Americans love driving through the West. This passion really began after World War II, when better highways and cars made long distance travel possible, and families loaded up their station wagons and headed from the Midwest and California to explore the Rocky Mountain states. A trip to Utah, where this photograph was taken, usually involved a circuit that included the Great Salt Lake, Zion National Park, and Bryce Canyon National Park.

The 1950s, before national fast food chains colonized America's small towns, was a time when tourists ate at Mom-and-Pop establishments scattered along lonely rural highways. This old cafe, abandoned when I took the picture, sat quietly along a road near Bryce Canyon. I love how the sign matches the color of the endless blue sky of the high desert, and it reminds me of the Americana culture of Route 66.

Lee Rentz