Roadside America App for iPhone | Support
Themes
For the Roadside America App for iPhone, the editors created a bunch of fun and useful "Themes" -- some derived from the Roadside America books and the web site -- to group attractions. Some Themes are obvious ("Animals," or "Route 66") and some not so obvious ("Zombie Army").
- Animals: Mammal, reptile, fish, bird, insect - statues, museums, taxidermy, burial sites.
- Artistic: Exuding creative self-importance, self-aware, not naïve. We really should have paid attention in Art Appreciation 101.
- Atomic: War, science, and power-related nuclear landmarks and milestones.
- Aviation: (formerly "Flight") Man-powered, jets, balloons, dirigibles, pilots, airfields, airlines, aviation tech.
- Beliefs: Religion, Christian, Pagan, Theology, Cult (also see "Utopia").
- Big: World's Largest, or anything swollen past believable size
- Car Culture: Relating to travel, transportation, cars, bridges, highways. Places that take our love of vehicles perhaps a bit too seriously.
- Celebrities: Stars of movies, TV, A-D list, media personalities, historical people known even today.
- Civil War: 1861-65. The War Between the States. Union vs. Confederate. Weird.
- Claims to Fame: Assertions of largest, smallest, longest, most -- promoted by towns, companies, individuals -- whether accurate or not.
- Classic Attractions: Postcard-worthy places designed only for tourism business.
- Collections: An ungodly amassing of one thing, or type of things. Not for general purpose museums, but a monomania museum.
- Crime: Includes punishment, law enforcement, security.
- Dinosaurs: Also fossils, almost-dinosaurs and cartoon dinosaurs.
- Doom: Natural and unnatural foci of bad luck, death and devastation, mass graves, etc.
- Dreamers: Folk artists so immersed in their vision they have created a topsy turvy world around themselves that future preservationists will try to understand. Collectors can be dreamers if their passion takes over their lives.
- Drive-Thru: Attractions that can be enjoyed without exiting your vehicle.
- Eat: Restaurants, cafes, anything that involves eating something. (For giant fruit and museums about drinks or food, see "Food")
- Factory Tours: Company-created tours or walk thrus, either of real or fake facilities.
- Farm: Agriculture, dairy, livestock, crop-related, usually located at a -- you guessed it -- farm.
- Folk Art: Sculptures or environments, often made of junk and society's cast-offs, usually by non-trained "outsiders" or "visionaries." Includes non-standard dinosaurs and unique roadside giants.
- Food: Statues or attractions about or representing food, drink, condiments, utensils. (For places to eat and restaurants, see "Eat")
- Freaks: Through quirks of DNA and Nature, animals and humans that are not like the rest of us.
- Freaky Hoo-Ha: Strange, perhaps occult, not easily classified as a simple haunting or monster sighting. Places that give us the willies, or make you feel like you've just lost your mind or entered a parallel universe.
- Ghost Towns: Ruins of a once booming town, or decaying remnants within an existing town. Unusual features, or promoted for regular tourists.
- Graves: Cemeteries, mausoleums, tombstones, mass graves, suspected burial spots of humans and animals.
- H2O: Aquatic attraction, things where water is critical or plays a key role, geysers, fountains, fish, sea monsters. Wear a slicker.
- Haunted: Ghosts, anything possessed by spirits, or cursed.
- Historical: Oddities of mainstream history, what they didn't teach you in school.
- Holiday: Attractions about Christmas, Halloween, etc. Possibly open seasonally.
- Indians: Statues, museums, etc. involving Native Americans.
- Industry: Landmarks, statues, museum where a particular corporation, business or industry is an overt part.
- Irrational Geographics:"You Are Here," map and geographic attractions, midway points, funny town names with nothing else going for them.
- Itty Bitty: Miniature towns, railroads, buildings, tiny churches, claims of extreme smallness.
- Last Rites: The trappings of death and mortality, funeral customs.
- Literature: Authors, their works, odd encouragement to read more.
- Medical: Museums, landmarks relating to disease, cures, procedures, milestones.
- Miracles: Usually religious, site where many gathered to gawk and witness whatever was miraculous at the time.
- Monsters: Generally the kind that might kill or eat you.
- Movies: Location shooting site, place or people associated with a movie or movie industry. Part of the pop, cult, or quirky cultural zeitgeist -- not every actor and building.
- Muffler Men: Barrel-chested, square-jawed comrade of the American highway. Configured as a cowboy, lumberjack, etc. Right arm up, left arm down -- unless he's a Native American.
- Music: Landmarks, people, graves and museums relating to music, or attractions that use music as a major element (For music used in performances, see "Performance").
- Mysterious: Possesses an "unknown" aspect -- puzzling or cryptic, but not paranormal.
- Mythical: Involving characters from folk tradition, literary figures, tall tales.
- Nature: Natural attractions, canyons, caves, volcanoes, forests, trees, or lifelike replicas of the natural world.
- Nautical: Naval, ships, maritime, brave but doomed seacraft and their crews.
- Nostalgia: Pioneer village, restored old timey towns, classic gas stations. It's the past with a rosy tint.
- Odd Buildings: Any structure with a door and a window. or an interior (such as towers).
- On the Move: Transportation, vacation, travel-related, tourism industry.
- Over There: "Over there over here."Foreign cultures and traditions, or global attractions transplanted or recreated in the USA.
- Patriotic: Things that are meant to instill pride in the USA.
- Performances: Shows, plays, dances, demonstrations or things that occur with predictable regularity.
- Pet Cemetery: Graves, statues, plaques or displays of departed but loved animals.
- Petroliana: Relating to gas and the oil industry, gas stations, discoveries.
- Politics: Attractions with an agenda or affiliation, sometimes subtle, sometimes not.
- Pop: American, consumer and media culture, part of the collective awareness.
- Presidents: Museums, statues, collections, sites of historic Presidential moments, etc.
- Railroad: Museums with unusual aspects, engines, model layouts, unusual tracks, bridges, etc.
- Rocks: Boulders, formations, petrified wood.
- Route 66: On Route 66, within the Route 66 worship zone, or about Route 66 but elsewhere.
- Science: Using the scientific method. Inventions and discoveries. Theories.
- Signs: Where a sign is as important as the attraction, if not the attraction.
- Sleepover: Lodging, hotels, B&Bs -- unusual, and you can personally reserve a room.
- Space: Vehicles, museum, exhibits relating to space travel, space junk, either real or fictional. Also meteorites, replica planets, etc.
- Sports: Athletics, games, superstars, team competition.
- Tech: Science, invention. Also attractions that use lots of blinking things or gee-whizzery to make us slack-jawed.
- Television: Stars of TV, location shooting site, place associated with TV industry, technology.
- Top Rated: Roadside America editors best picks, subjective from "The Best" and "Major Fun" ratings.
- Trees: Living trees, forests, stumps, logs, shoe trees, statues carved from trees that are still recognizably tree-like..
- UFO: Real or fictional flying saucers, crash sites, suspected alien activity.
- Underground: Caves, mines, subterranean city tours, buried homes and businesses.
- Utopia: Community where a better way was attempted. And failed. Still-existing places that are their own little world, and happy about it.
- War: Armed conflict, mostly with other countries, but also Civil War, Revolutionary War.
- Water Towers: Holds water for a town or facility, decorated or shaped unusually. Also an occasional gas tower if it's strange enough.
- Weather: Meteorological, extremes or oddities, sites of weather disaster, attractions that use weather, such as windmill collections.
- Wild West: Western frontier, cowboy, homestead outlaws, prospectors, pioneers as long as they're heading west, exotic Southwestern flora and fauna, western Indians.
- Women: Landmarks about noteworthy females, though not necessarily role-models. Includes Transparent Women!
- Zombie Army: Remains of any once-living thing that could be reanimated to seek vengeance.