The Outlook Motel has been a fixture on the side of the Yellowhead for 35 years. I don’t know who would have stayed there but its easy to let the imagination loose, concocting stories of a seedier, darker nature. What drew my attention was the vintage style sign. For as long as I can remember, it has always looked like that.
Here is am image from Google Maps Street View of the sign:
For as long as the link works, here is a link to the street view.
For a couple of years I had intended to stop and get a photo capturing the sign’s retro styling, and if I was daring enough, maybe look to see if the rooms were some kind of time capsule containing other vintage elements. To my dismay, the sign was recently displaced and stripped of its markings, and just over a week ago demolition begun on the building. The land has been reclaimed for a widening of the highway, and a revamping of the interchange. As of this upcoming Tuesday, there will be nothing left.
The back half of the motel and an RV park will remain, and the sign will be resurrected as something new, but it won’t be what I planned to capture. The moral of the story is don’t assume things will remain the same. Especially if you plan to photograph them.
August 26th, 2011 at 11:39 pm
[…] thinking ‘someday I’ll go back and take a photo of that’. I also learned that ‘someday’ may never happen. At least until the snow flies, I plan to keep my camera in tow more often, and it will enable me […]