All photos at f/16 1/40

Now that we're a one-car family I use the light rail and bus to get to and from work one day a week. The bus drives along Main Street in Mesa, not normally a route I would take. Mesa is just north of the highway from where we live in Gilbert but it has such a different feel. It feels run-down and a bit sad to me. It feels like the recession is still holding on tight. But along the way I've noticed some amazing vintage motel signs and it makes me wonder what Mesa was like when these places were in their heyday.

I wanted to capture a few of these signs for this month's photo challenge so I woke up early this past Sunday morning and headed to Main street. We'd had a storm the night before and so it almost coolish but it was definitely not hot and the cloud cover was most welcome. 

It was a different experience to go out on an adventure with the intent of taking certain photographs. I haven't been feeling really inspired to take photo challenge pictures around my house or neighborhood and would love to give myself the opportunity for more photo adventures in the coming months.

The Photo Challenge Next Door is a collaboration with my next door neighbor Erica from Laddventure. We're both switching our cameras to manual mode and sharing one photo per month. Check out all of my Photo Challenge photos here.You can see Erica's photos here.