RL Tour of the Unusual

I am planning a RL tour of the odd...

I am making a list of places to visit on vacation. I want to visit concrete dinosaurs that regular people have built (Banning California), alligator farms (here in Florida), the largest ball of string (if it really exists) and other individual oddities.

If this type of oddity exists in your state, I would love to know about it.

I'm not sure when I am going to have the chance to actually do this, but I'm putting the plan together now.

Carlsbad Caverns is worth it. The meteor crater in Arizona is not worth it. The Grand Canyon is worth it.

Sure they might sound mundane, but nature can be impressive.

*I suppose if you wanted it to be "Unusual," you could see them all in the same day like I did and with only an hour of sleep.

I remember reading a brochure for extinct magma tubes you can walk in that have ice inside all year round in either northern Arizona or New Mexico. Don't know if it's as neat as it sounds or not.

The Jesse James Museum in Missouri. I think they still have the "as seen on Real People " signs up.

My family did the random road tour every year. During that time we saw tons of the mundane. We did however happen upon a handful of strange things.

Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, GA was one of them. This is the "birthplace" of Cabbage Patch Kids. If you time your visit right, you get to see a baby being "born" out of the cabbage patch. FYI don't call them dolls or offer to "buy" one while you're there unless you wish to incur the wrath of the nurses there. They are babies that you can adopt.

Mount Airy, NC was the childhood home of Andy Griffith and much of Mayberry was based on the town. They play this up incredibly for the tourism it apparently generates. We discovered this after picking Mount Airy on the map and deciding to stop there for the night. No lie, they had Barney Fife wannabe's roaming the streets.

As far as my state, if you find yourself heading down I-59 through Mississippi and come upon exit 60 you can see the spot where the last bare-knuckled boxing match occurred between John L. Sullivan and Jake Killrain. Don't make a special trip for it tho', now it's just a historical marker, a couple gas stations, and a bar I *wouldn't* enter.

Don't know the exact location/times but in Austin TX you can stand on whatever bridge it is that the bats live under and watch them fly out at night in a massive cloud.

I like this thread, what else have people seen?

Better hurry if you wanna see the bats under Congress Ave. They migrate south to Mexico for the winter.

On another note, there is this really campy Corn Palace place in South Dakota. The quintessential tourist trap.

I higly recommend the Carlsbad Caverns. It is the most 'unusual' thing you will see out of nature I submit. I think it is too late for the bat flights as they will be migrating to mexico but from mid may to late august this is a sight to behold I assure you.
For unusual in season I recommend my house as fall approaches. I have cocooned into my hermit stage and rarely leave it save to buy more air freshner.

The Mystery Spot in St Ignance Michigan
The show is pretty hookey but watching the tourists is a riot.
http://www.stignace.com/attractions/mysteryspot/

If you're planning on coming through the upper midwest I suggest swinging through Minnesota. We have some real oddities here - largest ball of Twine, many gigantic roadside sculptures like the biggest otter, prairie chicken, turkey, among other things.

http://www.twinetour.com/original/mn/

http://www.mnhs.org/places/other/roadside/index.html

It's not in my state, but Wisconsin has House on the Rock... built by a guy who (allegedly) was fired from Frank Lloyd Wright's workshop and wanted to get back at him. It's a huge sprawling place with dozens of rooms full of all sorts of wierd collections, has a giant sea monster built in one room, and also features the 'Infinity Room,' which has windows that sort of stretch out over the landscape in a very cool and hard to describe way. You can read all about it here. Definitely worth a trip.

Thank you, Thank you! I love this stuff and I'll have to remember what time of year to catch the bats because that is exactly the sort of thing that would facinate me. I have been to Carlsbad but is was when I was a really small child and I would like to go again as an adult and see it through other eyes.

I did not believe in the giant ball of twine - now that I see a pic, it's on the list, and so is Paul!

For those visiting Florida, here is a good one:

The Coral Castle: 28655 S. Dixie Hwy. corner of U.S. 1 & SW 286th St

Coral Castle was built over a period of 20 years by one heartbroken genius, Edward Leedskalnin. Ed was a native of Latvia who emigrated to the United States when his 16-year-old fiancee, Agnes Scuffs, broke their engagement on the eve of their wedding. Once settled, he began laboriously carving his memorial to Agnes, whom he called "Sweet Sixteen."

Ed worked in secret, usually at night, never allowing anyone to see how he carved the hard coral rock into the various chairs, tables and monuments that fill the Castle.

Ed, who weighed only 100 pounds, also never revealed how he managed to raise and position the massive coral blocks that make up the Castle's battlements. Some of these blocks weigh over 25 tons. (Ed built well; the rest of Homestead blew away in Hurricane Andrew but Coral Castle emerged unscathed.) All in all, Ed quarried and sculpted over 1,100 tons of coral rock for his Castle, using mostly tools that he fashioned from junkyard auto parts.

Edited - I didn't notice that the first was already listed

Two places you might want to go to, Rose, if you end up in Northern California are the Winchester Mystery House , a 160 room monument to insanity (As mentioned above, sorry!); and if you want to see something REALLY odd, you could check this out as well.

If you're looking for strange, there's no place that fits the bill more than The Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. It's a museum of medical oddities, and when I say oddities, I mean ODDITIES. Every crazy, mutated, diseased, or disgusting think that can happen to the human body you can thing of, and several you you could never have even imagined before seeing are all on display. It's quite amazing. Just make sure you eat at least one hour before you go. This article describes it pretty well.

Rose,

Check out this website. It looks like what you are looking for.

Here are a couple I found for Alabama (There are tons!)

Albertville, Alabama - Nickel-Plated Fire Hydrant
Anniston, Alabama - World's Largest Chair
Anniston, Alabama - Alabama-shaped reflecting pool
Brundidge, Alabama - Car Bumper Chicken
Carrollton, Alabama - Lightning Portrait Etched in Window
Cherokee, Alabama - Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard
Dothan, Alabama - Monument to the Hog
Enterprise, Alabama - Boll Weevil Monument

And many, many more. I just found out that the worlds largest elephand (bones) is in my hometown!

You can sort by state, and most have description and directions. Some even have pictures.

I always knew Alabama was a cultural state.

Stone Mountain, GA
Gold Pyramid House, Wadsworth, IL
McDonald's Museaum and site of firt McD's, Des Plaines, IL

Check this site out:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/

Urusula the Car Bumper Chicken is SO on the List! LOL

The Mutter Museum has been on the list for awhile - dang I have to retire so that I can just hop in my car and go visit all this strange and wonderful places in the U.S.

Hey! That's my backyard !