Eccentric Roadside

What, no blue ox?: Rocky Mount, North Carolina's Bunyan Muffler man

2009-11-08T06:12:00.000-08:00

There's a Log Cabin Homes place in the northern North Carolina town of Rocky Mount that had the good taste to import a decommissioned Paul Bunyan muffler man from Illinois to be used as their mascot. He stands next to Old Glory on a 40-foot perch that can be seen by dazzled passersby off exit 145 off of I-95. Log Cabin President Tom Vesce says "The company has already been bombarded by Muffler Men aficionados for site visitations and picture taking alongside Paul Bunyan," which just proves the "Field of Dreams" adage, "If you build it (or in this case Bunyan it), they will come."

Ben Bernanke, Great American

2009-11-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's stock went way up when I found out an interesting tidbit about his youth. When he was a Harvard student, he worked summers at South of the Border, the beloved tourist trap located in his hometown of Dillon, South Carolina. And not some cushy front office job. He waited tables wearing a poncho just like Pedro, their mascot. This is a truly great American and I'm brimming with confidence that he will use the mantra "What Would Pedro Do?" to guide us out of the financial turmoil our great nation is currently in.

Me encanta recuerdos de mal gusto desde el sur de la frontera*: I love tacky souvenirs from South of the Border

2009-11-05T07:51:00.000-08:00

Pull his pants down and he pees. Hilarity ensues.

Richard Petty is ready to greet you...

...as is this friendly native American.

The place looks like it hasn't changed since forever.

Religious icons, anyone?

Nothing makes a roadtrip more fun than a stop for some useless junk, and South Carolina's South of the Border has some of the best crappe of anywhere in the world. Inflatable chili peppers? Check. Risque bath towels? Check. Souvenir backscratcher? Check. Who wouldn't want one of thousands of these precious keepsakes as a memento of the all good times had by all? The decor here is wonderful, too: hand-lettered signs, old wooden counters and shelves, friendly poncho-wearing help. And you can pick up a whole bunch of treasures without breaking the bank. Yo quiero South of the Border.

*if this translates to something ridiculous like "Bite the wax tadpole" it's because I don't speak Spanish and used an online translator.

Mi tacky casa es su tacky casa: South Carolina's South of the Border

2009-11-04T12:03:00.000-08:00

If you're driving from the northeast to Florida, you're going to want an oasis half way there. And if your idea of an oasis includes Tacky-with-a-capital-T souvenirs, buildings shaped like sombreros and crude sculptures of mustached poncho-wearing Mexicans named Pedro, you can't top South of the Border in Dillon, South Carolina. A Mexican-themed (for no apparent reason) tourist trap, SOB has been pulling millions of weary travelers off I-95 since the 1950s with promises of deluxe accommodations, wonderful gifts, and delightful eats. You may or may not get all that but you will get a retro tackarama, bursting with unnecessary but essential junk for the taste-challenged road warrior and lots of neon festooned pseudo-stucco. We didn't spend the night here, alas, but we did have a nice meal at Pedro's Casteteria and loaded up on plenty of googahs, whatnots and tchochkes at their deluxe gift emporiums. I've never been to Tijuana, but I get the feeling this might be a reasonable facsimile only without the vice and diarrhea. It would have been great to see all the neon lit up at night. I was especially taken with how much the place appears unchanged since the 1960s. The same junky souvenirs I loved buying on roadtrips as a kid back then are here, on painted wooden shelves with hand-lettered signs advertising their greatness. Bliss! SOB is so vast, I've split up the pictures: this post shows the architecture. I'll get to the souvenirs next. Til then, manana, amigos!

Ay-yi-yi! The billboards of South of the Border, South Carolina

2009-10-31T12:10:00.000-07:00

In South Carolina, just across the North Carolina state line is the best old-fashioned tacky tourist trap on the eastern seaboard, South of the Border. I'll talk more about them in the next post, but one of their great features are the seemingly hundreds of billboards you pass for miles and miles along Interstate 95, proclaiming the greatness of Pedro, their politically incorrect mascot, and the marvels they have to offer: fireworks, grits, camping, you name it. How can you not stop here after your desires and curiosity have been whipped up into such a frenzy, especially if you're a bored kid in a car on the way to Grandma's in Florida? The legendary Wall Drug in South Dakota used this same billboard technique to great effect all along I-90. These places hearken back to a simpler, less sophisticated time, when billboards were beacons that would lead the way to awesome places and things. "¡Yo quiero South of the Border"!

Odd souvenir of the week: Las Vegas lip balm

2009-10-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while you come across a souvenir that makes you go "huh?" and such was the case with this item. While patronizing a CVS drug store on the Las Vegas strip I spotted a huge dispenser full of lip balm. Nothing to see here I thought, until I noticed the little sticks had the classic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" logo on the label. No other brand name, just that. Sure, people are apt to get chapped lips from the hot Vegas sun and people probably kiss each other more here than wherever back home is, but I'd never seen a cosmetic with a city's logo on it before. A practical souvenir and at a popular price, to boot.

Mundane souvenir of the week: New Jersey Turnpike t-shirt

2009-10-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

I love souvenirs. The looking is often more fun than the buying and owning...once you get that precious keepsake home, now what do you do with it? I've bored my friends and relatives to tears by giving them my so-bad-it's-good treasures, so now I mostly just photograph them. Here's a real beaut: a New Jersey Turnpike t-shirt. The NJT is not what you'd call a pleasure ride, so who in their right mind would want a garment promoting it? That's the beauty of it! Awesome.

Seabee-ing is believing: Davisville, Rhode Island's Seabee statue and museum

2009-10-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

I think the great Seabees statue looks like a cross between a Roy Lichtenstein painting and Mr. Bill.

You can get a Seabee on a Zippo in the gift shop...

...along with some other unique items.

John Wayne and Susan Hayward even made a movie about the Seabees.

And don't forget the Quonset hut, Rhode Island's other contribution to military history...

...not to be confused with Helen Hayes as Mrs. Ada Quonsett from the movie "Airport."

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. Navy created construction battalions to provide support to U.S. troops fighting in different parts of the world. These battalions were called Seabees and they were made up of experienced, highly skilled craftsmen including electricians, carpenters, plumbers, equipment operators — virtually any construction or building trade needed to get the job done. The original battalions were formed at a naval base in Davisville, Rhode Island and 100,000 Seabees were trained there. Frank Iafrate, a civilian file clerk working at the base, created a great insignia in 1942. Here's what he said about it: "I thought of a bee — the busy worker, who doesn’t bother you unless you bother him. But provoked, the bee stings. It seemed like an ideal symbol. The rest came easily. I gave the bee a white sailor’s cap, various tools to show his construction talents, and finally a Tommy gun to show his fighting ability. I made the bee a third-class petty officer (E-4) with the 1942 Naval insignia used by the first Seabees on each arm … a machinist’s mate, a carpenter’s mate, and a gunner’s mate." Iafrate later enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1942 and during the war he served as a Chief Carpentersmate in a Seabee Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit.

The base at Davisville was decommissioned in 1994. There now sits a Seabee museum and several Quonset Huts, another innovative Rhode Island military invention carrying the Indian name for the region. A beautiful Seabee statue greets visitors and reminds all of their proud heritage. Sometimes it's used in parades and is a nice compliment to Rhode Island's other oversized insect statue, the New England Pest Control Big Blue Bug.

By the way, this is the year of the Seabee at the United States Navy Memorial in Washington, DC. Check it out. You do Rhode Island proud, Seabees!

Pop culture: Atlanta's World of Coca-Cola museum

2009-10-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

John Pemberton, inventor of The Real Thing

They didn't side-step the New Coke debacle.

The Coke Store has lots of cool stuff like these salt and pepper shakers.

You can sample Coke products from around the world. These are from South America.

As far as beverages that taste like regurgitation go, Beverly is one of the best...

...and yet it still tastes better than Tab.

I don't care if it rots your teeth, has more sugar in one can than all of Cuba and gets you hopped up like a gerbil on a wheel, I love Coca-Cola. When I was a kid, those old Coke vending machines where you yanked out a frosty cold glass bottle and popped the top off with the built-in bottle opener were great. The first gulp always made you cry a little and would be followed by a satisfying "ahhhhhhhh" from your slightly burned throat. Atlanta is the hometown of Coke and they've got a really cool museum there called the World of Coca-Cola, right in the heart of downtown. There are historic exhibits, 3D movies, original Coke-inspired artwork, and a TV commercial viewing room. But the coolest room they have is called "Taste It." Coke makes many different flavored beverages that are sold in other parts of the world and here you get a chance to sample sixty of them, arranged geographically in five tasting stations. Some are fruity, some are earthy, some are God-awful. After sampling way, way too many flavors, my favorite was Inca Kola from Peru which offers a nice, fruity splash. Only the bravest pop aficionados should sample Beverly, however, an aperitif from Italy, which has a taste reminiscent of puke. There's also a great store with many fun, retro-designed Coke items. Yes, you do pay good money for the privilege of promoting a product that already permeates every corner of the earth, but why not? Coke adds life, it's the real thing, you can't beat the feeling, it's red, white and you, things go better, it's always Coca-Cola, and it's the pause that refreshes. Enjoy.

We all shrine on: Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina's Prospector Shriner with oil drum fez

2009-10-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

It's always great when an eccentric roadside attraction is not far off the interstate if you're trying to make time, and such was the case on our last trip. Just minutes of I-95 in North Carolina sits the Roanoke Valley Shrine Club building and their gloriously peculiar Daniel Boone-esque mascot. For years, a prospector statue stood atop Elmo Garner Jewelers and Home Improvement in Roanoke Rapids. Worried the statue might blow over into the gas station next door in a storm (and hounded by an anti-prospector sign ordinance), Mr. Garner donated it to the Roanoke Valley Shrine Club, of which he was a member and where it has stood watch on a quiet street since 1989. His best feature by far is the oil drum on his head painted red to look like like a Shriner's fez. Clothes make the man.

Art-O-Mat vends art good like a decommissioned cigarette machine should

2009-10-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

There are 82 Art-O-Mat machines around the country and each have their own distinctive retro graphics. The machines feature art from 400 artists from around the world.

My selection was a distinctive pin from Weener Ware. Cool!

I took Mom to see the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit at New York City's stupendous Whitney Museum of American Art last weekend. Very impressive. But what really caught my eye was an unusual contraption on the bottom floor next to the book store called the "Art-O-Mat". At first glance it looks like a cigarette vending machine from the '60s. Wow, I thought, a cigarette machine. When was the last time you saw one of those? Upon closer inspection it turned out to be an ingenious device for vending original art in cigarette pack-sized boxes. You buy a token from the cashier at the book store for $6.98 plus tax. You then put it in the Art-O-Mat's coin slot and make a selection of the "brand" of art you want. Little descriptive labels occupy the spaces above the levers that used to say "Marlboro," "Newport" and "Chesterfield." There's a thrill to pulling that nob all the way out and having your purchase fall in the trough below. My choice was from an outfit called "Weener Ware". Inside my fancifully festooned box was a decorative pin made from a bottle cap with a picture of a dog in it. Cool! The Art-O-Mat at the Whitney is one of 82 retired cigarette vending machines that have been converted to vend art in various locations throughout the country and there are around 400 contributing artists from 10 different countries currently involved in the Art-O-Mat project. Here's what the Art-O-Mat website says about how it all began:

The year was 1997, the town was Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Artist Clark Whittington was set to have a solo art show at a local cafe, Penny Universitie (now Mary's Of Course Cafe). This is when Whittington used a recently-banned cigarette machine to create the first Art-O-Mat. In June 1997, it was installed, along with 12 of his paintings. The machine sold Whittington's black & white photographs for $1.00 each.

This art show was scheduled to be dismantled in July 1997. However, Cynthia Giles (owner of the Penny Universitie) loved the machine and asked that it stay permanently and machine remains unaltered in its original location to this day. At that point, it was clear that involvement of other artists was needed if the project was going to continue. Giles introduced Whittington to a handful of other local artists and Artists in Cellophane was formed.

Personally, I thought the Art-O-Mat was really Kool. On a Lark, I'd walk a mile for one because you've got a lot to like and they've come a long way, baby. And I'd rather fight than switch.

Abandon on the run: Scenes from Route 301 in southern Virginia

2009-10-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

As much as I try to be positive, I have to admit it's no fun driving on I-95 anywhere north of Washington D.C. Mile after mile of ripped-up congested pavement through every northeastern metropolis takes its toll on the eccentric roadside traveller. South of DC, 95 becomes much more placid and leisurely. Trouble is, it's also pretty boring. We kept seeing cool, old abandoned road sites on Route 301, which parallels a good stretch of 95 in southern Virginia. 301 is a road not unlike Route 66 and other pre-Interstate main drags. We were able to get off 95 and keep pretty much keep to our schedule by taking 301, enjoying some spectacular forsaken gas stations, motor courts, billboards and signs along the way. One thing about the busy northeast: if a gas station goes out of business, it might go vacant for a year or so, but soon enough, someone is renovating it into a Starbucks or a U-Stor-It. In other regions of the U.S., abandoned places stay abandoned seemingly for all eternity, where 6-foot weeds overtake them and old rusted signs creak back and forth in the breeze. I love places like this...old ghosts rotting away under sunny blue skies. Long live decay.

Baby, you're a wrench man: Norcross, Georgia's rat-faced wrench guy and other greater metropolitan Atlanta delights

2009-10-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

Allen, the creepy U-Wrench It greeter

SCENES FROM THE SOUTHEASTERN RAILWAY MUSEUM:

I love when a train smiles at you

This is called the Flashing Rear End Device (F.R.E.D.), and I'm not making that up.

Beautiful Southern decay.

GREETINGS FROM THE DULUTH REXALL:

They make a mean tuna salad sandwich, and don't you forget it.

We had a lovely time visiting Sherry's cousin Bobby and his family in the suburbs of Atlanta. They took us out to a great lunch at place they knew we'd love: the Duluth Rexall Grill. At a time when old-fashioned Rexall drug stores are few and far between, this one in Duluth is thriving. Half the place is a drug store and the other half is a friendly eatery with great breakfast and lunch fare. A bit of fanciful lattice work divides the two. I'm told it's hard to get a seating here for breakfast, as the place is mobbed with regulars. Duluth also has the Southeastern Railway Museum, a fun place with lots of train-related artifacts and some real train cars you can poke around in. My favorites were the beautifully decaying models way, way in the back. But the piece de resistance was the half-man, half-rat-looking statue in front of the U-Wrench It in Norcross. This is an auto parts place that pays cash for junky old cars and its mascot is a hideous creation that appears to be made partially out of car parts. It looks like something out of a Stephen King story: Allen Badwrench, Mr. Goodwrench's hideous mutant southern relative.

Submitted for your approval: Rod Serling's hometown celebrates the 50th anniversary of "The Twilight Zone"

2009-09-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone.
— Rod Serling

The Twilight Zone was aired for five seasons from 1959-1964. Rod Serling wrote an astouding 92 of the show's 156 episodes.

The U.S. Postal Service recently had the good taste to put Rod Serling on a stamp.

SOME OF THE ALL TIME GREAT EPISODES:

"A Stop at Willoughby": An advertising executive (James Daly) who has grown exasperated with the stress of the business life longs to get off a train at a stop called Willoughby. "Mad Men" has got nothing on this. "Push, push push!"

"Long Distance Call": A boy (Billy Mumy) receives phone calls from his recently deceased grandmother on the toy phone she gave him. Danger, Will Robinson!

"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet": A man (William Shatner) recovering from a nervous breakdown sees a creature on the wing of the airplane he's on. Beam me up, Scotty!

"To Serve Man": An alien race arrives on earth with a promise to help solve mankind's problems. And they'd just love to have you for dinner.

"Time Enough at Last": A man who loves to read (Burgess Meredith) survives a nuclear explosion. One of the best ironic Twilight Zone endings ever.

"The Eye of the Beholder": A disfigured woman (Donna Douglas, voice of Maxine Tyler) undergoes plastic surgery in order to look more like everyone else. Elly Mae Clampett's worst nightmare.

"Walking Distance": While visiting his boyhood hometown, a middle-aged executive (Gig Young) finds himself in the past. The carousel that inspired this episode still stands in Serling's Binghamton, New York hometown. Great score by Bernard Herrmann on this one, too.

(I got some help with the episode descriptions here.)

Fifty years ago, CBS aired a TV series unlike any other before it. That series was "The Twilight Zone" and there hasn't been a TV show quite like it since, either. Its writer and creator, Rod Serling, invented a genre, a catchphrase, an experience. If something unexplainable or otherworldly happens to you, you might say "I feel like I'm in The Twilight Zone" and everyone will know what you mean. In fact, all you need to do is hum the first four notes of the theme song, and people will get your drift. Serling took difficult topics like war, racism and McCarthyism and put them in science fiction morality play context. Intelligent writing, great acting, great directing, and great musical scores were in every episode. But the best part for me was always Serling's introductions and narration. Was there ever a cooler guy? That voice, that demeanor, that cigarette. He actually made the writer the star of the show, something that has never happened since.

Rod Serling was very loyal to his hometown of Binghamton, New York. He named his production company Cayuga after nearby Lake Cayuga and Binghamton was the inspriration for some of his more nostalgic episodes. Now Binghamton is doing Serling proud. The Twilight Zone 50th year celebration is a four-day event that will kick off October 1st at the Holiday Inn – Triple Cities Ballroom in Binghamton. The opening ceremonies will include the Serling family and local dignitaries, proclamations and presentations as well as guest speaker Tony Arabella, who has chronicled the works of Rod Serling in a number of formats and is currently editing a ten volume book series titled As Timeless As Infinity: The Complete Twilight Zone Scripts of Rod Serling. The evening will conclude with a screening of the PBS American Documentary, Submitted for Your Approval: Rod Serling which chronicles Serling’s life and was filmed, in part, in and around Binghamton. They're also unveiling a Serling statue and having a special ceremony in honor of the new Rod Serling U.S. postage stamp. Click here for all the details.

Willoughby? Maybe it's wishful thinking nestled in a hidden part of a man's mind, or maybe it's the last stop in the vast design of things, or perhaps, for a man like Mr. Gart Williams, who climbed on a world that went by too fast, it's a place around the bend where he could jump off. Willoughby? Whatever it is, it comes with sunlight and serenity, and is a part of the Twilight Zone.

Ollie-lujah! Harlem, Georgia: birthplace of Oliver Hardy

2009-09-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

They're proud of Ollie in Harlem.

They've got a nice little Laurel and Hardy Museum there.

They've got Ollie's fez from the classic Sons of the Desert...

...and a pith helmet he wore in Bonnie Scotland.

Stan and Ollie appeared together in 106 films. 106!

Linda and Nancy kept the museum open past closing time for us so we wouldn't miss out. Thanks Linda and Nancy!

The house where Ollie was born is no longer standing...

...but there's a nice laundromat there named in his honor.

They've been sprucing up the town theater for the upcoming Oliver Hardy festival.

Check out those murals on the side.

Oliver Hardy was the rotund half of Laurel and Hardy, one of the most beloved comedy teams of all time. He was born in the little eastern Georgia town of Harlem, not far from Augusta, and they want you to know about it. They've got his picture on the water tower, a laudromat named after him on the site of his birth address, murals of him and Stan on the side of the movie theater, and best of all, a little gem of a Laurel and Hardy museum in the center of town. In it you'll find lots of figurines, photos, posters, scripts, and other Stan-and-Ollie-abilia, all under the watchful eye of two of the nicest Southern museum hostesses you'll ever meet, Linda and Nancy. They will play Laurel and Hardy movies and shorts for you in the screening room, too. My personal favorite is "The Music Box," where our two heroes have to deliver a piano up a very long set of steps. Ollie's pain in this film is exquisitely funny. Those very steps are still standing in Hollywood and we were lucky enough to see them on one of our recent trips there. Harlem's biggest event of the whole year is just a few days away. Every year since 1988, they've held an Oliver Hardy Festival on Main Street, with a parade, 350 craft booths, a barbecue, film showings, and look-alike contests. Harlem's population of about 1800 swelled to 35,000 hearty Hardy partiers in 2008 and this year's event is this Saturday, October 3. On Friday night Harlem hosts the Sons of the Desert reception, in honor of the L&H fanclub members that go by that name that will be coming in from all over the world. So if you're in the area, check it out. There's no place like Harlem for the Ollie-days.

CNN-gaging: Atlanta's CNN Center

2009-09-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

The CNN Center originally housed an indoor amusement park
called The World of Sid and Marty Krofft. No kidding.

They've got the world's tallest escalator.

They've got a CNN-terior decorator.

I can't picture Lou Dobbs wearing these.

We didn't see Anderson Cooper but they had a nice cardboard cutout of him.

We were lucky enough to visit the great city of Atlanta a few days before the terrible floods hit and our sympathies go out to the nice people in the area who have been suffering. A highlight of our stay was a visit to the CNN Center in the heart of downtown Atlanta. CNN's world headquarters are located here and the building houses its newsgathering departments as well as Turner Broadcasting's other network offices. In 1976, a developer asked Sid and Marty Krofft, creators of the television series H.R. Pufnstuf, to develop an amusement park for the new Omni International complex in downtown Atlanta. The World of Sid and Marty Krofft was the world's first indoor amusement park, but due to poor attendance it was closed after just six months. The Omni International building that contained the amusement park was renamed to the CNN Center when the site was converted to the present CNN headquarters. Seems like a rather incongruous transition to go from Witchiepoo to Wolf Blitzer, but there you go. They kept one unique feature: the world's tallest escalator. It stretches eight stories and descends into a giant globe. You can take a really great tour of CNN for $15, where you'll see the newsroom, its staff, and anchorpeople reading the news live off teleprompters. An amusing sign on the glass corridor overlooking the newsroom read "Please do not tap on the glass." They're journalists, not monkeys in a cage, you know. There's a CNN gift shop too, to remember all your friends by with swell souvenirs. The CNN Center gets our CNN-dorsement.

Foam Here to Eternity: Natural Bridge, Virginia's Foamhenge

2009-09-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

It's styrofoam. Really.

You get a nice view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Sculptor Mark Cline based his statue of Merlin on his late friend Jamie Jordan.

This is me at Foamhenge...

...and me at the real deal. Pretty good resemblance, I'd say.

Foamhenge isn't quite as wacky as Carhenge but it's still pretty awesome.

The town of Natural Bridge, Virginia has a built-in roadside attraction, 20 stories of solid rock carved by the fingers of nature, that is so impressive, they named the town after it. The Bridge is quite impressive and definitely worth seeing, but it pales in comparison to the eccentric man-made wonder just down the road that is Foamhenge. That would be a replica of the famous Druid stones of southern England's Salisbury Plain made out of styrofoam by eccentric wunderkind Mark Cline. As the visionary behind Virginia attractions The House of the Living Dead, The Scare Witch Project, and Professor Cline's Time Machine, he worked out a deal with the town to put up his creation on a Route 11 bluff overlooking the pretty Blue Ridge Mountains in 2004. Great pains were taken to get each stone as exact as possible by consulting English experts. The "stones" are anchored to the ground by pipe and concrete and do require periodic upkeep and replacement, but they really have the feel of the actual place. Cline offers two theories of the real Stonehenge's origin: ancient workers using miraculous ingenuity, or the magic of Merlin, complete with a statue of the sorcerer based on the death mask of a friend. Having been to the real Stonehenge in England and Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska, we can say Foamhenge left a foam-idable impression. Check out these sites for more in-foam-ation: roadsideamerica.com and enchantedcastlestudios.com

An Eccentric Roadtrip dispatch: Greetings from Georgia the whole day through

2009-09-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

We've been on the road for six days now and are realizing our original itinerary was laughably over-ambitious. Doesn't look like we'll make it to southern Georgia or Alabama, as we had hoped, and we must have been dreaming about seeing the northern Florida panhandle in such a limited amount of time. Oh well. What we have seen so far has been stupendous, including the fantastically tacky South Carolina tourist trap South of the Border and the great city of Atlanta. Some pretty heavy rains here haven't slowed us down. Apparently, Georgia's two-year drought ended when we arrived with some flood-watch conditions. Lucky us. One more day in the Atlanta area to see some nice relatives and then its a slow ride back north. Lots of material for future posts, so stay tuned!

Eccentric Roadside hits the road

2009-09-12T07:03:00.000-07:00

We're heading out on another eccentric roadtrip tomorrow. This time it's a short (for us) week and a half jaunt down south to Atlanta and other parts of the southeast. We'll be driving through Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and we may even dip our toe in the northern-most Florida panhandle. We've got a pretty good itinerary set, but if anybody out there in roadtripland has any suggestions of eccentric places to see, we're all ears. We still don't have a laptop computer (heck, we only just got GPS a little while ago), but if we're staying at a deluxe motel with a computer in the lobby, we'll make some dispatches from the road. Look away Dixieland!

The whole kitsch and caboodle: The Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch to open September 14th

2009-09-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

Everything but the kitsch-en sink: artifacts from Allee Willis' kitsch collection (photos from alleewillis.com)

The great Allee Willis at the Ghettogloss gallery in L.A. (photo from Ghettogloss)

We received word that there is a kitsch museum opening and it looks to be a real doozy. Allee Willis has written songs that have sold over 50 million copies, including "September" and "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth Wind and Fire, "Neutron Dance" by the Pointer Sisters and the theme from the TV show "Friends." She also collaborated on the score for the musical "The Color Purple". She's been a cyber pioneer and is also a talented multi-media fine artist and has rubbed shoulders with all kinds of showbiz luminaries. This is all well and good but what really impresses us is the fact that she has what's billed as the world's biggest collection of kitsch memorabilia. She blogs about it in her Kitsch O' The Day column at alleewillis.com and is preparing to open the Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch on September 14, with an exhibit at Los Angeles' Ghettogloss art gallery on Melrose in Los Angeles. Allee will be displaying hundreds of amazing artifacts from her rarely-seen-in-person kitsch collection and will frequently be on hand greeting visitors and discussing the Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch. We at Eccentric Roadside could not be more thrilled. The world needs more kitsch and patrons like Ms Willis. If you're in the area, you must check it out (we wish we could). Not to do so would be in very bad taste.

The original Hole Foods: Randy's Donuts of Inglewood, California

2009-09-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

Time for one of the eccentric roadside all-time greats. Randy's Donuts is not far from the LAX airport in Inglewood, California, and started out as part of the Big Donut chain of 10 donut drive-ins in 1953 (four of the buildings remain today under different names). "It's a classic example of mid-century programmic architecture, where the shape of the building represents the product sold within," says the Los Angeles Conservancy, and they ought to know. It's been featured in the movies "Mars Attacks" and "Earthgirls are Easy" as well as Randy Newman's "I Love L.A." video. The Simpsons have also paid loving homage to Randy's. There's something about an eatery with a 32-foot steel and gunnite orange deep-fried pastry on top of it that makes you feel like like is worth living: Your eyes glaze over. Things that were frosting you before somehow donut seem to matter. You realize this tower of powder is a horse of a different cruller sprinkled with love. And that's the hole truth, I eclair, so help me carb.

Haddam, Connecticut's sad sack shad shack

2009-09-07T15:33:00.001-07:00

The mighty shad, pride of Connecticut

Spencer's -- Connecticut's last shad shack

Haddam, Connecticut is a beautiful small town along the eastern side of the Connecticut River. On Route 154, just up the road from the area's landmark Goodspeed Opera House, sits a curious dwelling amid all the finely kept wooded yards and expensive upper class homes: a dilapidated hut with "Spencer's Haddam Shad Shack" painted in big letters on three sides of it. According to the Haddam Historical Society's website, Spencer's has been a local landmark since 1930, and is open on a seasonal basis when the shad are running. Shad have played an important role in the community's history and Spencer's is Connecticut's only remaining Shad Shack.

Apparently shad are a big deal in Connecticut (although I grew up in the state and never knew it). A quick Google search shows tons of websites devoted to it, the largest of the herring family and a favorite Connecticut River sportfish. It's the state fish of Connecticut and Haddam even has a shad museum.

Which brings us back to our sad little shack in Haddam. In certain communities along the Connecticut River, the spring run of shad are cause for celebration. It was a staple and savior of the Connecticut colonists and at one time there were lots of shad shacks. Could Connecticut's last shad shack be sleeping with the fishes? It doesn't look too promising, but who knows... Connecticut Yankees are a feisty bunch and not ones to part with their shad traditions lightly. If Haddam's shad shack is shuttered, it could be a shattering experience. Sha-doobee.

Zip's Diner of Dayville, Connecticut: If you don't think this is a great diner, you don't know Zip

2009-09-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

Keep your eye on the pie.

There's no better diner music than Patsy Cline.

Ziplock, shmiplock...we use wax paper!

A little bit of diner heaven resides in the quiet northeastern Connecticut hamlet of Dayville. At Routes 12 and 101 is Zip's Dining Car and it is everything you would want in a diner: a pristine silver stainless steel exterior, a classic diner menu of homemade comfort foods, Patsy Cline on the jukebox, a smiling waitstaff ready to make you feel like a long lost relative, and a big neon sign that insists you EAT. This isn't a DisneyWorld recreation of America's lost past, though. This the real deal: a living, breathing, bit of Americana you can immerse yourself and dunk your donut in. Zip's has been on this spot since 1954 and diner aficionados will recognize the architecture as a vintage and beautifully preserved 1950s O'Mahony model. On a mid-afternoon visit, we partook of the coconut cream pie and it was the best, and I mean the best we've ever eaten. We also got meatloaf sandwiches to go and they were nothing short of meatloafalicious. Places like this are so rare and so wonderful that everyone should eat here. Just do what the sign says.

Meanwhile, back at the Cadillac Ranch

2009-08-29T15:24:00.000-07:00

Our trusty Subaru Forester bowing at the altar of Roadside Gods.

I felt like posting a real eccentric roadside icon today and went digging through the Eccentric Roadside archives and found pictures from our 2004 visit to the Cadillac Ranch of Amarillo, Texas. If you've never heard of this place, you're just not paying attention. Here's a little history from wikipedia:

Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation and sculpture in Amarillo, Texas, U.S. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm, and it consists of what were (when originally installed during 1974) either older running used or junk Cadillac automobiles, representing a number of evolutions of the car line (most notably the birth and death of the defining feature of early Cadillacs; the tail fin) from 1949 to 1963, half-buried nose-first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The piece is a statement about the paradoxical simultaneous American fascinations with both a "sense of place" — and roadside attractions, such as The Ranch itself — and the mobility and freedom of the automobile. It was originally located in a wheat field, but in 1997 the installation was quietly moved by a local contractor two miles (three kilometers) to the west, to a cow pasture along Interstate 40, in order to place it further from the limits of the growing city.

I admire the eccentric principals of its creators for first building it and then moving it to preserve its roadside je ne sais quoi. I read somewhere that a Cadillac dealer wanted it as its backdrop and he was going to locate his dealership in front of the Ranch and that was why the Ranch was moved -- to keep it in its own unpolluted flat farm environment. I'm not sure if that's true but it makes for a good anecdote.

A loving tribute was paid to the Ranch in the movie Cars. If you haven't seen that movie, by all means do. We give it 5 out 5 Eccentric Roadside Idaho Potatoes.

Even though it's not on public land and you have to drive down a dirt access road to get there, people from all over the world visit it in droves. It's one of the few public places where graffiti is encouraged. When we were there I asked another tourist to snap our picture. When I thanked him he cheerfully said "anytime." So I guess this means any time we're at the Cadillac Ranch, he'll take our picture. Very generous of him.

Incomparable than hold up roadside oddities and undiluted options from theairfareblog.com

2009-08-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

Of march there is zero peculiar or singular about relaxing upon a chair though if it was a country’s largest chair we ought to consider twice.

Though primarily there were talks about pulling a site down thoughcurrently signs upon a hinterland of locale right away proudly brand Alliance as a “Home of Carhenge.”

WaterFire’s a single hundred stimulating bonfires, a perfumed smell ofsavoury timber smoke, a flickering firelight upon a arched overpass as well as a lively song are a contingency see for those formulation to revisit Rhode Island.

A Google blog alert pointed me to an unintentionally funny post on a blog called theairfareblog.com. They had the good taste to mention some great eccentric roadside attractions like Alliance, Nebraska's Carhenge, Anniston, Alabama's World's Biggest Chair and my own Rhode Island's Waterfire. What makes it funny is the bad translation from whatever native language it originated in to English. Here's the intro:

If we are finished with upon eighth month beaches, parks, mountainous country as well as mountains, how about a eighth month exploring a incomparable than hold up roadside oddities? If a answer is a resounding “Yes” we have a undiluted options for you.

It always tickles me when the translation is so far off you can't even guess what they really mean. Personally, I'm all about "incomperable than hold up roadside oddities," though, and they do have some good shots, so check them out. Borat couldn't have said it better.