The Old Downtown in Aubrey, Texas

Its funny how many times these old towns have compact buildings like this that are run down. It tried to go dense but it didn't grow enough to continue. And then people stopped building like that. I biked out here from my parents house. Lots of homes and ranches on the highway out there. Great view of the run down when you get out there.

Lake Lewisville

View of the lake from the disc golf course. Disc golf courses are often within marginal land and in places that can get flooded or water drains into. The shoreline holes here feel especially so. As with every lake but one in Texas this one is artificial.

Abandoned Building that was a Segregated School in Rural Texas

We got lost trying to make the right exit and turn in Lockhart for the best barbecue around. What a lucky chance to come across this building. We looked inside and it appeared to be one of those big room and stairwell and ceiling building. I would have loved to walk inside but it also looked dangerous, and I guess that would be trespassing. It's fascinating confronting the brutal past of the South in these sites and the injustice and violence that lay behind it. I've also heard African Americans talk about their experiences in these segregated schools with pride and nostalgia and praise for all the good work and accomplishments that occurred there.

Route 66

There are little tourist towns along Route 66 and this one in Arizona is not too far from the Grand Canyon. I think many of the old towns  on Route 66 died off as the new interstate system bypassed some of them. Some continue to survive with the help of travelers like me and my parents. It's hard to beat good BBQ and beer in the afternoon. I remember regretting to buy some local craft beer and loving that Elvis statue. These places are so much better than the McDonald's along the freeway. My Dad has told me stories about heading West on the old highways like Route 66 when he was a kid.

Rest Stop in the Desert

The desert environment is so peculiar to me that I can't imagine how anything survives in it. Apparently most animals get enough water to survive by eating other animals. I guess most living creatures are mostly water. I'm always glad to make it through alive.

Crows

Crows in La Canada. Scientists say these birds are smart as hell. Their vocalizations supposedly have many meanings and a language of sorts. They also plant big shits on the cars which annoys the hell out of my brother. I can't help but think its intentional.

Amazing Tree in Pasadena

This was on the west side of a public library in Pasadena. There are some gnarly trees in LA. I think of LA as a car culture nightmare and my experience there trying to get around mostly confirms that. But we walked around this neighborhood that had a theater in which my niece performed. Once you got to where you wanted to be walking was easy and fun.

Lucy's Descendants Alive and Well

Whether its an Australopithecus aferensis or boisei it's definitely in Lucy's line. Everybody wants to live in LA. She's probably wondering whether the sanitation system is better than her nomadic system.

Michael Myer's House

My brother joked that this is the house that inspired the Halloween movies. Its probably just one of numerous abandoned houses in Pasadena. In part because of the habitual fear that the city will buy up the houses in this stretch to build an extension of the freeway. Id love to live in that house even if it was the Halloween house. Im guessing its an uber expensive property. My brothers reference makes me wonder that Michael Myers might be a metaphor for problems in the cities. Maybe he represents the opposite of gentrification - when middle class neighborhoods turn into rundown when people leave and no one comes in like in huge sections of Detroit and other old industrial cities. Maybe he symbolizes the moral decay of middle class sections of urban or suburban places. Maybe its about the corruption of government and how that turns into conditions of decay and violence.

Small Park in the Foothills of LA

This park has to be the smallest I've ever seen. The placards describe the history of La Crescenta and vilifies the working man who became an entrepreneur (Pickens) and glorifies the rich guy who became a liberal government bureaucrat (Briggs). Douglass firs cannot grow in forest anymore in the mountains and Pickens did contribute to their destruction. I read in other histories that the villain Pickens was actually not the cause of all bad things that happened in the foothills.. Briggs helped develop flood control that feeds into park areas so peoples homes further down the valley wouldn't wash away. Those homes wouldnt have been there without the economic development in the LA valley. So people like Pickens wouldn't have cut down the trees without the market for them. LA businesses used them for energy and construction. But the wealth created from this growth also created the resources to construct the canals and the floodplain park. Yet if the forest would have remained intact there wouldn't have been as much of a flooding issue. Ironic.

The First Disc Golf Course in the Nation

My Dad and I played the disc golf course near our motel in LA. Turned out to be the first permanent course in America. Should have known they were going to do it first in LA. It's in a a park that is a floodplain. They have horse stalls so I assume they let the horse go when it floods. The big dam can hold the water from flooding out the lower areas. It's an impressive flood control system. I'm trying to picture the water ever getting to the top of the dam. Another post has the uphill creeks that pour the water into the floodplain so the homes don't get washed out. At around one million dollars a piece it's good they don't have to replace them often.

Dog Shit Swimming Hole

When you don't want to pay to get into Barton Springs Pool in Austin this is where you go. How many dogs do you see swimming around? How much canine and human urine and  fecal matter is in the water? Its only 5 bucks but you'd rather take your chances? How much human waste is upstream as well and running down into this creek?

Smitty's Market

One of the great barbecue joints in Lockhart, Texas. A friend said it was the best but he failed to warn me about being baked alive by the fire. That closeup of the pit is the line when you're dumb enough like me to stand next to it. This is in the summer and I sweated like a dog and a friend cut out and let me hold the line til I was past the fire. The worker dude in the red t-shirt taking orders looked like he was going to pass out. When I came back in March the fire didn't seem so bad and my friends didn't abandon me this time. Quite the entrance with black soot caked on the walls.

Gravestones in the Park

You can see the fence protecting the graves. It's in a park in South Austin. Must be a small family plot that they refused to allow to be exhumed and moved by the city. Its on the top of a hill that isnt the most desirable property either. One person is marked as being born back in the early 1800s. Makes you think there must be all kinds of others buried in these areas that don't have family or money to protect and preserve them and probably were buried in more desirable and profitable land.