Black Plate Bug

This from our man in No Cal:

"This turned up on First Street (Benicia, CA) briefly; I know nothing more (except that it would have been cool to have a sun visor)....)--MSM

1962 Pontiac Catalina, Colorado Springs

I'm saying goodbye to Colorado and perhaps to blue skies with this post. Heading back to the Netherlands tomorrow. While I've been looking at American iron on the streets of Colorado Springs, BB has been dazzled with Euro-vehicles in the Netherlands and France. They are up on basha's oog (eye)

Eagle Nest, N.M. Volunteer Fire Dept.

Icelandic Jeeps for Sale

F250 Colorado Springs

Vernacular Colorado & Blue Sky

                                                Barn in Alley, Colorado Springs

                                                Masonic Temple, Colorado Springs

                                                      Turquoise House, Colorado Springs

                                House near Institution St., Colorado Springs

                                                        Sherman Peak 14036'

American Houses, Franklin St., Colo. Springs

While I'm exploring Colorado neighbourhoods, BB and HBB are exploring castles in France and the Netherlands. Images are up at Basha's Oog.

1967 Dodge Sportsman Van, Colo. Springs

Dentside in S.F.: 73-79 Ford Trucks

from Dan Stoner in San Francisco

" this is my second "dentside" (the term used to identify these '73-'79 Fords because of the groove running down the sides of this body style). I'm partial to the '73-'75 models because it was one of these that my dad had bought and taught me to drive with. I had my new driver's license for two months when I wrecked that truck, racing a buddy in his freshly Earl Scheib-painted '78 Camaro home from school. I was ahead of him when I lost control of Dad's '73 Trailer Special in a loose gravel curve on a country road about a mile from the house. It rolled head-over-tail almost three times before we came to rest on four blown tires. Matter of fact, the only things salvageable on that truck were the tailgate and the radio. But I walked away. I grew up in such a small town that the cop who showed up knew my dad – the local school district truant officer – and let me off with nothing more than a "...but you and your dad have enough to deal with," after reading me his long list of actionable items.

"I've had new trucks, but they just have no soul. And while I know plenty of people who think that the pre-Sixties American trucks are "cute," I've always loved the early Seventies, pre-smog pickups the most. That Outlaw Country, CB radio era of truck. That period of time when a drunk driving arrest could be avoided in Texas as long as there was one less open container in the vehicle than there were passengers. This was the era when cruise control was the only real option – an absurd option – available as a creature comfort shared with passenger cars. Well, that and carpeting. 

"Anyway, I'm rambling. But even though I live in San Francisco proper, I'll always have one of these. It just makes me feel...I don't know...complete. Like hot rod builder, Keith Tardel, told me when I bought his dentside years ago, "Hell, everybody needs a truck."--DF

Ford F-100 Looks Clean to Me. 460 c.i.

I want someone I know to buy this truck. Ed's Auto Service, Colorado Springs. Owner is asking $25OO 0B0/

Chrysler New Yorker in Colorado Springs

I've been teaching at Colorado College this month. The recent posts have been photographs made between 3 and 4 in the afternoon when I escape my office at CC to ride a bike around the wonderful neighborhoods adjacent to the campus. Colorado weather, Colorado light,  in October is pretty hard to beat. Unfortunately these completely sane neighborhoods morph into a large,  mean sprawl. Which I blogged about on a Huffington post this week in, The Geography of Lonely. Never have seen so many pawn shops--except maybe in El Paso, Texas another town with a big military population.
        Also passed what looked to be a drive-in mortuary.
Just after I had arrived in Colorado from the Netherlands, a piece of my fiction, Cup of Tea appeared in the (Toronto) Globe & Mail ("Canada's National Newspaper"). It will appear in my short story collection Traveling Light, coming out next summer, but it's also a fragment of a novel-in-progress.
And, BTW, here's a New Yorker (1952?) I came across while biking the 'hood. Very original, I believe.

1970 Chevrolet C-10, Colorado Springs Autumn

Turquoise New Mexico: '51 5-window Chevrolet (Taos)

Hudson Hornet Hollywood

Four Fords, Colorado Springs