Thursday, December 15, 2011

Blast Off!!!

So, driving home from the desert on Sunday we couldn't resist making a quick right (north) turn off Highway 62 onto Sunfair Road.  There was one of those classic desert scenes:  a semi-crazy looking guy on the corner with flags and canopies and other-worldly-looking vehicle and a sign advertising "hand-made Christmas Gifts".  How could we possibly not stop?
Turns out the hand-made gifts consisted almost entirely of pipes for smoking pot.  A nice enough guy with a really interesting vehicle that resembled an Airstream trailer.  He said he bought it from a guy who worked at Lockheed and used airplane-grade aluminum and other parts to build it!  Truly one of a kind!  It has a Cadillac engine, and the door handles, hinges, lights, etc. really did look unique.  A sticker on the door said "High Voltage", and I couldn't help chuckling at the overall impression the vehicle had on me.  Here's a cropped close-up.  No one on my Christmas list is in need of a hash pipe, so we said thanks and moved on.
A little further down Sunfair Road on the left is the small private Roy Williams Airport.  In case you're wondering, Roy Williams was a Disney cartoonist who did the original script for the Mickey Mouse Club TV show and (drum roll please) invented and designed the famous Mickey Mouse ear hat!  What an interesting tidbit of information!  Below is the airport logo and a picture of Roy.

In front of the airport they have what probably in it's day looked very 'space-age' and ultra-modern:  a miniature jet mounted on a pole.  This is what caught my photographer's eye as we were driving by.  Very cool, and now in nearly 2012 it looks like another one of those strange things you see in the desert and wonder what the heck it's doing there.  I decided to use black & white/high contrast to give it that vintage look.


Have you closed your Flight Plan?  
Happy Skywatch Friday, and have a great weekend!

24 comments:

  1. No Christmas pipes for me either. :)
    I remember Roy from the Mickey Mouse Club. He always looked like his eyes were closed when he smiled. Funny, I can almost remember his voice.
    Love your vintage look for the jet images!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post--I watched the Mickey Mouse Club as a kid and certainly remember Roy as well as Jimmy and all the Mouseketeers. I like your B&W photos of the plane too. Have a great weekend. Mickie :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Interesting folks you can meet in California! Love B&W for this scene - both the plane and the desert beyond it. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks awesome cool :) The B&W HDR effect is really cool

    ReplyDelete
  5. What great shots! And what a great place...

    ReplyDelete
  6. I had fun reading this. Must have been a great day for you. :D

    Great shots!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great Post. Love the B&W's. Thanks for stopping buy my blog.
    Happy Skywatching.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I first thought the RV was a Cortez but then "no, that is something very different". Cool. I wonder what the inside looked (and smelled) like. The black and white on the airplane really worked. Great job.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You always find the coolest stuff to photograph.
    Love the B & W's...
    the "dude"..very cool.
    There was a time in the 70's he would've had
    a line of cars waiting
    B & W's remind me of the Twilight Zone shows.

    ReplyDelete
  10. A lovely post to read and the images are wonderful to see...

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a great post. Love that shiny vehicle an your pictures look great

    ReplyDelete
  12. Nice shots - a pot pipe would certainly make a unique and different Christmas gift!

    ReplyDelete
  13. You can find some interesting things out in the desert.
    I like that high contrast image, very nice.

    ReplyDelete
  14. You always find the most interesting things that I honestly never spot! Now that I'm off for 3 weeks for winter break, I'm going to have to get up to Joshua Tree and go exploring with hubby!

    ReplyDelete
  15. What fun! That bus stop is a hoot, and I love the black and whites of the plane. It's the land time forgot out there.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Awesome b&w photos of the airport! Awwww, memories of the Mickey Mouse Club ... I'm ancient!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I really like your black-and-white pictures. It really brings out the clouds in the last picture, and gives an other-worldly appearance to the rocket (or jet) in the other pictures. The vehicle in your first two pictures was very interesting as well.
    Thanks for visiting my site.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Awhhh, I remember watching Roy in B&W. That's all there was!! Your photos are amazing, what a gift!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I like the different ways you edit your photos. The plane pictures, very cool.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I love those airplane photos--so dramtic. Not sure anyone on my Christmas list needs a hash pipe either. Too funny, but you got some interesing photos of his RV.

    ReplyDelete
  21. When I saw the picture of Roy Williams, it took me back to the 1950s when I was in elementary school and sometimes watched "The Mickey Mouse Club" in b&w. Roy was the guy who could draw anything from some squiggle on the chart paper. I didn't know his last name till today. He was just Roy and seemed like a really nice guy who could draw anything. Thanks for the memories! Interesting story about the guy selling "home-made gifts!"

    ReplyDelete
  22. Because of his size, Roy was called a "mooseketeer" on the Mickey Mouse Club. Didn't now he invented the ear hat. Uncle Walt was known to be a tightwad, so I bet Roy never got royalties. Haha.

    Your b&w shots of the jet are so good.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Our local pot smokers usually use the neck of a broken bottle, but like you I have no pot smokers on my gift list.
    Hope you have a great Christmas and New Year

    ReplyDelete