* disclaimer: I have no idea who Bob Shaw is, and I was too lazy to Google him.

As an outdoor advertising collector and billboard connoisseur I especially appreciate the home-made signs frequently seen along the streets and state highways. Judging by the effort and expense needed to produce these signs, someone has a real problem with that Bob Shaw guy. The least I could do was to get out of my car somewhere on the NW Barry Rd. (I think) and take some pictures.

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People don’t come to this here blog for good photos, so I have a reputation to uphold. This post contains plenty of mediocre photos of South Beach, photos just like you would take on your own trip with your hundred dollar camera. And that’s my goal: feel free to show these photos to your friends and relatives as your own, and if you are really fancy you can insert yourself in any of those for a complete effect.

South Beach has the air of authenticity that is hard to find anywhere in the United States. Thanks to the genius idea to preserve the Art Deco district, one could easily imagine how this place looked 40-50 years ago. If you are in town for a day or two, this is the place to be. Stay in an old hotel and spend your time sightseeing; sitting on a beach is overrated.

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When you tell people you’re going to Detroit they often give you that “are you crazy?” look and wish you to come back alive or at least unhurt. Pictures of abandoned and destroyed post-apocalyptic Detroit’s ruin-porn make their rounds on the internet, interspersed with scary crime statistics and sad economic news. A person with common sense would probably avoid Detroit, but clearly I am not that person. During a college visit to the nearby Ann Arbor, I set aside two days to check out Detroit because how could I not. Detroit is awesome. And we came back alive and even unhurt, if you don’t count a parking ticket, which did hurt a lot.

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There are multiple predictions about the future of the Earth after the humans are no longer populating it; scientists, writers, movie directors are guessing how long it will be before the Planet erases all the traces of our existence. These predictions are not very hard to make: there are multiple examples of abandoned and lost cities from the ancient times and not so ancient like Chernobyl.

And then there is former Benchmark Express Furniture store in Olathe, KS – a slowly deteriorating reminder of a failed business I drive by several times a day. The store closed around 4 years ago, when the economy was still doing fine and people still were spending the money they didn’t yet know they didn’t have. Recently one of the large signs fell down and I thought it was a good time to stop by and take a few photos.
Apparently the letter X is the first to go:

This sign crashed a month or two ago:

No one backed up to the loading dock for a long time:

Concrete is slowly converting back to its original ingredients:

Customers are long gone…

…and trespassers are not welcome:

Grass is growing on the parking lot:

This sign may last a year or two before it falls:

Formerly grand facade is sprouting cracks:

Even the parking lot signs are tired of standing idle:

Wind is blowing through the banner:

Soon after the final sale was over with and the store was closed for good, the developers promptly constructed more retail space across the street.

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We only had one full day in Minneapolis so we had to make it count. Getting around the Twin Cities is easy, even considering horribly confusing twin I35 highways. On any highway you will probably find yourself to be the fastest driver in the city – the rest of the population competes in out-slowing each other and driving under the speed limit without actually coming to a complete stop.

From the beautiful downtown Minneapolis…

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