adventure » Absurd Intellectual

Don’t ever miss another oddball, offbeat roadside attraction

Posted by Grant Hamilton on 28 January 2009 Modern Life, Vintage/Retro

Jan 282009

I thought when the time was expired, you had to move?

Just surfing around, working on a column about parking meters, when I happened across the picture above (it’s in Oklahoma). What a weird tombstone — but I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s unusual, but it’s probably also very personal, and it’s touching, I find.

Of course, It’ll likely attract vandals like there’s no tomorrow. They’ll really have to watch out for Luke:

(RIP, Mr. Newman — I really have to watch that film again.)

However, back on track, the website where I found that parking meter tombstone is just the sort of ecclectica that I love to happen across on the Internet. It’s a compendium of weird and unusual off-the-beaten-path roadside attractions.

Although the era of the Route 66 roadtrip seems long past (Roadtrips now seem more about highways and Interstates — you stop at a gas station, not a tourist trap) they’re still ingrained in the culture. And some of those roadside attractions struggle on.

They’ve got a few of the Westman basics covered — Happy Rock, Sara the Camel, Tommy the Turtle — but when Amy and I head off on our bi-annual trip to Minneapolis in May, I think I’m going to spend some time checking out the stuff we might otherwise have just driven right by: Road Cheese Graveyard, here we come!

Oh, the places to go

Posted by T. Keith Edmunds on 24 January 2009 2G1L

Jan 242009

I’ve been discussing my list with various people and, listening to some of the items on their lists, I’ve decided I’m not entirely satisfied with my portion of the 2G1L project. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see here).

Not quite sure what aspect of my list I’m unhappy with, I’ve started skimming the Internet seeking activities and wonders I simply must partake of. Now I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to make my list only 25 items and be happy with it.

Take for example, this list of interesting abandoned places. I want to see them all.

What’s a guy (and his list) to do?

The Future is NOW

Posted by T. Keith Edmunds on 13 January 2009 Modern Life

Jan 132009

I’m a bit of an armchair adventurer. I like the idea of people exploring and expanding our knowledge of the universe. I’m talking not only about astronauts and mountain climbers and spelunkers and deep sea divers, but also test pilots and inventors and alien abductees — people who are doing what has never been done and going place untouched by mankind. The idea of being the first individual to do something is truly awe-inspiring.

The first man on the moon. The first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. The first Briton to travel to Timbuktu in a flying car…

Wait. What?

That’s right, a British man will soon be taking his flying car – which, I must say, is not what I had pictured – over land through the air to Timbuktu. Although it doesn’t conform to my idea of what a flying car should look like (my mental image is more of Doc Brown’s modified DeLorean in Back to the Future II) it is definitely a step in the right direction.

The best part is that this vehicle could soon be commercially available.

Although it doesn't resemble the flying cars that were forseen in the 1950s, it's certainly a good start. Chrysler has announced plans to add a flying car to its product line beginning in 2409. Image courtesy of BBC.