In Amarillo. TX, you can find the Cadillac Ranch. It is the perfect roadside attraction for two artists and their moms. Here is the rundown from Wiki:
Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation and sculpture in Amarillo, Texas. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm, and it consists of what were (when originally installed during 1974) either older running used or junk Cadillac automobiles, representing a number of evolutions of the car line (most notably the birth and death of the defining feature of early Cadillacs; the tail fin) from 1949 to 1963, half-buried nose-first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The piece is a statement about the paradoxical simultaneous American fascinations with both a “sense of place” — and roadside attractions, such as The Ranch itself — and the mobility and freedom of the automobile.
Chris has supplied a high dynamic range (HDR) image (next photo) that he took from the house. It use three photographs to create one image. The human eye has a dynamic range that no camera can match it in a single photograph. Humans can see objects in low light and bright sunshine all in the same view. HDR imagery attempts to duplicate with a camera what the eye does naturally. One picture is taken two stops under (limiting the amount of light that the camera sees), another is taken two stops over (accentuating the amount of light that he camera sees) and the third is taken at normal exposure settings. The images are processed using software and combined to give the desired high dynamic range effect. Literature indicates that this is a feature that the camera companies are working to integrate in to future cameras at a more automate level, but you saw it here first!
Rare color photos from the Great Depression were compiled by the Farm Services Administration from 1939 to 1944, and were recently gathered by the Denver Post’s excellent photo blog. All told, there are some 1,600 pictures which are now available online thanks to the Library of Congress. The photos, which depict small town life, industry and recreational activities during the Great Depression were included in a 2006 exhibit “Bound for Glory: America in Color.” Many of the pictures are truly iconic, very Norman Rockwell.
I mowed the lawn on Sunday morning and then went for a noontime bike ride in the Park. I wanted to go for the bike ride first, but knew that if I did, then the lawn wouldn’t get done. So I compromised, I mowed the lawn first, but did not trim it and then went for a ride. Not trimming the lawn made my work look bad, but that is what compromise is all about. Anyway, I got 15 miles. It was hot, too hot, but it is only going to get worse this week.
My family loves traveling to see quirky roadside attractions like these! We have a blog,“Go BIG or Go Home,” which chronicles what happens when our small-town family visits the “world’s largest”…whatever!