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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Weird Vacation Idea

I admit it...weird things appeal to me. This year instead of dropping big bucks for a cruise, resort etc...we decided to make several day trips to explore the weird, wacky and fun ideas that I discovered on the roadsideamerica.com website.  We also incorporated the restaurants/bakeries that appeared on "Food Feuds".  

We started at Pappy's Smokehouse in St Louis...mighty fine BBQ...for dessert a St Louis favorite Gooey Butter Cake from Gooey Louies. These were the losers...looking forward to trying the winners tomorrow.

Then we hopped in the car and went to sites ranging from the Big Eyeball at Laumeier Sculpture Park in St Louis to the World's Biggest Catsup Bottle (Water Tower) in Collinsville IL up 55 for a series of bizarre stops/photo ops.

Chris called this a really lame vacation idea...but she went along with it.  She found out that others share my fascination with the weird when we met a Chicago family at one of our stops who were taking 3 extra days to do the same thing.

Here are some of our favorite "weird" sites.


BTW, Maid Rite is the home of the loose meat sandwich.  Think a Sloppy Joe without the slop...although that doesn't do it justice. We drove to Springfield for them because there are no longer any of them in the St Louis area.  The Maid Rite in Springfield bills itself as the oldest and fastest drive thru restaurant. All I know is they're really good.

Stay Tuned the adventure (and maybe the griping) will continue tomorrow.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn you! I'm extremely jealous. This trip looks like a photographer's dream. I would love to do something like this, I think it'd be a blast.

Bookworm said...

Skinny,
I've really enjoyed it so far. 2 days so far...in different directions and different sites. Pull off road take picture and move on to next location.

Check out the site roadsideamerica.com Go to maps and pick your state. I'm sure there are plenty of odd items close to you that you either take for granted or never heard of before. I know that's what fueled my interest.

Lincoln with the pig is my favorite I think.

Sherry said...

Weird? I don't think so.

My vacation, so far has consisted of shoe shopping, a day at the spa, getting a new exhaust system on the car, foot surgery and I'm heading north on Saturday for some quality time at my favorite hardware store in Old Forge. Now THAT'S my idea of a vacation. LOL

Anonymous said...

Bookworm:
My faves (from memory yesterday) included phone booth on roof, small church, sculpture land (really liked that), and a few other things.

BryM said...

Gooey Butter Cake -- sheesh!! It even SOUNDS fattening!! :-]

Bookworm said...

Sherry,
Your vacation sounds more like our vacations...Just wanted to do something different this year without spending big bucks in the process.

Bookworm said...

Skinny,
Laumeier Sculpture Park in St Louis is filled with pieces that are really good...or make you say HUH???
It's a nice walk through wooded paths with sculptures interspersed on the grounds.

The phone booth on roof is left over from the early 60s...it was to be used by Civil Defense spotter who would call and then duck/cover if we were under attack.

Bookworm said...

Bry,
Gooey Butter Cake is a St Louis tradition...fattening most times...but calorie free during vacations..I wish...LOL

Jo ~ said...

I love a day trip! I do that with little Isabella. We just get out and drive, take a road see where it goes!

Bookworm said...

Bella,
This has been a fun week...Saw some very weird things like the phone booth on a roof to the Piasa Bird.