Eccentric Roadside

Full tilt: the Silverball pinball museum of Delray Beach, Florida

2018-01-06T12:39:00.000-08:00

How do you think he does it? I don't know!
What makes him so good?

If you're a pinhead with a yen for flippers, bumpers, and a biff or two, there's a museum where you can play real, authentic pinball on 88 vintage machines dating back to the 1930s. They've also got a couple-dozen new-fangled videos games like Donkey Kong and Pac Man for the "youngsters" who grew up in the 80s. The Silverball Museum/Pinball Hall of Fame is housed in a 9,000-square foot, two-story former nightclub just off the thick of restaurants, shops and galleries of Delray Beach's Atlantic Avenue. And you don't need quarters — an admission fee depending on how long you want to play does the trick. After that you're free to sample all you want. The games act like a bit of pop culture history, and depending on your age, you'll probably be drawn to the games iconic to your era. Being late baby-boomers, we found the Evel Knievel and Elton John Captain Fantastic games reminiscent of the bowling alleys of our youth. This is owner Rob Ilvento's second vintage pinball emporium — the other in in Asbury Park, New Jersey — and this article mentions he only half-jokes he picked Delray Beach as a good excuse to visit his parents who live nearby.

They've also got food ranging from hot dogs and pizza to crab cakes and hummus platters. And there's beer and wine, too. Perhaps the sommelier can tell you what wine goes best with a 1977 Charlie's Angels. Game over!

Painting the town: Wynwood, Miami, Florida

2017-11-23T16:54:00.001-08:00

Back in 2003, some forward-thinking folks created an arts district in a run down part of the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami that would eventually turn it into one of the largest open-air art installations in the world. Tony Goldman, a real estate developer and arts visionary, came up with the idea of capitalizing on the graffiti in the area due to its dilapidated state and spearheaded the painting of exterior murals by some of the world's premier street artists in an effort to increase pedestrian traffic. The area now houses art galleries, museums, restaurants, shops and art fairs and draws in locals and tourists from around the world. The art evolves, too, with new murals being created all the time. The neighborhood is still quite gritty, which adds to the credibility of the artworks' subject matter but the juxtaposition of a double-decker tourist bus with socks-and-sandals-wearing out-of-towners trundling through this ultra-urban art scene is amusing.

So if graffiti is welcomed by a community, does that diminish its credibility and rebellious nature? Will whitewashing a building become the new form of renegade art? Do pretentious
questions about what is and isn't art give you a headache? I think we've hit the wall here.

Key and appeal: A visit (pre-Irma) to Key West

2017-10-28T11:45:00.002-07:00

We were lucky to take a brief trip to Key West, Eccentric Roadside's first, one week before Hurricane Irma hit. The Keys got beat up but bounced back and opened up to tourists a few weeks later, and the famous Southern-Most Point marker, a classic Key West tourist attraction people line up to get their picture takeen in front of, has been restored to its pre-hurricane luster after getting pretty badly bruised.

Good on you Key West, for restoring the laid back Jimmy Buffett vibe, and please, Eccentric Roadside readers, please go visit there because the local economy depends on you. As Mae West said, "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

Now you've seen a mall: the retro-tastic Southgate Shopping Center of Lakeland, Florida

2017-08-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

There's a shopping plaza in the central Florida town of Lakeland that's celebrating its 60th birthday this November, and it doesn't look a day over the Eisenhower administration. The Southgate Shopping Center on South Florida Avenue was the brainchild of George Jenkins, founder of the Publix grocery store chain. He figured a plaza with many stores would attract more customers than just a free-standing supermarket, a rather "no duh" idea by today's standards, but revolutionary at the time. The beauty of this location is the fact that that the stupendous parabolic arch with its mid-century modern lettering and style hasn't been updated to something more current and, in most cases of older places being "modernized," made bland. Say what you will about Southgate, bland it ain't. Director Tim Burton thought as much, and he chose the Southgate as a location for his 1990 movie "Edward Scissorhands." It's where Edward, played by Johnny Depp, has his hair salon.

Bravo to the Publix grocery store chain for keeping the retro vibe alive in Lakeland. It's Fat city, the place to make the scene Daddy-O, and we dig it the most.

See you later alli-crater: the coastal limestone gator of Jupiter Island, Florida

2017-07-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

Blowing Rocks Preserve is a beautiful natural wonder on Jupiter Island along Florida's Atlantic coast. There, you'll see craggy Anastasia limestone along the shore, giving the area a bit of a Maine coast feel. As if to remind you that you're still in the Sunshine State, an outcropping resembling an alligator, Florida's unofficial ambassador, juts out into the crashing foam. We love this place, and that's no crock.

Zero F's given: Greetings from Lorida, Florida

2017-07-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

We've been doing most of our roadtripping around Florida these past few years and there's no shortage of eccentric roadside attractions in the sunshine state. Take, for example, the tiny town of Lorida. Lorida, Florida. Florida without the F. Now, that's just funny. This little berg with a population of 1,696 rests in the south central part of the state along Route 98, about 43 miles northwest of Lake Okeechobee. It's a bucolic farming and fish camp community with beautiful Lake Istokpoga right nearby. According to this guy's blog, it got its name from its postmistress Mary Stokes back in 1937, after several names (Can I get a whoop whoop for Sunnyland? No?) didn't work out. Apparently she liked the Spanish origin of the name Florida so much she corrupted it a little and the name stuck.

Places with names like this make roadtrips fun. WTF, notwithstanding.

I say a little ospreyer for you: The osprey nest in the pineapple sign of Lake Placid, Florida

2017-05-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

Run children, run!

A recent roadtrip to the pretty little south central Florida town of Lake Placid yielded us a two-fer: an abandoned, decaying roadside sign and business, and a wonder of nature. On top of the pineapple-shaped sign in front of a decommissioned citrus stand along busy Route 27 sits a large osprey nest with a rather angry mother protecting her young. At first we didn't notice the nest and thought this was just a cool, abandoned place, so beautifully melancholy Old Florida, but after getting out to walk around and get a closer look, a lot of loud squawking was heard. It was then we noticed a large hawk-like bird right in the top. The closer we got, the more distressed she acted until she flew off and began circling and crying. This was something I hadn't seen before, I thought to myself, and for a minute I wondered if I should be heading to a phone booth for protection, like Tippi Hedren in "The Birds". We would have lingered longer to get more pictures but moved on after a minute because the poor bird really did seem distressed. To stay any longer would have seemed, well, hawkward.

I'll see you in my 'streams: The late, great Airstream Ranch of Dover, Florida

2017-02-13T09:01:00.001-08:00

It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of one of our favorite eccentric roadside attractions. The Airstream Ranch of Dover, Florida consisted of eight different sized Airstream trailers (seven and a half, actually, to commemorate Airstream's 75th anniversary) partially buried and angled as an homage to the Cadillac Ranch of Amarillo, Texas. It was assembled by the Bates R-V dealership in 2007. The dealership was sold four years ago and the ranch was torn down a few days ago to make way for expansions to the new owners' dealership and to make space for an Airstream museum. While we're happy with the idea of an Airstream musem --who wouldn't be? -- we're a bit verklempt they had to take down such a funky one-of-a-kind work of art to do it. This just serves as a reminder to visit these wonderful wacky places while they're still standing because they may not be there the next time to you look for them. In other words, carpe 'stream.

Here's what we said in our original post from 2010:

Field of 'Streams: Dover, Florida's Airstream Ranch

Amarillo, Texas has the Cadillac Ranch. Alliance, Nebraska has Carhenge. And the pleasant central Florida hamlet of Dover has the Airstream Ranch, seven and a half shiny Airstream trailers of different size and vintage upended and partially buried nose-first in a field along Interstate 4, about a half-hour east of Tampa. The brainchild of Frank and Dorothy Bates, proprietors of the Bates R-V dealership (who bill themselves as the largest Airstream dealership in the United States), it was installed on their property on 2007 in honor of Airstream's 75th anniversary (hence the seven and a half). But like all great eccentric roadside attractions, it wasn't without controversy. Seems some of the neighbors hated it and Hillsborough County officials fined the Bateses $100 a day until it was taken down. The Bateses appealed and last February a three-judge panel ruled in their favor and they got to keep their ranch. The Bateses' argument was that it was an artistic expression, not an advertisement, and, while the judges avoided answering whether or not it was art, they did conclude that it wasn't advertising and it wasn't junk, so there it stands. And it's going to get even better: "Now we're going to light it at night," says Mr. Bates. Bravo to the Bateses for their eccentric artistic vision. If you build it, they will come.

Happy 60th birthday to the Mai-Kai Polynesian restaurant of Fort Lauderdale, Florida!

2016-12-27T18:25:00.000-08:00

We've been a bit under the weather and off the road for the past few months, but we could not let the day go by without wishing a very happy 60th birthday to a true eccentric roadside attraction wonder, the Mai-Kai Polynesian restaurant of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They'll be celebrating with book-signings by authors of Mai-Kai and tiki culture books Sven Kirsten and Tim Glazner, an extended happy hour featuring three "lost cocktails" revived from the Mai-Kai's original 1956 menu, a new tiki statue in their outside garden, and a new Polynesian dinner show. Here's what we had to say when we visited back in 2014:

Even though we've traveled thousands of miles across the USA, we've never made it to Hawaii. And if we never do, we think we've found a worthy surrogate -- the Mai-Kai Polynesian Restaurant of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Dating back to 1956, it's been Dole-ing out (as in the pineapple) powerfully intoxicating exotic drinks from ceramic coconuts, tiki heads and rum barrels to go along with the (mostly) Chinese food and thick steaks on the menu and the South Pacific native dancers' floor show. Originally located in an empty field along a then-two lane stretch of Route 1, it's lush acreage is now surrounded by the hustle and trafficy bustle of outer Fort Lauderdale sprawl, and its old-timey oasis-like feel is quite refreshing. Easter Island-like sculptures mingle among the flaming torches, lush palms and waterfalls of the Mai-Kai's grounds with a thatched tiki roof on their A-frame and retro neon sign thrown in for good measure, hearkening back to the glorious post-World War II era when America was gaga for all things South Seas. They've expanded many times over the years but the fun, 1960s retro vibe (when tiki was at its "peak-i") has not been lost. You can dine outdoors, or go for a Zombie, Mai-Tai or Sidewinder's Fang served by pretty bikini-topped, sarong-bottomed waitresses at the Molokai Lounge. But for the full Mai-Kai experience, you must take in the Polynesian Islander Revue, the longest running Polynesian dance show in the continental U.S. Pretty girls shaking their hips in grass skirts? Got 'em. Beefy guys in warrior paint walking on fire? Got 'em. A rockin' hula band with Hawaiian drums and ukuleles? Got 'em! And all for only $12 a head more than your meal. For devoted fans of tiki, this place is mecca. For everyone else, we say "Be there. Aloha."

And as an unrelated side-note, we haven't posted anything on this blog in over three months but we had over 27,000 page views last month. That's more than we ever got when we were posting regularly. Go figure!

Gatored community: The Miccosukee Indian Village alligator wrestling statue

2016-09-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

We saw the real deal just down the road apiece.

Route 41 is the old highway that runs east and west along the very most southern part of Florida. It's also known as the Tamiami Trail (that name being a Desilu-type smashup of Tampa and Miami) and runs right through the Everglades. A good deal of this land is owned and run by Native Americans and the Miccosukee tribe has a large development that includes dining, gaming, nightlife, entertainment and other resort-like whatnot. They also have the Miccosukee Indian Village, that features a museum, airboat rides and an old-time Florida tourist staple throwback, alligator demonstrations. We're glad to see them using the word "demonstrations" and not "wrestling" because we're not huge fans of poking at animals mercilessly until they snap at you. We also understand, though, that Native Americans get shafted a lot of the time and need to make a living, so we're happy their website says "no harm or pain is inflicted on the alligators during The Alligator Encounter," an event where visitors are taught "how to respectfully touch and mount a Florida alligator." This is good to know -- if I was going to be touched and mounted by a tourist, I'd want it to be done with respect. The statue depicts a young, husky tribesman with his hand under a frisky-looking alligator's chin, and not in a "coochy-coochy-coo" sort of way. The signature reads that of Chris Dixon of Chris Dixon Studios and 2009. The statue can be seen as you whiz down Route 41 at 60 mph and does cause a double take because of its size and folk-art style, a reaction we get when we see other huge roadside giants. Nice for us eccentric roadside attraction fans that such a recent work of promotion was done in such a retro sort of way. See you later, alligator!

Are the Everglades eccentric? Does a bear ride an airboat on a Coke can?

2016-09-23T14:06:00.002-07:00

As far as national parks go, Florida's Everglades are more subtle and don't scream crazy-eccentric like Yellowstone or Bryce Canyon, but they are not without their kooky charms. Take, for instance, the sign that beckons travelers to the Gator Park restaurant/gift shop/airboat depot on Route 41 near Shark Valley. An approximately 8-foot tall Coke can sits atop a 4-foot pedestal. But wait, there's more. Cruising the top of the Coke can is a decommissioned airboat driven by a life-sized artificial bear. This is particularly eccentric, since the place is called Gator Park and not Bear Park. It's just the tacky ticket to greet you or bid you farewell to this one-of-a-kind region and must have taken some doing to assemble.

Kudos to you Gator Park. This place floats my (air) boat and to not "pop" in would have been more than I could bear. You really know how to gator done.

Twine and cheese: Sharknado visits Cawker City, Kansas

2016-08-07T18:31:00.000-07:00

A big ball of twine, sharks, a tornado...it's Twine-nado!

We were in Cawker City under much calmer conditions.

You may have noticed the posts here have been rather few and far between lately, but something just got us off our duffs and back to the old blogging keyboard. While casually partaking in the national pastime/tragedy known as "Sharknado" we encountered an eccentric roadside attraction shout-out that got our noses out of the road atlas and glued to the electronic fireplace aka TV set. In "Sharknado: The 4th Awakens" Fin Shepard (played by the sublime to ridiculous Ian Zierling) and his gang find themselves in Cawker City, Kansas where the inclement weather results in a twine-nado: a shark-infested world's biggest ball of twine that liberates itself from its shed in downtown Cawker City and rolls down the main drag not unlike that big ball in the Indian Jones movie ("Sharknado" never met a movie it didn't like to blatantly steal, er, pay homage to). Fin stops the ball by grabbing a loose string and, well, tying it up so it won't roll any more. Unfortunately, this is after the ball takes out, among others, Paul Shaffer, who has apparently fallen on hard times since David Letterman retired and is doing a live (final) performance in town.

We give a rating of five out of five concrete potatoes to the Sharknado gang for including Cawker City in their masterpiece. Here's our original Cawker City post from a few years back:

I've often used the phrase "the world's biggest ball of twine" as a generic label for any really eccentric roadside attraction that makes an awesome feat out of something mundane. It wasn't until recently, though, that I actually got to see one of the actual world's biggest balls of twine (there's more than one, depending on who you believe), which makes its home in the small north central Kansas town of Cawker City. A Mr. Frank Stoeber, a local farmer, started the twine ball with odd bits in 1953 and within four years he had a ball that weighed 5,000 pounds and stood 8 feet tall. In 1961 he gave the ball to Cawker City and at the time of his death in 1974 the ball was 11 feet tall and contained 1.6 million feet of sisal twine (sisal being an agave plant that yields a stiff fiber). To keep the ball growing and its place in the record books, Cawker City holds an annual Twine-A-Thon every August where the public is invited to add odd bits of twine to Mr. Stoeber's overgrown baby (string and yarn are prohibited and rules are strictly enforced). Today, the ball sits under an open air gazebo (its second after outgrowing the first) complete with park benches to meditate on its magnificence. As of September 2009, the ball weighed over 9 tons, has a 40-foot circumference and over 1500 miles of twine -- enough to reach either coast from the heartland of Kansas, or wrap up an awful lot of brown paper packages.

And as if that wasn't enough, Cawker City did something even more wonderful. In the windows of the melancholy downtown abandoned storefronts are parodies of art masterpieces such as The Mona Lisa, The Scream and American Gothic, all containing balls of twine. Local artist Cher Olsen has painted over 40 of these gems that delight with every passing glance, making Cawker City one of the eccentric roadside wonders of the world. To twine own self be true.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it: the big hockey sticks of Deerfield Beach, Florida

2016-06-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

If you're in the market for a 63,332-square foot sports complex in South Florida and have an extra $7,250,000 lying around, have we got a deal for you. The former Sports Complex at the corner of SW 10th Street and Powerline Avenue is for sale and as an extra added bonus, the place comes with four 7-story hockey sticks at the entrance. Could these be the world's largest hockey sticks? No such puck, er luck. That honor belongs to Evenleth, Minnesota, with their 3-ton, 110-foot long model (with a 700-pound puck, no less). However, it's not every day you pass by an abandoned building with such a showy entrance. You could say it really sticks out.

Mayberry R.I.P.

2016-05-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

We've been off the eccentric blog highway for some time now...metaphorically broken down on the side of the road, you might say, but hoping to get back behind the wheel soon. During this time, we were sad to hear of the passing of the namesake of a great attraction we visited back in 2012. Mount Airy, North Carolina barber Russell Hiatt, known as the real-life inspiration for the Floyd the barber character on "The Andy Griffith Show," passed away at age 92 on May 3. Here's a rerun of the post we did about his place:

The great Howard McNear as Floyd the barber on "The Andy Griffith Show"

Russell Hiatt, the real Floyd

Floyd's City Barber Shop is on Main Street in Mount Airy, North Carolina, the real Mayberry.

Russell and his most famous customer

Russell is a barber showing photographs of every head he's had the pleasure to know.

That long-haired fellow looks like he could use a trim.

Russell Hiatt has been a barber for over 60 years in Mount Airy, North Carolina and he used to cut the hair of Mount Airy's most famous resident, Andy Griffith. Mount Airy's small town charm became the inspiration for Mayberry on "The Andy Griffith Show" in the 1960s and the easy-going, often-befuddled town barber on the show was named Floyd, with the great eccentric actor Howard McNear playing the part. "The Andy Griffith Show" became one of the all-time classic TV sitcoms and McNear's portrayal of Floyd is a real one-of-a-kind, with his rapid-fire delivery in the early seasons, and then his slow, somewhat bizarre line-readings in later episodes (McNear had a stroke during the run of the show that altered his performance but not his ability to be really funny). Mount Airy takes great pride in being put on the map by Andy and Floyd's City Barber Shop is still in business on Main Street, with Mr. Hiatt and his staff giving haircuts (still for $8 reads the sign in the window). Unlike the one-chair Floyd's on the show, it's a two-chair shop, packed with mementos and plastered with photographs of Floyd's satisfied customers and visitors on the walls. I had just had my hair cut back home so I didn't get the once-over, but I did step inside for a moment to gawk like a tourist, which they're used to there. And Mr. Hiatt was sitting in one of the barber chairs, engrossed in his newspaper, just like the TV Floyd. It's great to see a small town business still thriving, even if it is due to pop culture. After all, as the TV Floyd would say, "you hate to see anyone fall into the hands of a strange barber."

Vintage LA

2016-03-19T13:19:00.001-07:00

We've been on a bit of a sabbatical here at Eccentric Roadside, but wanted to share a blast from the way, way past from the awesome site Vintage Everyday of some kookily-shaped buildings in Los Angeles. One of them, Tail-O-The-Pup, we actually got to see, and another, Angelfood Donuts, is very similar to Randy's Donuts in Inglewood, which we also saw. Click here to check them all out.

Swamped with controversy: The Florida Everglades' Skunk Ape Research Headquarters

2016-01-03T08:01:00.001-08:00

If you thought the Pacific Northwest had a monopoly on mysterious, elusive, camera-shy, hairy, smelly, 7-foot tall, 350-pound bipedal mammals that look like tall guys wearing gorilla suits in shakily-shot videos, you'd be wrong. The Florida Everglades has its own Yeti-like dweller (or at least a legend about one) and there's a place you can learn all about it. The Skunk Ape Research Headquarters sits on a campground about an hour west of the Gulf coast of Florida on Route 41 in tiny Ochopee. There you can learn of its habits and how best to spot one (their website reports 7-9 of them live in the Everglades), and you can also pick up a souvenir or two along the way. The place is run by a Mr. Dave Shealy, the world's leading authority (okay, he's the only one) on skunk apes, so named for their aroma of rotten eggs and methane. The National Park Service denies such creatures exist, throwing the a-word, authenticity, in Mr. Shealy's face. He counters with his concrete casts of skunk ape footprints and photographic evidence of the hairy fellow strolling across an Everglades marsh, not to mention a healthy dose of anger at the government in general. His photo looks very much like the Patterson-Gimlin 1967 film of Bigfoot in Northern California. We like to believe Mr. Shealy's subject is a Pacific Northwest snowbird residing in a South Florida Sasquatch retirement community. Ask him about his grandkids.

A Christmas Rhode trip: Rhode Island Christmas ornaments from My Little Town

2015-12-16T11:04:00.000-08:00

We ran this post a few years back but it still applies today, so like A Charlie Brown Christmas and How The Grinch Stole Christmas, we hope you'll enjoy this holiday rerun.

The Big Blue Bug, outside Providence on I-95, mascot of Blue Bug Solutions

Haven Bros. Diner car, in downtown Providence

A Del's Lemonade truck, and my shot of one rotting away in North Kingstown

The magnificent Rustic Drive-In theater of Lincoln

There's a company in Rhode Island, www.mylittletown.com, that has turned some of the Ocean State's most beloved and quirky roadside attractions into delightful Christmas ornaments. Some of these sights have been chronicled by us at Eccentric Roadside and we thought we'd show you how well the ornaments replicate the real things. Local entrepreneurs Duke Marcoccio and his daughter Lauren run the business, and, as if that weren't impressive enough, they were also contestants on the CBS TV show "The Amazing Race" back in 2006. It's not too late to order these fine items for your or your loved-ones' trees. Nothing says Merry Christmas to kids from one to 92 like a pest control company's blue termite or an 1888 hot dog trailer. Now, everybody, sing with me: "Jingle Del's, Jingle Del's, Jingle all the way..."

Egg-sit stage left: The new location of Coral Springs, Florida's Humpty Dumpty sculpture

2015-10-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

Of all the Humpty Dumpty sculptors in the world, we like Kimber Fiebiger best.

Mr. Dumpty looks out on this cool artwork by Zachary Knudson.

A little while ago, we blogged about the fabulous Humpty Dumpty sculpture in our recently relocated Eccentric Roadside world headquarters hometown of Coral Springs, Florida (read about it here, why don't you). It has come to our attention that Mr. Dumpty has now been moved to a new, more prominent location. Coral Springs has put in a beautification project called ArtWalk on Northwest 31st Court, just down the road from Mr. Dumpty's old digs and he now sits on a new wall for all to admire. He's in a much sunnier spot than before, though, so we hope he won't fry. There are some other cool sculptures along the way and the plan is to keep adding more. Art for art's sake, money for God's sake. We can't say how much we love this piece of whimsical merriment. Thanks, Coral Springs for putting the egg in egg-centric. You're all you're cracked up to be, and that's no yolk.

Our house is a very, very, very fine mouse: The Truly Nolen mouse building of Pompano Beach, Florida

2015-10-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

Drivers on busy I-95 South get to see this awesome sight!

How can you kill something so cute, Truly?

The truly awesome Truly Nolen limousine.

We were lucky enough to spot a Truly Nolen classic Nash Metropolitan in Tucson, Arizona. Note the Muffler Man in the background. Score! Read about it here.

If you're going to be in the business of killing household pests, it pays to have a sense of humor. At least it does if you're the Truly Nolen company. They've been around since the 1930s and have employed many whimsical promotional devices over the years. In the 1950s, they began using a fleet of classic cars as moving billboards emblazoned with their company name. This led to a red VW bus made to look like a giant ant, which was the forerunner of today's Truly Nolen yellow mouse car — VW bugs and Toyota Yarises in lemony hues and appointed with round mouse ears, long black mouse tails and cute faces painted on their fronts. They've even got a mouse limousine (lim-mouse-sine?) that makes visits to schools. Their Pompano Beach, Florida headquarters building has taken the mouse concept even further. It's the same bright yellow, with a red mouse nose and whiskers attached to the corner and beneath two round black windows resembling their trademark mouse ears. And it can be seen quite clearly from busy Interstate 95 south. Marketing brilliance.

And if you're wondering about the name, Truly Nolen is a person. Truly Wheatfield Nolen was the founder of the company, and the family has kept the Truly name going for three generations. Other names in the family are Really Nolen, and Sincere Leigh Nolen (I kid you not — it's on their website). Keep up the eccentricity, Truly Nolen. We dig you, truly.

Baring their soles to deliver the mail: The barefoot mailman statue of Hillsboro Beach, Florida

2015-10-17T16:25:00.002-07:00

There are lots of iguanas on hand to pay their respects...

...and you may see a parrot or two in the trees.

From 1885-92, the mail route between eastern coastal Lake Worth and Miami, Florida was not what you'd call highly trafficked. Or even paved, for that matter. There was no road to deliver the mail south of Lake Worth but this didn't stop the mighty mail carriers from getting letters and packages through to Victorian southeastern Floridians. Mail was brought by boat as far as practical and mailmen would then get out and make deliveries by foot, sans footwear, along the beaches. The route was 136 miles round trip and took six days. Twenty eight miles were done by row boat and, remarkably, the remaining 108 by foot. And I thought I had a lengthy commute. This delivery system was in place until a rock road from Lantana to Lemon City was completed in 1892. There were 11 barefoot mailmen and one, a Mr. James "Ed" Hamilton, disappeared in 1887, perhaps the lunch of an alligator. A statue honoring Mr. Hamilton and the others sits in front of the Hillsboro Beach municipal hall. There, he looks out at the beach route, A1A, with a spring in his step and a mailbag over his shoulder, but no togs on his dogs. An added bonus are the many iguanas that sunbathe on the rocks and lawn at his feet. Would G-mail risk an alligator attack and sunstroke to get you the latest email blast from Amazon or Expedia? Doubtful. So here's to you, barefoot mailmen. You went through the agony of the feet for the thrill of vic-toe-ry.

And the rest is huskory: Looking out the window at the great state of Nebraska

2015-09-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

I've visited 46 of the US states and can honestly say it's been a thrill to see every one. One place in particular, not normally known as a vacation destination, is the great state of Nebraska. If you're traveling by car from the east coast to the west, you know you're a long, long way from home when you get to Nebraska, and you've still got a long, long way to go. We took one of our all-time best detours when we drove a couple hours northwest off of Interstate 80 to the small town of Alliance to see Carhenge, the replica of Stonehenge made out of old cars. Well worth the trip, and the getting there really was fun. Who knew Nebraska was full of such pretty sandhills, plains with those cliche windmilly things and lonesome, melancholy small towns? People from Nebraska, I imagine, but its beauty was quite a revelation to us native New Englanders. Maybe Nebraska should be a vacation destination after all, dad gummit. Here are a few shots of our travels through the Cornhusker State, some shot from the highway, some when we got out to stretch our legs a bit. How can you not love a state whose state beverage is milk, state dance is the square dance, and state song is "Beautiful Nebraska"? Long may your goldenrod bloom, Western meadowlark sing and White-tailed deer roam.

No need to be coy Arroyo: The small charms of Arroyo Grande, California

2015-09-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

We had the privilege of working our way down the California coastline back in 2011 and happened upon the charming village of Arroyo Grande in San Luis Abispo County. It was a bright, sunny late morning with very few people about and it gave me the sense of an early 1960s "Twilight Zone" set; pleasant but melancholy. I love small towns like this and seeing them on long trips is every bit as satisfying as visiting the big tent-pole sights like the Grand Canyon or the World's Biggest You Name It. Small but Grande...I like that.

Futuristic presents from the past: West Palm Beach, Florida's fantastic mid-century transportation exhibit

2015-08-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

In the 1950s, American car makers were on top of the world and autos couldn't be too heavy, aggressive-looking or laden with chrome. A vehicle was a status symbol and the more it looked like a rocket ship headed for Mars, the more we Americans liked it. Car makers would create fantastic concept vehicles with big fins, bubble tops and huge, jet-like dual exhaust pipes to test the waters of potential car buyers. If a dramatic chrome bumper treatment was a big hit, maybe next year's Buick Roadmaster would feature it. Armies of incredibly talented engineers, designers and artists put these one-of-a-kind vehicles on the auto show floor under strict top secret conditions. So top secret, in fact, that most of the brilliant drawings and models were destroyed, lest the competition catch wind of their precious ideas. Luckily for car buffs, transportation historians and mid-century hipster fans, a Mr. Frederic Sharf began preserving these items years ago and amassed an amazing collection of thousands of drawings and artifacts. West Palm Beach, Florida's Norton Museum of Art is currently exhibiting a fraction of of these pieces called "Going Places" and it features not just cars, but also planes, trains and even a hybrid car/helicopter or two, all with a tomorrow is here today theme.

The craftsmanship and technical virtuosity of the artwork is astounding...no Photoshop shortcuts for these guys. The illustrations are all hand-painted and drawn in a heightened state of super-idealized reality. The future seemed so bright in these pieces, with their unrealistically perfect people and dreamy sophisticated backgrounds. If this is what life could be like in the 1950s, then surely we'd all be wearing jet-packs and driving car-planes by 1965, wouldn't we? A portion of the exhibit also features original advertising illustrations of regular, less showy cars for sale at your local Chevy, Oldsmobile or Ford dealer and again, for something as seemingly mundane as a magazine advertisement, the technique of these artworks is extraordinary. The chrome gleams, the reflections on the finish and tail lights shine and the backgrounds are packed with idealized suburban scenes or sophisticated city folks on the town. I want to be there, I think to myself when I see these.

The show will be up until January 2016, so check it out if you're going to be in South Florida. Don't let the future pass you by.

Oh, and since it's the Norton Museum of Art, I simply couldn't resist adding this.

No more calls, we have a wiener: Some hot dogs seen along the way

2015-07-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

It was National Hot Dog Day the other day and we'll be frank with you, we relish the opportunity to play ketchup and look back on some 'dogs we've seen while rolling down the open road. Please take a moment to see if these cut the mustard.

This brat-armed muffler man stands watch over Atlanta, Illinois on Route 66. Read our post about him here.

The Cozy Dog Drive-In of Springfield, Illinois claims to have given birth to the corn dog, and they've got this whimsical poster to let you know...

...and an awesome married couple of hot dogs as their logo. Read about them here.

Tony Packo's of Toledo, Ohio has their walls covered in autographed facsimilies of hot dog buns (Burt Reynolds started the tradition). Toledo native Jamie Farr of TV's "M*A*S*H" mentioned Packos in an episode or two of the show, and the entire cast signed buns seen here.

Pink's of Los Angeles is where the celebrities like to mix with the common folk whilst dining on dogs. Here's our post.

Dillon, South Carolina's kitsch-tastic South of the Border offers hot dogs from this neon gleaming stand.

We saw not one but three Oscar Meyer Wienermobiles in New York City's Times Square of all places...

...including this guy called Lil Link.

Rhode Island is quite fond of hot dogs, including this model from Providence's famous Haven Bros. cart.

There's another kind of dog in Little Rhodey called the hot weiner, or New York System, which people from New York have never heard of. It consists of a spicey meat sauced-covered frank, dressed three at a time upon the arm of the chef (until the state health department said that was unsanitary).

We were extremely fortunate to have dined at Los Angeles's famous Tail-O-The-Pup back in 2004. It went out of business in 2005 and was put in storage until 2014, when its new owners had it moved to Las Vegas for restoration and hopes for a reopening back in LA. Bravo to them...we never sausage a beautiful place. Click here for a nice video from the Vintage LA website all about it.

Update: Hail to the chiefs: President's Park of Williamsburg, Virginia

2015-07-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

Presidents Park was a beautiful place back in 2007...

...and they even had a chunk of Air Force One.

Today, the statues sit in a field in Croaker, Virginia. There's hope, though, because a fellow is putting up some money to reopen the attraction.

These pictures are awesome and are credited to Christopher Smyth on the WBAL-TV website.

I think this would make a great set for a low-budget horror flick, don't you?

One of the sad realities of taking roadtrips over many years is the mortality rate of some of the beloved places we have visited. All too often, an eccentric roadside attraction cannot stay in business or gets ordinanced out of existence. Such was the case with Presidents Park of Williamsburg, Virginia. We were lucky enough to visit this spectacular place back in its 2007 hey-day. It was a lovely, tranquil, educational, pleasingly nutty place with 18-foot busts of each U.S. president and plaques with presidential information and history. We marveled at how lush and educational it all was, and in a perfect location since nearby Colonial Williamsburg draws people already interested in U.S. history. The owners couldn't keep it going, though, and it went out of business in 2010. The busts were then moved to a farm field in Croaker, Virginia.

But there is now hope on the horizon according to a dispatch from WBAL-TV's website. A Mr. Howard Hankins paid $50,000 to have them moved again and is also paying for their restoration. He wants to find a new location in Colonial Williamsburg and reopen the park. Hooray for you, Mr. Hankins. We loved this attraction and wish you the best. Perhaps it could be a miniature golf course...a Watergate water hazard around Richard Nixon, a James K. Polk "Manifest Destiny" hole, perhaps. We need a place where Democrats, Republicans, Whigs and Know-Nothings can comingle harmoniously. I vote for that.

Click here for another good website with lots of info.