Sunday, June 7, 2009

My Highway Billboard Journal

We had a road trip of sorts this weekend; of sorts because it is a regular trip for us, going to visit grandma. Its fun, we look forward to it every time but sometime the traffic makes it drudgery.

As we drove along I-95 I had a flash back to my childhood Sunday road trips to visit family. We never had this distance to go but none-the-less we had a long ride. My Father always took us on a long drive into the country every Sunday afternoon. Here’s the routine.
We leave home early Sunday and go off to church for Sunday School and then the morning service.
We mull around church for awhile after the service then go home for brunch. Brunch is usually a big meal, like dinner, just earlier. We often have friends join us for brunch so that was fun too.
Then after awhile we all piled into the car and go off on the Sunday cruise.

One of the attractions and asmusement for us, kids, was reading the billboards.
Another was spotting the various colors and types of flowers and trees along the road and many other oddities.

As the thought crossed my mind I reached for my camera, I remembered to put it in my bag this time, to take pictures of billboards and other signs that I liked or though of note. I didn’t find a lot of funny signs or interesting ones but some of the old ones were up. Noticeably missing were the cigarette ads.

Getting the pictures was tricky because of the road speed and my camers shutter speed. I couldn’t figure out how to change the camera shutter speed to make it faster. I know it can be done, I just couldn’t figure it out in a hurry. I took a lot of pictures but would delete some as I went along because they were not what I wanted. I got much less than I had hoped to get and share. But.....!

I don’t recall what the speed limit was back then but I am sure it’s not what it is now or even what people think it is, giving the speed at which they fly along the road. So as we kept up with the traffic it was hard to get the signs I wanted or at least get good shots. The traffic was heavy as usual so we had to keep pace with the leaders so the followers wouldn't be in our backs. As I previewed the pictures from the upload, I eliminated several more of the shots because they weren’t really good. I do have a few to share however. So, without further adieu here are the useable billboard shots that I could capture.

Entertainment sign - Up coming concert


Movies - already in theaters.
You might have to play and win before you can afford the movies and or the concert theses days!
Hey, Can you hear me now?!
This seemed like a sign yard; two signs back to back - At least one is tasty!
Oh yeah, where can we get some fresh fruits along the way?!
For the environment' sake, go mass transit!
They make it easy for you to save on gas too!

My All time favorite signs, next to my exit sign off the high way. (The off highway sign to the area is better)
See you along the Highway!!!!!

1 comment:

Margaret said...

Sign are interesting. When my children were young, they would bemoan the fact that our home exit sign had no real "attractions."
It's amazing how much advertising is actually out there though when you pause to look.