On our way from Twenty-nine Palms (Joshua Tree) to Furnace Creek (Death Valley), we arrived at Death Valley Junction (CA), and this is what we saw. An opera house in the middle of a sparsely populated area is an interesting sight and the theater has indeed an interesting story, as you can read on its website.
We could not stop due to the desire to reach our destination not too long after dark, so we made a point of getting an early start on our way back to take a closer look at the Cafe.
Before going into the Amargosa Cafe, we stepped into the Amargosa Hotel. I am not sure why the beautiful signs were on the ground, but I took advantage of the fact.
Update (March 31, 2013): Yesterday, I was honored by a visit from the artist who is working on painting the signs. In a comment, she provided the following information on her work:
The reason that the hotel sign is sitting on the ground is because I painted it for them. It is a recreation of the original hotel sign that was on the front of the building when it was new in the 1920's. I recreated it on the sign in your photograph and one day it, along with the other signs you see sitting there with it, hopefully will be hung. It will go over the front entrance where the smaller, older sign is currently hung.
I have some images of the hotel reception and dining area, but will save them for another post.
Our visit to the Cafe was brief: while I was taking this photo, my husband learned that a water pipe had frozen and burst during the night, so the Cafe could not serve food.
I interpreted this as a message: we must go back, see a performance at the Opera House, stay at the Hotel and have breakfast at the Cafe.
The Cafe photos are my contribution to edition #65 of Black and White Wednesday - A Culinary Photography Event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar, and hosted this week by Lail of With a Spin.
The photos were shot in color and then converted to sepia (using Lightroom preset Sepia Tone).
This post contains the gallery of images submitted to the event.
On this page, you can find out who is hosting the current and future editions of the event.
