2020 UPDATE:

I have re-edited this photo and you can see the results here.

Yesterday I drove more than 6 hours (round trip) to photograph a trio of diners I have been eyeing for more than 10 years.  They are all on Route 17, which runs through the Catskill Mountains in central New York.  I have been driving Route 17 1-2 times yearly for about 13 years, as it is part of the most enjoyable ways to drive between New York City and the upper Central New York region, where my wife’s parents live.  One of the three diners has been closed the entire time, the second I’m not sure, and this one has definitely been open for at least part of that time.  It was previously the West 17 Diner, so-named because you can only enter and exit the diner from and to the west bound side of Route 17, which I’m sure has limited its potential commerce.  The latest opening renamed the place the I 86 diner, because Route 17 is undergoing an upgrade to an interstate with that designation.  Parts of Route 17 have already been renamed, others are in transition, but this section, while undergoing a lot of construction, is still called Route 17.

Because of the construction, I expect that 2 of the diners, at least, are in danger of disappearing.  Either they will be razed for highway expansion, for a different development, or simply re-open under new management.  While the prospect of re-opening gladdens me generally, it scared me as a photographer, so I took an opportunity of a free day yesterday to drive and get some shots in.  In addition to the 3 diners, I also found  and photographed 2 covered bridges and 1 neat old graveyard, which should suggest either a joke about Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show on the Food Network, or the Twelve Days of Christmas, but nothing really good comes to mind.

UPDATE: There are a couple of points I forgot to include.  The Liquidation Sale advertised in the background is over – that store closed; last year it was, I think.   The sign in the front window of the diner says it will reopen in May.  There is no year, but I think it was 2009.  It could be 2010.  Either way, they missed their expectations.  I’m not making any commentary on the economy or such – just noting the facts and circumstances.