Travels in the 2nd half

42nd street - March 2020   On March 17, 2020, I had an appointment in mid-town New York. It was the second full day of the COVID lockdown, so I took my camera with me to document the effects on the city. One year later I returned and walked the same path to see how things had changed. Lexington Ave March 2020 Lexington Ave March 2021 One thing that was immediately obvious was that there was a lot more traffic on the streets. The streets had been a ghost town in 2020. Now you would never know that there was still a pandemic going on. Same thing for Fifth Ave and 42nd Street. 42nd street, March 2021 My first stop was at Grand Central Terminal. In 2020 I had the place almost to myself. This year there were certainly many more people around, although it was not back to its full capacity. Grand Central Entrance  - March 2020 Grand Central Entrance - March 2021 Grand Central Lobby - March 2020 Grand Central Lobby - March 2021   Bryant Park has also seen some return, although ne...

Route 66 memorabilia in Seligman AZ   Over my last two blogs I have explored some of the sights along Route 66 while traveling through California. Today we cross the Colorado River into Arizona. The Mother Road jumps onto the interstate for a brief span when entering The Copper State, but it quickly heads north, following AZ-10, through the desert toward The Black Mountains. I was lucky enough to pass through shortly after a rare July rainstorm, and I had the chance to see some of the local cacti in bloom. Oatman AZ   As I entered The Black Mountains of Arizona I arrived at the town of Oatman. Founded in 1863, Oatman was a small gold mining town. In 1915, tow prospectors struck a large vein, a Oatman became a boom town, swelling to over 3000 residents. Commercial mining companies came in. By 1924 the main employer n town, United Eastern Mines, shut down as returns diminished, and by 1941 all gold mining had ended. In total, over $40 million worth of gold ($202 million in 2019 ...

  In 2014, I took a trip along Route 66, starting in Pasadena CA, driving east. The western end of this famous road is a study in rapidly changing landscapes. From the urban Los Angeles/Pasadena corridor to the suburban passage through the San Bernardino Valley, Route 66 has changed tremendously from its origins. However, nothing prepared me for the sudden shift in scenery upon leaving the town on San Bernardino. Here, Route 66 jumps onto the interstate and climbs up over the Cajon Summit, gaining 4000 feet in altitude in just under 20 miles. But more striking, is that as soon as you leave the city limits, you have left the Southland behind, and entered the rural desert. This change in landscape brings about a change in the style and type of roadside attraction that I encountered over the next part of my journey. The High Desert California Route 66 Museum - Victorville CA   Victorville sits past the Cajon Summit, and is the first city of major size that I reached coming up ove...

  When I travel, I love driving on the two land highways of the United States. I find it much more relaxing then speeding from place to place on the expressways. This also affords the chance to explore some of the quirky and historic roadside attractions that have been built over the past 100 years. There is no better place to explore these sights than on the old Route-66, which I did back in 2014. Fork in the Road - Pasadena CA The Fork in the Road My trip took several days, driving from Pasadena, CA to Albuquerque, NM. It was in Pasadena that I found my first roadside attraction, A Fork in the Road . In 2009, Bob Stone woke up a couple of days after his 75th birthday. He walked outside, and on crossing a usually unimpressive train island near his house he found an unusual sight, an 18-foot tall fork had been planted into the ground. The fork was a “gift,” created by his friend, artist Ken Marshall, based on a conversation they had had years earlier, when Stone had described the t...