Retracing Steps: New Deal

I did New Deal solo without too much of a feeling of desolation/loneliness. But mostly I managed by focusing on the tasks at hand, like relocating the same things we found years ago. On the way into New Deal, exiting I-27, I found evidence of a bad accident involving a guard rail.

 This had to have been a serious wreck!

 I don't think I photographed this the last time, when my wife was with me. High School football is a big deal in these little towns.

 There was only one spot worth a few pics, and I relocated it without much trouble.

This is it.

It has not changed much.

It looked like the same old junk, or treasures, with some new stuff, or treasures.

I don't think this VW was there last time. It's been a few years.

I heard music coming from inside this place! Maybe somebody lives here?

I tried to get more views of the surroundings than I did the last time.

 That truck kind of sums up what Texas is all about, at least in this area.

 This is where we are.

 In South Texas a stump like this would rot away, but here, it just dries out and turns hard as a brick.

There is really not much to see in New Deal, in my opinion. Probably even less to do if you discount high school football.

I found one more funky old building to photograph, and then I left. Next time, it'll be some views of the surrounding country as I left New Deal. I stopped at the abandoned recycling center on the way back to Lubbock. It's still wide open and there are NO no trespassing signs-- no effort to restrict access at all. Probably toxic in some areas. That would be no surprise, but I don't think any soil testing has taken place. 

Retracing Steps

Yes, last Sunday I drove to New Deal, which was one of the early places I visited with my wife, and then when I finished taking pics in New Deal I stopped at the old, abandoned, recycling center on I-27 across from the airport, which was another early place where my wife and I explored and took photos. And then on the way back I went through downtown Lubbock and got some more shots of the old Citizen's Tower building. It is still being renovated, and, really, to me the structure looks unsound. Of course, I am not an engineer. I used a telephoto in a lot of my pics Sunday. I covered New Deal a little better than I did the last time. Not much there to photograph, really. 

I thought about all the places we traveled and I really can spend the rest of my life re-exploring all the places we visited: Plainview, Brownfield, Tahoka, Levelland, Meadow, Spur, Ropesville, Slaton, Shallowater, Crosbyton, Anton, Abernathy, Canyon, Lorenzo, Ralls, New Braunfels, New Home, Floydada, Petersburg, Littlefield, and more, and then the many, many, locations in Lubbock... and we made repeat visits to all of these places and found new things every time. I'm sure I've forgotten a lot. Eventually I'll have an RC camera plane again, and I can take it with me and do aerial photos in locations out of town. That will keep me busy enough.

But before all of this, how about some more of those SUNFLOWERS? They are a bit past their prime at this point, but still interesting.

It has been too hot and too dry for too long, I can water a lot but the tap water is hard, salty, and has a choramine residual. Rain water would be nice but there has not been much of that. Lubbock's crap climate is getting crappier as human-generated greenhouse gases heat up the planet. 

This stuff changes constantly. 

While I was giving two of my wife's classmates an informal tour of Lubbock (they were here for the Lubbock High School 63rd Reunion) I found a house to photograph.

These two ladies came here from Dallas and remarked that Lubbock seemed like a ghost town to them-- not much traffic compared to Dallas. That's a GOOD thing.

Exploring Lubbock Again

Yes, the Lubbock High School 63rd Reunion pics are up on the appropriate blog, so this morning I got out before it got blazing hot, using the little Kodak this time. I explored some areas off of South Indiana and South University, covering some territory my wife and I examined. This is all part of the project of retracing our paths.

 This is Laura Bush Elementary School. Lubbock has gigantic schools. This is in a developing residential area.

 Right across the street you still have cotton fields.

 Right around the corner you find newly constructed houses for sale.

 This is a truly huge school, but not unusual.

Someday this area will be full of houses.

The underground infrastructure is going in.

 An enormous flag waves in the distance. Lubbock is a BIG FLAG city-- the bigger the better.

 More and more houses under construction.

 The building never ends.

 But the land being gobbled up was only used to grow cotton, so who cares?

Somebody might want to think about water needs as the aquifer drops to lower and lower levels. Rarely does it rain anymore in this area. Plots of Lake Meredith and Lake Alan Henry show declining levels as well. How long can this go on?? I guess this goes on as long as developers can make money. 

 Enjoy the boonies while you can.

 I shifted to a sort of large trailer/mobile home/manufactured home residential area that predates the current construction boom by many years. These people probably thought they were safe out here, out in the "country". My wife and I were fascinated by such areas, where people seem to live in order to escape civilization.

It is still pretty desolate but they are about to be surrounded by suburbs.

 Code and zoning enforcement will play havoc with their free and easy life styles.

 Funky trailer homes will be a thing of the past. What a shame.

Houses like this, springing up in new residential areas, will be the bane of those who fled to the boonies, hoping to live unmolested lives. But at least the BIG FLAGS will keep on flying.