thirty-nine and counting

Three guys from Utah are in the middle of their Great American Road Trip this week. They will pass through all 48 contiguous states in only five days. I also want to visit all the states but not the way these guys are doing it. In many cases, they are only driving across a state line, taking a picture of their GPS unit as proof, and turning around.

After I went to Alaska, I set a personal goal of visiting all 50 states. I want to do more than just drive through them. I want to see an historical location, a tourist attraction or the world's largest something. Last summer I knocked another four states off my to do list. I only have eleven to go.



This summer I may be able to tackle either Arkansas or Iowa. The decision depends on what type of fun destinations I can find on Roadside America or other tourism sites. And on gas prices.

This week "Good Morning America" is revealing their 7 Wonders of America. So far they've picked the National Mall and the ANWR. I wonder if the rest of the list will have obvious choices like the Grand Canyon or a quirky choice like the World's Largest Ball of Twine. I also wonder how many of the Wonders I will have visited or can still visit before I die.

At first the well-publicized list of "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" didn't appeal to me. Too many of the locations were in far off corners of the globe that are well beyond my budget. Over the weekend I saw a book for sale at a Cracker Barrel that has now shot to the top of my wish list. "1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. and Canada Before You Die" is a lot more realistic for me. If author Patricia Schultz happens to be available for a podcast interview, I might be able to get a free review copy out of the deal. Hint, hint.

five years until Willard

Happy birthday Grandma! No, my grandmother doesn't usually read my blog but I once sent a link to my aunt, who printed the entry and gave it to Grandma.

Grandma turns 95 today. She was born one year after the Titanic sunk, 48 years after the day Lincoln died.

On her 14th birthday, the first footprints were left in the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre by Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and some others. On her 34th birthday, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball.

Congress ratified Amendment XVI, which allowed them to collect an income tax, about two and a half months before Grandma was born. Her birthday didn't become the official Tax Day until she turned 42.

About nine years ago Grandma gave me a gift subscription to the statehood quarters. Every few months we get a panel in the mail from the Postal Commemorative Society. At the time, Grandma made me promise to continue buying the panels after she's gone. Fortunately for me, Grandma is still going strong and the final quarters will be released this year.

Grandma spent her 80th birthday with us in Los Angeles. We took her to the Chinese Theatre, to Beverly Hills and to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. That's where she saw the statues of some of her favorite stars, like Jack Benny.

waxing with the stars

The Hollywood Wax Museum in Gatlinburg put their best, um, foot forward by positioning their Angelina Jolie love doll statue to be the first thing you see once you get inside. King Kong is the first thing you see before you go in. You may recall that I saw Kong over the summer while at a wedding reception next door.



Angelina Jolie looks like the real thing. A couple of others don't. For example, Elvis Presley, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. And Tobey Maguire.



Colin Farrell is posed in a tuxedo at a wedding chapel. I think women can pose in the wedding dress that was hanging nearby. Somebody must have thought they could literally take Colin's hand in marriage.



After a while you can't help but get into the campy spirit of the place. For example, the file name of this picture of the creature is "FrankAndStein.jpg"

reason for the season

The North Pole defeated the South Pole in a surprising come-from-behind victory yesterday at the Dixie Stampede in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The South Pole team took an early lead in several equestrian events. The North Pole team finally scored some points in the pig and ostrich races. Ultimately it was audience participation that made the difference. A North Pole fan tied the overall competition by decisively winning the toilet seat toss. With the game on the line, North Pole fans were able to pass several toy candy canes from person to person faster than their South Pole counterparts. The cane-passing standout Murphy family of Knoxville helped cinch the victory for the North.

Prior to the competition, the audience witnessed a short nativity play. Actors portraying Mary and Joseph were lowered from the ceiling on a small square ice rink. Once the platform touched down on the surface of the horse arena, a herd of goats and a few donkeys were shepherded around it. Three camels carrying three wise men completed the scene as a trained dove flew the length of the arena into the hands of a live angel suspended from the rafters.

turn the whole thing upside down

It's hot. It's been hot and will continue to be hot for several more days. The weather is ideal for visiting your favorite ice cream stand. While we were in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago, we visited one of the more famous American ice cream stands, although technically it's a frozen custard stand. Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard is known for their "concretes," which is what my son ordered. The stand is along historic Route 66, like the sign says. You might have seen Ted Drewe's last year on "Feasting on Asphalt." Where do you like to get your ice cream or custard?

nice day to start again

There's a chance that Drury P. Armstrong might recognize his historic old house on Kingston Pike. If he were alive, of course. He hasn't been there in over 150 years. The Armstrong-Lockett House is now used for wedding receptions, which is why my family and I were there today. The multi-level William P. Toms Memorial Gardens fill the space between the house and the Tennessee River. Across the water, the cows at the UT Ag Campus were visible.

As we explored the terraced garden, my son noticed signs of life in a puddle near a fountain. It hasn't rained here in a while. My guess is that the water accumulates when the sprinklers are running. I remember Sir David Attenborough saying on one of his TV shows that life will always find a way to burst forth in any available space. The puddle was teeming with tadpoles of assorted sizes. We suspected that more than one species of frog has used that water to procreate. I used my cell phone camera to take some picture and to shoot some video of the little swimmers.

chasing waterfalls

The road trip that my family and I planned would have us pass through Buffalo on I-90. This would probably be the one and only time I would be that close to Niagara Falls, which is about 20 miles from Buffalo. How could we not go? We had driven farther out of our way to see the World's Largest Ball of Twine when we passed through Kansas five years ago.



After a long day of driving, we finally reached New York State late at night and found a cheap motel. The next morning we drove into the City of Niagara Falls and saw lots of campaign signs for somebody named "Babe" Rotella. At that hour it wasn't too hard to find a parking spot near the Red Coach Inn. I wonder if this Red Coach is related to a place my parents used to take us when we were kids. On family birthdays we often went to the Red Coach at the Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers for a lobster dinner. Our parking space was also near a tethered balloon ride and a building that looked like a totem.



Seeing the falls was fantastic. A rainbow was visible near Horseshoe Falls and over the Maid of the Mist. Our time was tight or we would have bought ponchos and sandals to wear down to the Hurricane Deck. One of the members of our little group spotted the people wearing ponchos and mistook them for Hare Krishna. I won't say who because I value my marriage.



The next morning we woke up in a motel in Worcester, Massachusetts. We flipped on the TV and saw that Dave Price from The Early Show was reporting live from Niagara Falls. Too bad he wasn't there a day earlier.

test results

No one scored 100% on the photo quiz I posted a week ago. Some of you came very close however. You were asked to identify five of the landmarks (with city and state) that my family visited on our 3,000 mile road trip. The correct answers are:

1) Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Missouri
I like the way the photo on the left has an optical illusion quality.



2) World's Largest Rubber Stamp, Cleveland, Ohio
Its official name is just "Free Stamp." Here's a different angle featuring one of the GuitarMania public art displays. If you look closely at last week's photo, you can see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the background.



3) Niagara Falls State Park, Niagara Falls, New York
More about our visit to Niagara Falls later this week.



4) The Big Duck, Flanders, New York
I remember two things about the Big Duck from childhood. Seeing it meant we were getting close to Grandma's house and we could always smell the adjacent duck farm before we saw it.



5) Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
As seen in the movie "National Treasure," except that the filmmakers used the replica of the Hall at Knott's Berry Farm.

where in the world was

The cross-country drive is one of the great American experiences. My most recent road trip was a perfect complement to the cross-country trip we made five years ago this week. That's when my family and I packed the car in Burbank and drove to Knoxville to start a new chapter of our life. I had been living alone for three months in the Windrush Apartments, a location which was unfortunately mentioned in the news last week.

Instead of taking I-40 straight east from Barstow, I convinced my wife that we should take I-70 because it would bring me through more states that I had not yet visited. We saw the World's Tallest Thermometer on our way to spend the first night of our trip in Las Vegas. The natural scenery was spectacular, especially through Utah and the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Our most memorable scenery in Kansas was more unnatural. We stopped off at Prairie Dog Town to see the six-legged cow and we took a slight detour to see the World's Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City. In Missouri, we toured Mark Twain's boyhood home in Hannibal. As our trip neared its end, we took a rest stop in Metropolis, Illinois, to see the giant Superman statue.



Before I forget, let me say thanks to Weird Ralph for submitting my blog entry with the photos from last week's trip to Digg.com.

where in the world isn't

Traveling opens many possibilities yet it's impossible to explore them all. Last night my wife, our son and I got home from a great road trip that rivaled our 2002 drive from Burbank to Knoxville. On this journey, we passed through 15 states in a big circle stretching from the Mississippi River to the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Whenever we crossed a state border, we tried to stop at the official welcome center to get a free road map. I enjoyed looking at the racks of brochures for the countless tourist attractions in each area. With only 8 days to cover over 3,000 miles, there was no way we could see everything. We drove right past and would have gone to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame if it hadn't already closed by the time we got there. Moose out front should have told us. It's funny to me that a place built to celebrate rock and roll closes at 5:30 p.m. (except Wednesdays). Isn't that about the time most rock stars are waking up? I collected some brochures in case I can ever revisit those states. Here are just a few of the other places I would have enjoyed seeing:

Pro Football Hall of Fame
Wyandot Popcorn Museum
National Baseball Hall of Fame
The Mark Twain House
The Barnum Museum

where in the world is

Here's a little game we can play. Take a look at these pictures from my family's just completed 3,000 mile road trip. Try to identify these landmarks we visited as well as the city and state they're in. Post your answers in the comments section. Don't be anonymous, I hate that. Choose "other" instead. You can also print the page and have your kids write their guesses in the space provided. I will delay publishing the guesses until someone gets all five right. Tell us if you knew the answers on your own or if you "cheated" by looking them up on RoadsideAmerica.com.

1) ______________________________

2) ______________________________

3) ______________________________

4) ______________________________

5) ______________________________

eighth wonder of the world

Rather than sit in weekend traffic through Sevierville and Pigeon Forge, I opted to take a more scenic route from Morristown to Gatlinburg today. I drove south on I-81 to I-40 and headed east, where I picked up U.S. Route 321 in Cocke County. I was only passing through and did not see anything unusual. It was probably a greater distance than if I had taken exit 407 but I got to keep moving and see a less developed side of the Smokies. Along the way, I enjoyed some hyper-local radio. One AM station had some great cheesy jingles and frequent weather reports between their moldy oldies. A local FM station was in the middle of a four-hour remote from a client. Both reminded me a little of my favorite station, WLNG in Sag Harbor, New York.

My wife and I had been invited to a wedding and reception in Gatlinburg. The wedding was at St. Mary Catholic Church and the reception was at Lineberger's Seafood Company. The bride is a fourth grade teacher. During the reception, she read aloud from some essays her students had written on the topic "How to Be a Good Husband." One young girl wrote, "if your wife ever wants anything, buy it for her."

As I looked out from the restaurant balcony at the crowded sidewalks and shops below, I was reminded of a recent Metro Pulse article by an intern making her first trip to Pigeon Forge. A new tourist attraction is being built next door to the restaurant. It's the third location of the Hollywood Wax Museum. They also have one in Branson and one in Hollywood. I went into the museum in Hollywood when my friend Pam Baker and I were scouting possible locations for Mark & Brian's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As it turned out, their star was placed right by the museum. The new Gatlinburg wax museum has a gigantic likeness of King Kong to grab the attention of visitors. During the wedding reception, I tried to surreptitiously take a photo of the bride and groom with King Kong in the background. Ultimately it was just easier to ask them to pose for the blog.

might as well be walking on the sun

The Sunsphere reopened to the public on Thursday!



Earlier today, my wife packed some salads in the cooler and we took our son downtown for a picnic in World's Fair Park and a ride up to the inside of the Sunsphere. One of the other tourists in the elevator recognized my voice from the radio, which is always surprising and amusing. I was happy to see the observation deck all cleaned up and looking nice. They had the air-conditioning cranked up, which was great on a hot day. Afterward we got a dark chocolate-covered pretzel rod for dessert at The South's Finest Chocolate Factory.





In May of 2004, the city let people see the Sunsphere "as is." I was not about to let an opportunity like that pass me by. The first thing I noticed as I stepped out of the elevator was that the observation deck had been infested with pigeons and their droppings. One of the other visiting citizens was a self-proclaimed expert on the structure. According to him, the builders avoided some red tape back in 1982 by claiming that the Sunsphere is only eight stories tall and therefore not subject to the regulations for taller buildings. Its actual height would be more like twenty-six stories if they counted the shaft. The first three floors are at the base of the tower. Four through eight are inside the ball. The fourth floor is the observation deck, at the bottom of the actual sphere. At the top is the eighth floor, which had some city offices. My then radio partner, Ashley, and I used our positions as "members of the media" to talk a city employee into letting us climb to the roof. We took a ladder from the eighth floor to an attic above the ceiling. Another ladder led to a hatch and the open air. There's not much room up there. Most of the space is taken up by air conditioning equipment. Ashley and I swapped cameras and snapped photos of each other.



Now that Knoxville's most visible landmark has reopened, I should notify Roadside America.

cruising down the Cariboo Road

Before recording any Fourth of July concerts and fireworks like I did last year, I need to clear some space on my TiVo. While I'm busy doing that, let me share a photo that my friend Bean sent me today. If he still had a blog, his entry today probably would have been all about his visit to the World's Largest Chainsaw in Lillooet, British Columbia!

first day of the rest of your life

After a long day yesterday, I took today off. Completely off. It was great. I didn't have to leave home at all. Instead, I went for a swim and then read most of the new issue of Entertainment Weekly. It features the list of 100 stars they love right now. I also gave the TiVo a rest and watched a couple of DVDs that have been on my stack for a while. They both looked great on the plasma screen even though they contained footage from a time before anyone had dreamed of that technology. First I watched highlights of the New York Mets World Series victories in 1969 and 1986. Then I popped in a disc of lost episodes of "You Bet Your Life," a show that went off the air a week after I was born. I remember watching reruns of Groucho's show when I was in seventh and eighth grades. Finally, I turned on the computer to look for Mass times and to search for any Roadside America attractions along the route of a trip we are planning for later this summer. Oh and best of all, I had a slice of leftover cake with lunch.

belongs to the ages

Something is seriously wrong with my digital camera. It's been acting up for the past few weeks. Prior to this weekend, I had been able to get it to work by taking the compact flash chip out and then putting it back in. Today I tried to snap a few photos in scenic Staunton, Virginia. All I got was a digital mess. Anybody know anything about troubleshooting a Canon PowerShot A70?



I saw a sign that said "Jumbo Museum" and made my wife double back. I hoped it might be dedicated to the famous 19th century circus elephant. Instead it was an antique fire equipment museum. It looked like it was closed for the holiday. Since the good camera was broken, I used my cell phone camera to photograph it anyway.



While we were driving in circles through Staunton, a local pulled up alongside and asked if he could help us. It was obvious that we were from out of town. I asked him to recommend someplace for lunch. He sent us to Cranberry's, a combination health food store and restaurant which served wraps and salads. We bought a small bag of very tasty sweet potato chips made in Virginia by Route 11 Potato Chips. They need to start selling these chips in Tennessee. After all, the actual Route 11 (a/k/a Kingston Pike) runs right through Knoxville.

omega-3 fatty acid trip

The Georgia Aquarium is the world's largest and most engaging. It says so right on their website. Normally they start by engaging $10 from your wallet to pay for parking in their structure. Because we had heard that the $24 admission tickets are often sold out, we bought ours through the website the night before we went. When we arrived at 10:00 a.m. yesterday, we were able to find a parking space right across the street for only $5. The price had risen to $7 by the time we returned to our car around 1:30 p.m.



The answers to the frequently asked questions warned us not to bring the obvious things like guns, knives, lighters or fishing poles. I was immediately reminded of an episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies" in which the Clampetts went on a fishing trip to Marineland.

The Georgia Aquarium was a gift to Atlanta from Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot. They repaid his generosity by naming the aquarium's Nemo-like mascot "Deepo." The aquarium is so popular that another major tourist attraction is moving in next door. The current World of Coca-Cola is closing its doors on April 7 to re-open in the new location on May 24.



As a fan of all turtles, the aquarium's loggerhead sea turtle was an immediate favorite of mine. I liked the whale sharks not only because of their impressive size but because they are named after the characters in "The Honeymooners."



I had to look pretty hard to find some tuna in the aquarium. Turns out, they were swimming in mayonnaise. Nearby some Gummi fish were frolicking in blue Jell-O.

prospero año

The frequent promos for "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" are making me realize how much Jeff Foxworthy looks like my friend Loo Katz, who hosts morning drive on WASH-FM. Loo might have looked a little more like Foxworthy back when he was hanging out with rock stars.

My family and I saw an autographed picture of Jeff Foxworthy on display at The Varsity in Atlanta. It was near the picture of the landmark restaurant's most famous carhop, the late Nipsey Russell.



If you haven't been to The Varsity, you haven't really been to Atlanta. The Journal Constitution included it as one of their Atlanta icons last summer. The original newspaper article is on display in the same case as the autographed photos. You can read the feature and watch a slideshow online.



While in Atlanta, we learned that Jeff Foxworthy is one of the most famous (perhaps the most famous?) alumnus of Georgia Tech, which is right across the freeway from the Varsity. We also learned that The Varsity was founded by a Georgia Tech dropout who wanted to show his former teachers that he could make something of himself. The Varsity is a short walk from Bobby Dodd Stadium, where I imagine they must sing "Feliz Bobby Dodd" after every touchdown.

meet the Beakers

Stonehenge was in the news today. The discovery of a Neolithic village gives me an excuse to show you two photos I've been saving. My daughter gave me a "Build Your Own Stonehenge" kit for Christmas. She might have been inspired by my enthusiasm after visiting Foamhenge near Natural Bridge, Virginia. I've been there twice, once by myself in August and then again in October with my wife and son. Oddly enough, my daughter is the only one in our family who hasn't been to Foamhenge yet. I wonder what's keeping her.

throw the bone

A preview screening of "Night at the Museum" was held tonight for radio listeners and some other lucky ticketholders. On the whole, the movie is very enjoyable even if it takes a little too long to get to the good parts. Ben Stiller's comedy monologues got laughs from the rest of the audience but not so much from me. Instead, I laughed every time Ricky Gervais started to speak. And I say "started" because he never really finished. Watch for the funny cameo from Ben Stiller's mother, Anne Meara.

The movie is set in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. That's the museum I used to visit as a kid. Carla Gugino plays a lovely museum docent. I kept thinking that her character reminded me of somebody I knew. It came to me as the closing credits rolled. In this movie, Carla looked like WBIR's Beth Haynes.

previous topics revisited

At Disneyland and Walt Disney World, the face characters usually represent the leading ladies from the Disney animated films. There has to be some others but the only male face characters I can think of right now are Peter Pan and Aladdin. The female characters have plenty of fans. One guy made a list of his top ten favorites.

If she were a cartoon (and who says she isn't?) Jenny McCarthy would have earned a place on that top ten list. It might be corny but I plan to watch her ABC Family movie, "Santa Baby." It's on next Sunday night.

Another made-for-TV Christmas movie will be on NBC the following night. "The Year Without a Santa Claus" was something that piqued my curiosity when it was being filmed this past summer.

not to be confused with White Castle or Krystal

Hong Ta Show was arrested last week. He was charged with illegal possession of wildlife after being caught selling baby turtles at a local flea market. A blog reader mentioned the story out of the blue in their comment to last Tuesday's post.

The turtles are the red-eared sliders that many of us had as pets when we were kids. They used to come with an inadequate clear plastic container that you would partially fill with water and then stick a plastic palm tree into the island in the middle.

The TWRA relocated the turtles to a tourist attraction in Sevierville called RainForest Adventures. My family and I went to see the little sliders yesterday. The facility is a lot like the reptile house at the zoo. I didn't even try to count all the species we saw. Some of my favorites were the tortoises, macaws, lemurs and a king cobra that put me in mind of Harry Potter and other parselmouths.



Two vending machines offered containers with shed skins from your choice of either venomous or non-venomous snakes. At 3pm, the keeper put on a presentation with birds, an alligator, a tarantula, a toad, a hedgehog and several other animals. Some we could not touch, like the snapping turtle, but others we could, like the snake we draped over our shoulders. The gift shop offered mostly animal related toys and souvenirs but it was a totally random t-shirt that made me laugh.

if you build it they will come

Monday's post about the September 11th anniversary prompted my sister's husband to send me an article from The Washington Post about an unusual 9/11 tribute. You might recall reading about my visit to Foamhenge last month. The guy who built Foamhenge has now put up a temporary replica of the twin towers in Buena Vista, Virginia. The Roanoke Times has an article with a map. My wife wants to visit some family members in Northern Virginia at the end of October. I'm thinking about going with her so we can stop off in Buena Vista to see it. I wouldn't mind making a return visit to Foamhenge too. Another Washington Post article has got me reconsidering my decision to skip Natural Bridge on that last trip.

Aron Saffell, the firefighter in Texas, sent me a bunch of photos from his 9/11 tribute. I thought the pictures were great even though Aron wrote:

Please keep in mind, I'm not a photographer, woodworker or painter. I'll also send you a couple of overhead shots we took today. I have not taken these types of pics since the 1st anniversary because we kept the same dimensions until this year. Thanks again for allowing me to do this for y'all. If you are ever in contact with any other FDNY family members, let them know that I spent all day today taking a picture of every cross. I can email them any they want.