Bertram at the Rodeway Inn, San Antonio, TX, October 7, 2007
Pentax K-1000, Pentax-M 50mm/2.0, 1/250 sec f/4.8
Kodak Ultra Color 400 (400UC)
This bunch are from The Alamo. This is the building next door. It's quite tall, and I shot just the top (this shot) and the whole thing. I like this one better:
Building next door to The Alamo, San Antonio, TX, October 7, 2007
Pentax K-1000, Pentax-M 50mm/2.0, 1/250 sec f/16
Kodak Ultra Color 400 (400UC)
Fish in the moat:
The Alamo, San Antonio, TX, October 7, 2007
Pentax K-1000, Pentax-M 50mm/2.0, 1/250 sec f/4
Kodak Ultra Color 400 (400UC)
The old meets the new:
Hotel next door to The Alamo, San Antonio, TX, October 7, 2007
Pentax K-1000, Pentax-M 50mm/2.0, 1/250 sec f/16
Kodak Ultra Color 400 (400UC)
I liked this well in the grounds. I'm not sure I did it justice:
Well. The Alamo, San Antonio, TX, October 7, 2007
Pentax K-1000, Pentax-M 50mm/2.0, 1/125 sec f/5.6
Kodak Ultra Color 400 (400UC)
On our way out of town, we were beset by a sudden downpour:
Gas station, San Antonio, TX, October 7, 2007
Pentax K-1000, Pentax-M 50mm/2.0, 1/250 sec f/?
Kodak Ultra Color 400 (400UC)
This restaurant was across the street from our motel in Gainesville. I liked the look of it, so I took a picture even though the sky was gray.
Japanese restaurant, Gainesville, FL, October 6, 2007
Shot w/Pentax K-1000, Pentax Takumar 135mm/2.5 @ 1/125 sec f/16
Film: Kodak Ultra Color 400 (400UC)
Next door to the motel in Gainesville. They're adding more hotels to a street that's nothing but hotels.
Construction at the Motel 6, Gainesville, FL, October 6, 2007
Shot w/Pentax K-1000, Pentax-M 50mm/2.0 @ 1/500 sec f/11
Film: Kodak Ultra Color 400 (400UC)
Chimi's is a defunct restaurant attached to the Days Inn in Alachua, FL. We stopped in Alachua for gas and breakfast after we were unable to find anything but a Shoney's near the motel in Gainesville.
Chimi's, Alachua FL, October 6, 2007
Shot w/Pentax K-1000, Pentax-M 50mm/2.0 @ 1/500 sec f/16
Film: Kodak Ultra Color 400 (400UC)
I should have used a flash on this. 
Chimi's, Alachua FL, October 6, 2007
Shot w/Pentax K-1000, Pentax-M 50mm/2.0 @ 1/500 sec f/16
Film: Kodak Ultra Color 400 (400UC)
Plants. Rest stop, Florida panhandle, October 6, 2007
Shot w/Pentax K-1000, Pentax-M 50mm/2.0 @ 1/500 sec f/8
Film: Kodak Ultra Color 400 (400UC)
Now that I've been back for a couple of weeks, I've gotten most of the film from the California trip developed. I've scanned the first few rolls, and as I scan more, I'll post some of my favorite shots. All are resized and some are tweaked as well. And they're all scanned with not the greatest scanner.
From the first day, before we left:
Bertram at home. Shot w/Pentax K-1000, Pentax-M 50mm/2.0 @ 1/125 sec f/2
Film: Kodak Ultra Color 400 (400UC)
My original intention was to visit Graceland in the morning and then skip town. This, as mentioned previously, did not happen. So, once again, we found ourselves leaving for a drive of several hours right before nightfall. We stopped just across the Mississippi border at Casa Mexicana, a decent Mexican restaurant.
The rest of the drive was mind-numbingly boring. We had about enough of the American south at night, and just wanted to sleep. We found our hotel without incident (once again around 3 AM) and checked in. It was downtown near the Fox Theater. Not the best neighborhood, and not the prettiest place. Our view wasn't much to speak of, either.
It was, however, a place to sleep. And the staff were amazingly nice. While they were serving breakfast, the kitchen staff were baking cookies to leave at the front desk. Seriously. They actually gave us cookies when we checked out. After our experience in Los Angeles, this was most welcome.
We spent our day in Atlanta with one of my librarian friends, Pam. We spent the afternoon wandering around the Five Points neighborhood and then we watched the Little Five Points Halloween parade. The parade was crazy. The most organized group was the high school marching band at the end. The best bit besides the Ramones impersonator was the freak show, which included "Man eating chicken," a man eating chicken wings. I didn't get any pictures as I left my camera in the car thinking we would get back to it before the parade. No such luck.
Lunch was at the Flying Biscuit Cafe. I had the shrimp and grits which was amazing. Creamy grits with large sauteed shrimp in a red pepper sauce. Brilliant. There is also quite a bit of vegan and vegetarian food on the menu.
Dinner was at Varsity, the "world's largest drive-in restaurant." The Varsity is an Atlanta institution. The place is an enormous fast food place that actually serves a quality burger at a decent price. I'm sure this is due to the huge numbers of people who come through the doors, particularly on game days. I also had the "Varsity orange" which, I gather, is their in-house orange soda. It is quite good if one likes orange soda. The whole experience is singular, and interesting.
The amazing thing about seeing Graceland is not the place itself, which is interesting in that all the parts not turned into museum rooms have been left much as they were in the 1970s, making it not only a time capsule of Elvis' mansion but of 1970s style as well. Nor is it being in the place where Elvis Presley spent most of his adult life. It's peoples' reactions to Graceland that are amazing. People line up to see it and they are visibly affected by it. Elvis' grave is surrounded by signs, collages, flowers and other tributes.
I have never been much of an Elvis fan. Honestly, it was a bigger deal to me when I was at Sun that it was the room where "I Walk the Line" was recorded than that Elvis first ten singles were cut there. Liz and I were married in Las Vegas by an Elvis impersonator, but that was reflected more our appreciation of Elvis' place in our culture than on our appreciation of his music.
However, that so many people are so affected by his music that they make pilgrimages to Memphis just to see the place where he lived his personal life, away from the crowds, with family and friends, more than anything, speaks to the great effect music has on us as as people. I'm still not quite sure what to make of it, but it affected me a lot more than I expected it would.
Elvis' music room.
Elvis' dining room television.
Elvis' 70s-tastic kitchen.
Elvis' television room.
Elvis' rec room.
Elvis' "jungle" room.
Elvis' cell phone.
Some of Elvis' gold records.
Elvis.
Breakfast in Memphis was at the Cupboard, a Memphis institution. The cooking was classic Southern cooking. I had fried shrimp with mac & cheese and fried green tomatoes. All were excellent. These are people who know how to fry things. The tomatoes had a nice thick, crunchy well-seasoned coating. The shrimp were butterflied and fried with a similar coating. Service was friendly and pretty quick for the place being as busy as it was.
We were in the neighborhood, so I had to stop at Sun Studios. We got talked into doing the tour. It wasn't the spiel that sold us as much as the price. With the AAA discount, it was only $8.00. It seemed worthwhile, so after buying a Johnny Cash CD and a Sun Studio mug, we bought tickets and waited for the tour. The tour included a small museum section containing instruments, records and recording equipment, along with a short history of Sun complete with song clips. Following that, we got to see the actual studio, which is again a working studio at night after the tours end.
It's amazing that the building stood virtually unchanged for as long as it did after Sun closed. There were a couple of businesses in the space, but they didn't change anything. It was pretty amazing to be standing in the space where Johnny Cash recorded "I Walk the Line," not to mention all of the other amazing records made there. 
We also stopped around the corner at Sam Phillips Studios, where Phillips set up shop after the lease on the Sun building was up. The first Cramps album, Songs the Lord Taught Us, was recorded here in 1979. 
We also drove by Stax. We were running short on time, so we couldn't go through the museum. We took a few pictures and bought some CDs in the gift shop. On the way out, the children were getting out of the music school in the other half of the building. Many were waiting for their parents to pick them up out front, but there were also several in a group towards the back of the breezeway joining the two buildings. We walked by them on the way to the parking lot. As we passed, we heard a girl exclaim, "I can't believe I got his autograph!" Liz nudged me and asked, "Did you see who that was?" I hadn't, and looked back to see Isaac Hayes walking towards the street in front of Stax. 
The drive across Oklahoma and Arkansas was uneventful. We stopped at Feltner's Whattaburger in Russellville, AR for dinner. Feltner's is an old style drive-in burger joint. Apparently the prices have gone up and the quality down a bit, but it's still a pretty good burger place with an interesting atmosphere and enormous lines. Be prepared to wait here, as it's quite popular. For your troubles you're rewarded with a good burger, decent fries and good milkshakes. Plus the atmosphere and decor.
That was the only stop we made in Arkansas. After so many late nights, we were determined to make it to Memphis before 3 AM. We made it with several hours to spare, arriving around 11:30. We celebrated by sitting in the lobby on the internets until around 1:00. So much for the early start to the day.
We actually went out of our way to stop in Tulsa just so we could visit Oral Roberts University and see the enormous praying hands statue. We were not disappointed. Someone obviously wanted to say something with this statue, although I'm not sure the message communicated is the one they had in mind. The thing is downright creepy, the hands grasping, veins bulging, towards something in the sky. It really is a sight to behold.
The flag garden around it, on the other hand, is a much more peaceful symbol, and one I found more personally inspiring.
Regardless of how one feels about Roberts, the University, Christianity in general or fundamentalists in particular, or even the creepy statue, it is undeniable that ORU is host to some particularly stunning 1960s architecture. The chapel is practically out of this world and that's only the start. If in the area, it's well worth a stop and walk around campus for the architecture alone.
Lunch was at Cancun, a lovely Mexican restaurant we were directed to by a friend from the area. We arrived to find a small and simple but full room. The food was fairly standard U.S. Mexican restaurant fare, but well executed and priced low. One thing we have had trouble finding in Florida is good Mexican food. There is a lot of good South American and Caribbean food, but not much in the way of good Mexican. So, we took advantage of our drive through the Southwest by stopping here.
No trip to the Texas panhandle is complete without a trip to Stanley Marsh's Cadillac Ranch. We were traveling with nothing more for directions than a mark on the road atlas. Consequently, we got off the interstate too late and missed it completely. We turned around and went back. I had expected to be able to see something from the road and there was nothing, so after driving several miles, we exited the highway again. There was a gas station at the exit and Liz needed to use the room of resting, so I pulled in. She came back a couple of minutes later with a bottle of water and directions. Get on the frontage road and it's on the right side. You can't miss it. So, we'd driven by it twice.
We arrived right before sunset. We grabbed the cameras and hopped out of the car. I checked the camera. One picture left. Crap. I'll grab a long shot and change the roll. That should only take a minute and I won't lose the sun. Take the lens cap off. No meter. Battery's dead. Crap. I don't have a spare. So, sunny f16 rule it is, and let's hope my EV estimates are good and I can count. I grabbed some extra cell phone pics just in case.
For those who don't know, the Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation on land belonging to Stanley Marsh 3. It was installed in a wheat field owned by Marsh in 1974. In 1997, it was moved a couple of miles west into a cow pasture. It's an interesting sculpture consisting of a number of Cadillacs buried halfway into the field.
Every so often, the cars are resprayed so that visitors can graffiti them again, making the sculpture an ever-changing one. It's refreshing that something like this can have stood for so long, with no souvenir stand or snack bar in sight. Nothing but an unlocked gate, a field and some cars.
After taking in such a sight, we were in serious need of barbecue, so we took dinner at Dyer's BBQ. Dyer's was good barbecue. Acting om a tip, I avoided the brisket and instead ordered the sausage, ribs and ham. They were all good, if not great and the service was very good. 
Again, I don't have a lot of pictures here. Most of my Grand Canyon pics were film, and black and white at that. I haven't sent any of the black & white stuff off to the lab yet, as I want to send that to a different lab and I had a roll still in the camera when I got home. That will probably go off right before I go to Buffalo, just to make sure it doesn't come back while we're gone.
The drive from the Grand Canyon to Albuquerque was uneventful, if long. We spent more time (naturally) at the Grand Canyon than originally intended, making for another long evening. We stopped in Flagstaff for dinner at a burger place I've forgotten the name of. Nevermind, it wasn't particularly memorable, except that it wasn't the cleanest place I've been in and you had to walk through the bar next door to get to the bathrooms.
We arrived late in Albuquerque, but somehow managed a decent night's sleep. Breakfast was at the 66 Diner, which I cannot recommend highly enough. My soup was amazing. Dessert (rhubarb pie) was amazing. Liz's pumpkin pie shake was amazing. My chicken and dumplings were good. Yes, only good. In most places this would not look bad by comparison, and they really were pretty good. But since everything else was so excellent, they were disappointing. Service was very quick and cordial. I would not hesitate to return here. But I will avoid the chicken and dumplings.
The drive from Albuquerque was rather dull, except for some crazy wind in western New Mexico, which I managed to capture on Cell Phone Cam.
The serious lack of sleep finally caught up with me in Williams, AZ. We had arranged to meet Liz's cousin for breakfast at 7:00 AM, as she had to be back in Prescott at 9:00. I was driving until 3:00 AM and in no shape to move at 6:00. I felt like I was going to be seriously ill, and so went back to sleep while Liz went to breakfast. I was disappointed as I both wanted to visit and try out the restaurant, Old Smokey's. I slept until almost an hour past checkout while Liz did our laundry. Since we were doing our laundry, the motel let us stay a little over. I was very happy about that, as I desperately needed the sleep.
Lunch was a muffin and some coffee in a little coffee house down Route 66 that had free wireless. I took a bunch of pictures after and we headed off to the Canyon that is Grand.
Posts
