Welcome Wagon Wednesdays
Question for everyone:
what’s the quirkiest tourist trap you’ve ever visited?
what’s the quirkiest tourist trap you’ve ever visited?
|
New to the site? Check out the FAQs and New User Guide
|
Newbies, Lurkers & Splashers
Don’t be shy |
May the 4’s be with you
So, I’ve been slacking on this for a while. Apologies to everybody! If you’re new to the site, consider this the great big red carpet/Welcome Mat pulled out just for you.
My answer to the question: A friend and I couldn’t resist the magnetic pull of Austin’s Museum of the Weird on Sunday. We were totally had. The mermaid creature thing-a-bob was interesting, though.
If you liked that, you should come out to Seattle and visit Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. Their web site doesn’t really do them justice, but it’s a start.
And no, there is no truth to the rumor that Ye Olde Curiosity Shop is my full time residence. Actually it’s more of a vacation home on the water.
well manny, l’d have to say, for more kitsch and schlock per mile, keystone, sd, the “gateway to mt. rushmore”, is about the weirdest place l’ve ever been.
it’s like an alternative universe in a bizzaro world of tasteless food, trinkets, and just unbelievably bad taste…from one end to the other.
although it can be interesting if the bikers are in town on there way to sturgis.
just drive on through if you’re ever there, stopping is not recommended.
that’s one part of the country I have yet to visit. I’ll keep your warnings in mind when/if it ever happens š
Kudos Manny. Long time no see.
Be well.
hey idredit, right back atcha. hope life is treating you the best it can, given the insanity of the ruling class. paz
.
Nice t-shirt Manny!
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."those are t’s are collectors items, now that the stores gone.
Well poo, I better hang onto mine then.
If you’re wanting to get one, let me know. š
just might do…:{)…via admin at BT e/m work?
Yep. Just put something in the subject line about it and I’ll get it.
Hey Cabingirl! I am in PA with my family. I told them the story about bumping into you but couldn’t remember your name. email me at tflsster@gmail.com and I will get in touch with you. I’m here till Sunday.
Roswell New Mexico was pretty weird.
Turth or Consequences New Mexico was awesome: the city used to be called Hot Springs, and a few hostels are right on the banks of the Rio Grande, with water from the springs piped up into these giant concrete tubs you soak in.
great times…
Roswell: alien capital of the world. And I’m talking X-Files alien. Seemingly every other store has some sort of alien theme to it.
And some interesting facts about T or C: It was named after a radio show that said they would broadcast in the first town that named itself after the show. And it was the fictional hometown of Cactus Jack — a pro wrestling character of Mick Foley.
We liked Roswell. (Especially my son, who was 5 at the time.) It actually provides an interesting contrast with nearby Carlsbad. Carlsbad has the Caverns, literally a world-class attraction. Yet the town is decrepit and has apparently derived very little benefit.
Roswell has taken the alien story and run with it. It has spun a fairly well to do town from whole cloth, or however that saying goes. They’ve done very well for themselves.
The museum/former nightclub in a cave in Kanab, Utah. And admission wasn’t cheap. (But no, there wasn’t a 2 drink minimum.)
One year on the way to and from something or another, we drove through Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. It gave new depth and meaning to the word “quaint.” At least in our minds, at that hour of the morning.
I remember the Dells – with everything fenced off so you could see next to nothing of the scenery without paying. We drove through, stopped for breakfast at McDonald’s and never went back.
My personal favorite is Sea Shell City off I-75 on the way to Mackinaw.
That’s mine. When I was a kids, we used to go up to northern Wisconsin for vacations and always went through the Dells. What I remember, of course, are the dinosaur statues and a place where my cousin Howie at a gigantic banana split called the Pig’s Dinner.
Hey newbies and lurkers..
don’t be shy..
come on out… turn up a glass for my famous crabapple-honey wine.
a 10 gallon barrel to make the rounds.
drink a toast to November.
we’ll be passing out the plaintain chips with your second glass.
I’m the only current newbie from the Midwest, where we answered the Republican call to fear and hate by electing the first Muslim Member of Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison. I nominate the newest town to incorporate in Minnesota, the city of Nowthen. Go to the local diner and buy your genuine Nowthen gear…(just follow Nowthen Blvd north from Anoka, The Halloween Capitol of the World)
hi Multisect! “Nowthen” – I love it.
Dare I ask why Anoka is called the Halloween Capitol of the World?
man eegee, Anoka started the Halloween Capitol theme after the local teenagers rounded up a herd of dairy cattle and led them into town as a Halloween prank.
The idea was to divert youthful exuberance into parades and a football game, The Halloween Bowl, naturally. I paraded downtown in a costume six times with my elementary class mates. My Abe Lincoln costume was a big hit.
that’s awesome. don’t you love when officials try to “divert youthful exuberance”? It always manages to find a way out š
We used to turn outhouses over, until someone discovered it was a lot more fun to just move them back a few feet. The aftermath of one of those incidents generated cash reward advertisements in the local newspaper, but nobody squealed.
Well, I’m sure I visited several tacky roadside attractions in Florida or Texas when I was a child. The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose is bizarre because this extremely wealthy woman took all of her grief about losing a child (and guilt about making money off rifles that had slaughtered Native Americans) and kept building rooms onto her house. She thought that she would not die until her house was completed, so she kept building rooms and staircases that went nowhere.
there are plenty of odd tourist traps here in the USA, but the oddest I’ve seen is in Australia, the Big Merino
a giant concrete sheep, by the side of the highway from Sydney to Canberra.
Here’s another one in northern Michigan – they seem to have added the cavemen since I was there around 1955. Dinosaur Gardens Prehistoric Zoo complete with a climb inside Brontosaurus with a religious theme.