUST go. It is a veritable smorgasbord of vintage neon signage, with some of the most unique signs I've had the pleasure to see. I've already posted a fair amount of my Tucson images to either my Etsy shop or my Flickr page but there are a few gems I haven't gotten around to editing. Tonight I'm digging one out of the archives, simply because it sounds like the perfect place to spend a Friday evening. Of course I'm at home blogging and making cream cheese icing, but that doesn't matter. The Crossroads restaurant is apparently pretty darn good and worth the drive to the edge of town. I'll be going back to Tucson to capture the rest of the signs I couldn't shoot thanks to Hillary, and the Crossroads is on my list for lunch.

Yes, that's a neon beer mug.

Happy Friday night folks! See you tomorrow for the six installation in this crazy project of mine...

Motel Monday - Sometimes It Storms

Desert Sun

Like any good traveler, I check the weather before heading out on a road trip. If it's definitely going to rain all weekend or snow, there's just no point in going. A few trips to Los Angeles have already been cancelled this year due to weather... yes, it does rain in Southern California.

Last fall there was a chance that tropical storm Hillary would cause some problems in Tucson, Arizona. If it rained at all, it wasn't going to be until much later on Saturday, and Mesa was supposed to be clear on Sunday. I decided the wealth of vintage neon signs was worth the risk and we took off on Friday night for Tucson. Saturday morning was beautiful, but there was too much neon in Tuscon for me to shoot it all before Hillary blew in. By the time we made it to West Miracle Mile the clouds had rolled in and I was getting pelted by dirt and pebbles that had been picked up by the wind.

Miracle Mile has several beautiful vintage neon signs but I was only able to shoot three of them before the wind became too much. Of the three, this photograph of the Sun Land Motel is the only one that makes the Retro Roadside Photography cut. I usually prefer blue skies, but there's just something about the moodiness of this shot that I enjoy. 

Happy Monday!

- Stefanie