bookmark_borderBooking.com removed my negative reviews

I've made many long road trips over the past decade or so, with most of my nights on the road having been spent in various motels across the U.S. and Canada. For the past several years, I've mostly made use of Booking.com to book my lodgings whenever I'm not able to stay with friends or family. Booking.com has proven to be a great resource for finding places along my way, particularly when I'm trying to decide whether to stop for the night or if I can continue a bit farther onward. I can look for patterns or trends among recent reviews and also try to find last minute deals. But there's an apparent issue with this website that needs to be acknowledged, one I've encountered a couple of times and which has called their ratings' reliability into question for me. And it's this: I've posted several reviews on the site in recent years, and the two most negative ones have both been deleted.

Continue reading "Booking.com removed my negative reviews"

bookmark_borderDFW in vintage photos

Updated October 9, 2024 with additional historical information
Whenever I shop antique stores, estate sales, or online, I'm always on the lookout for unique and original snapshots and slides. If it's a photo of somewhere I've been, or of a scene or situation I find interesting enough, then it's fair game as long as the price is right. And when it comes to places I've been, few vintage images are more interesting than those of my own hometown and surrounding areas. Here are sixty-nine rare images of DFW spanning every decade of the 20th century, all taken from my personal collection.

Houston Street Viaduct, 1945

The Houston Street Viaduct (originally known as the Dallas-Oak Cliff Viaduct) was constructed in 1911 to connect Downtown Dallas with the then recently annexed community and former independent city of Oak Cliff. It was built to replace earlier connections that were destroyed by the Great Trinity River Flood of 1908. The originally planned streetcar line that was intended to traverse the bridge was finally constructed more than one hundred years later, entering service in April 2015.
Houston Street Viaduct, 1945
Heading into Downtown Dallas via the Houston Street Viaduct, 1945 (view from car)
Continue reading "DFW in vintage photos"

bookmark_borderVintage photo collection series

Man with camera

Collecting vintage and antique photos is a pastime of mine. Most of my collection is acquired from antique shops and antique malls, estate sales, and from online purchases. On occasion, I post collections of these photos on this blog. This is a home page for these collected posts, and it will be updated as new collections are added.