Monday Escape: Something Cool On A Steamy Day

Happy Monday! A week spent off just dealing with administrative things was quite well-spent (granted, I’m an organization geek), but returning to my routine is quite soothing.

In addition to my cleaning things up on the hard drive and so forth, we also drove up to Detroit to visit my family, including my grandfather, who had major surgery recently, so of course I wished to check up on him. As everyone knows, the inability to be there for family is the worst part of living far away. He seems to be doing quite well, though, and we had a good time visiting, especially hearing my grandparents’ stories about their trips to Europe years ago. The travel bug really does run in my family!

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Abandoned WV Route 88 Cottage-Style Gas Station & the Uglification of America (again)

Recently I mentioned an abandoned filling station spotted during a trip to see my physician in West Virginia. More pressing projects kept me from posting my photographs of the crumbling building, but I have them for you today.

This is a spot I’d seen before, but it rests just beyond a very sharp curve in the road; the first time I saw it the skies were already darkening and it was so hidden by brush I nearly missed it! You can imagine my happiness at being able to photograph it in spring, before it half-disappears into the wood again.

I’m not sure what oil company originally built the old filling station, though my guess is Pure Oil.

Monday Escape: Blue Impala Sunset

Now that my most recent journey along Route 66 is finished and completely posted *cries*, it’s back to working on my first love, photography-wise: classic cars!

I chanced upon this gorgeous 1958 Impala at a car show in Wintersville, Ohio—fortuitously, at sunset. The ’58 is absolutely my favourite year for the Impala, and is, in my opinion, one of the most handsome vehicles Chevy ever produced. Little beauty marks like the roofline vent above the sexily curving rear window of the car are some of the details for which car designers (in the case of this car, the great Harley Earl) in the 1950s are still rightfully admired.

By the way, this beauty had plenty of power beneath the hood: though of course Chevy’s base V6 was available, buyers could (and I’m guessing did) choose instead from numerous V8 options ranging from a 283ci to a 348ci, one with three dual-barrel carburetors—providing 280 horses for the driver’s use. Thus, many consider Chevrolet’s glamourous 1958 Impala to be the first real muscle car.

Talk about a dreamboat…

Have a great Monday!