Madonna and Child of Dog Slobber

At Joyce and Dan's house the other night:

The 'enhanced' image

The actual image

It has to be one of those miracle images you hear about! Joyce and Dan's Airedale dog 'Rocky' painted this picture on a window at their house using his nose! And maybe his tongue. Since this is Roadside Mysteries and not Roadside Miracles we normally would keep away from these kinds of things, but this looked pretty cool! The picture does not capture the full aesthetic sense of the work, epecially the way the sun light diffused though the dried mucus. You had to be there!

There are signs

My Corgi is smarter than your Honor Student:

He knew what to do!

Duncan Madog, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, from Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK, and brigadier in the Welsh Guards K-9 Unit (Gwarchodlu Cymreig Doggee) is seen here checking out some new open space.

50 Today Bill is

Shampoo! Shampoo!

May means rain!

one would think:

May is half over and it's rained twice. But, if there is a flood, please climb to safety!

Signs of humanity, up a notch

Need money now?

See this guy.

Save money on lunch! Just $5.99

Or why not ALL YOU CAN EAT for $5.99?

Sign spinning is an art, but that kind of talent is getting harder to find.  Why not Costume Waving? Do you enjoy meeting people and working outdoors? Want to make some extra cash to help pay off those holiday bills? Well, DO YOU, PUNK? 

If you answered YES, then we have a great opportunity for YOU! We're  seeking friendly and outgoing individuals to work as Costume Waver for our client located in the Fort Collins, Co. area! Your responsibilities will include wearing a great costume while greeting passers-by! 

Another anniversary and a mystery solved

One year ago today we started out on our journey; it was the reason for this blog, don't 'cha know? Now we have settled in and are ready to experience this and that; A mission to explore new worlds, To seek out new life and new civilization, To boldly go where most people have gone before! Hey! That's what blogs are for!

When we came to our last town on our list, it happened to be Fort Collins. We contacted a real estate agent and had him come up with some possible homes in the area. But what would we consider the "area". We thought that perhaps Fort Collins was not enough, and that maybe the towns nearby would also be worth the time to check out. Like maybe Timnath? Or Bellvue? Laporte? Whatever! You get the idea.
The problem was, we never had a good map of Colorado. But while we were looking around, we saw a sign someplace that said Greeley. I don't know exactly what it was, but it seemed like we were not that far from Fort Collins, and something caught our eye that gave us the impression that we were in the City of Greeley.
We knew that Greeley was "near" Fort Collins, but we were not actually sure how close it was, but because we never bothered to check, like on a map or something, we just "assumed" that Greeley was as close to Fort Collins as Bellvue was to Laporte. So we told our agent to look for homes in Greeley too!
When we drove back to Chicago, we looked at a map and were shocked to see that Greeley was 32 miles from Fort Collins! Ha! How stupid is that?

Of course after more analysis, we knew that Fort Collins, and ONLY Fort Collins would be the place! I never gave the Greeley mistake much thought until I found this today:
I was in the North-East part of the city limits of Fort Collins! So what's this? Was I in the "City of Greeley" twilight zone, or do the residents of Fort Collins have access to a device that can open or close any and all air that goes to the City of Greeley?
A good idea, but not so, unfortunately. Apparently there is a big underground pipe that supplies water to the City of Greeley and I happened to come across the valve that is used to let off residual air pressure. I'm sure we must have seen something like that back in March last year and we just gots confused is all. Shucks!

On the other side of the world archive

I have a feeling we're not in Colorado anymore.

A sign in Chongqing says it all!

Whoa! It's way too windy to go biking today, so while I clean out some of my old picture folders, here's something from a trip to China in 2004.

and on a boat in Suzhou.

Suzhou is known as the Venice of China. Our gondolier was very kind, but I think he would have liked the rest of the tourists on board to please shut up during his song.

Jack Benny's Bank Vault

In front of the Columbia Savings and Loan building:

there are hand prints in cement and some sort of memorial plaque.

WTF? It's Jack Benny! !?

I still remember when Mr. Benny returned to Chicago to dedicate the Jack Benny Middle School in Waukegan, IL (I've met at least 3 people who claim to have graduated from 'Benny School'). The town of Waukegan (not as funny sounding as Cucamonga) rolled out their best red carpet for the event. To this day I don't think anything more exciting ever happened in Waukegan since!
I was astonished to learn recently that Jack Benny visited Fort Collins three years after the school dedication and there is actually some sort of proof that he was indeed here in town.

As you can see from the picture, the plaque clearly says 'Jack Benny' and there is something that looks like a hand print. The hand print is somewhat of a mystery according to Lost Fort Collins. Maybe the cement got screwed up and it's really some truck driver's hand immortalized in the sidewalk in FoCo. I don't know. To me the mystery is:

WHY IN FRONT OF A BANK?

Jack Benny, the entertainer, could have made his mark in old town center or in front of the Arts building or even any civic building, but no! He chose a bank. Is it possible that that miserly Benny had a secret vault in the basement of the bank building? Could there be stacks of silver certificates and gold bullion stored right in the middle of town?

It may be that one of Joseph (Ed) Kearns' relatives worked at the bank and made arrangements to have a section of the abandoned Fort Collins subway tunnel that was built in 1904 to be sealed off and fortified to Benny's personal specifications! This makes perfect sense because:

1) There is no known record of any of Joseph Kearns' relatives ever living in the Fort Collins area.
2) The idea of a 1904 subway in Fort Collins has been exposed as a hoax by 9 out of 10 FoCo historians.
3) If you ask anyone in the building, they will deny any notion of a vault in the basement.

…of course this is exactly what Jack Benny would want you to think!

Geraldo Rivera: Are you listening?

High Spring Creek

Look at the top of this signpost!

The water level was 14 feet at that point in 1997!

There was one hell of a storm in 1997. To the left of the DQ was a trailer park that was totally washed away. It does not seem to rain much around here, but when it does, WATCH OUT!

Beef! It's what's for Dinner

A great place for steaks:

The 'S' in the sign is larger? Why is that?

When we see this sign from the road, we think it says "Moose House". Just weird!

Again with the signs!

As we have seen, the signs are everywhere. They have been here, there, and even this place.

I don't remember. Did I vote YES on 1A?

You can't see this sign very well, but it is a cardboard pizza! A CARDBOARD PIZZA! I bet it tastes just as good as the real thing!

Sorry, sometimes I can't stop in the middle of traffic to get a good shot!

With Fresh Burrito you get 25 cent coffee!

This could be a good deal, maybe.

More than 70 remaining retail locations of the parent company of Corral West Ranchwear are being liquidated.

Ceramic Circles

On the roadside we see some ceramic circles (I warned you!):

Hey, these are near the train/bus station! They are all about traveling!

Getting there is half the fun?

Via the motor car

The locomotive

train (They likes trains)

Streetcar

It IS Balloon!

Biplane

Rickshaw?

Bike Fort Collins!

Erethey isa onay zee-e-a ayway ootay eethey ars-sa?

and finally, the BUS!

Colorado Crop Circles! More of 'em!

I know! I need a new hobby. Well guess what! I'm starting one in December!
In the meantime here are more circles I found around here:

From sugar beets to microchips?

To Tom Quinn, the first roundhouse foreman?

?? I got nothing!

They likes trains. Trains am good to FoCo!

People too!

...and some older ones:

In the last of this series I have found some real old ones! Just wait! Oh boy!

Colorado Crop Circles, part one

OK, not really crop circles, but they can be found by the roadside:

These are bronze medallions about 16 inches in diameter. This one is a commemorative to the growers of sugar beets, so I guess this really is a crop circle!

I'll guess this one is about the handiness of bar code labels?

Transportation?

Save the Poudre River, damn it!

Signs of Humanity, Part Third

The Summer is better for this sort of thing. Here's the latest:

At Drake and Shields

For only a buck you could be a member of the Pulse!

At Mulberry and Lemay

Another furniture store going down!

...and a review of College avenue

Human Sign Project, part 2

I don't know... I saw many more during the Summer, but I didn't take any pictures.

Fort Collins is not the best place to find a job!

Too bad this guy isn't the SOFA KING !

Random shot of office workers?
Don't forget to VOTE!

Signs of Humanity, Part 1

Part one of our study is along College Avenue, South of CSU.

M&E Painting assures you will receive the best paint job available by today’s professional standards. It keeps the CSU grad students off the streets during the Summer too!

This walking sign was captured near a car dealership.

Directional ability is important for this torso'ed sign.

signs, etc.

Another jam with Mike McAbee

July Signs

I don't think that we have been to any of these places in town yet!

Even more signs

Here's what we have...
Looks like we will be moving to Colorado around June 26th. We have to pack up, have a garage sale, and say goodbye. 

May Signs

Some day we are going to look at the sign at the top and say "Wow, gas was only $4.29 back then!"

More Signs

In Seligman, et al




Today we are in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Signs

Today's gas in Sequim, Washington

Pilot boats at Ediz Hook in Port Angeles, Washington