Crash-o-matic

Today I was going to post a boring rant about the DOT and paving, but as it turns out, I saw the aftermath of no less than 3 accidents in less than 2 hours this morning. So here they are:

I couldn't get too close to this one to take the pic, but a Daily News van had overturned and sheared off a light pole. I drove by this just as the police were arriving on the scene and had the highway cut down to one lane.

An old Nova left on Wissahickon Ave. This was a pretty clean car before it was wrecked; somebody could probably fix it if they wanted to.

For some reason I couldn't get a clear photo of this one. It's an Acura that was left under the Twin Bridges with both airbags deployed and various body parts torn off.

No Traffic

Today I took an early-morning trip up the Roosevelt Expressway, to beat the traffic and get some caps in tight spots. Today I found 23 caps, in conditions ranging from very good to unusable (but with good parts to salvage and use on other caps). And it took a lot less time than last week's trip, where I found only 2 caps. The highway system works in mysterious ways.

Here I am under the Twin Bridges at Ridge Ave. It's about 6:15 AM on Sunday, which is why nobody is on the roads.

Taken from the median of the Expressway, facing toward the decks of the Twin Bridges. The small bridge running across the shot is a pedestrian walkway. This highway may be empty now, but during weekday rush hours, it's packed.


A Chevy Malibu wheel cover in its natural habitat.

Bupkus. Zippo.

Well, actually that's a slight exaggeration. I found 2 hubcaps today. This is normal for the summer months -- my time is better spent working on caps that are waiting to be reconditioned, rather than out on the highway not finding anything. But, I'm still exploring the Philly area. I moved here from North Jersey 2 years ago, and spent the first year-and-a-half moving hubcaps from my old place and getting my business set up. So I really don't know the roads here as well as I should. I'll be taking some drives this summer to get to know my way around and scope out spots that look good, so I'll be ready for winter. Some photos from today:


The Schuylkill is probably the only major highway in existence that routinely grinds to a halt on Sunday mornings. That should be some kind of test for highway engineers. If your road can't even keep moving on Sundays, you should find another occupation.


Going over the Ben Franklin toward Camden, NJ.


Here you can see the Divine Lorraine Hotel on Broad Street. This was the headquarters of some kind of cultish religious organization for a long time. Now it's empty. There's been talk of renovating it and converting it into condos for several years, but as you can see here, it doesn't look like anything is happening yet. I just hope it doesn't get torn down; it's a really neat-looking building.

Kodachroo-oo-oome

I guess it's a good thing Paul Simon didn't decide to write his song about cameras today. He'd probably have a hard time fitting "charge coupled device" into the rhyme scheme...

So I got my new digital camera, a Fujifilm Finepix V10. My old camera is an HP C200 that I've had since 1999. It's fine for close-up shots where I can control the lighting, but not for long-distance outdoor stuff. Now that I can take pictures, maybe I'll have something to post here.

Also, today I saw a 1984 Renault Alliance convertible. As if that's not odd enough, it was on a trailer with two late-model BMWs, pulling into the BMW dealership near Bala Ave and Montgomery Ave. I'm wondering if it was going for like $25 at auction, and they just couldn't pass it up.

By way of introduction

I'm a hubcap dealer living in Philadelphia. I spend a lot of time plying the highways of PA and NJ in my Buick station wagon, gathering up the caps that fly off the millions of cars that traverse our roads every day. This blog will cover my stories and photos of weird things I see, find and experience on the roads: accidents, construction, potholes, and many things that I'd never guess I would see -- until I do see them, at which point I will post about them here. That, along with a good helping of general ranting and raving about roads, driving, cars, the hubcap business, and whatever else I see fit to discuss.

It'll probably be a few months before much of interest appears here, because I need to get a better camera, and "capping" season starts in the fall, when the weeds die and the caps lying in the underbrush become visible.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this blog to Joe DeMarco and Ken Sitarik, who many years ago reassured me that there's nothing wrong with living off other people's junk. Without them, I might not be who I am today.