After years of the Roadside America team warning about the perils of corporate themepark entertainment (or lack thereof), Six Flags Over Texas pulled off its "Best of Texas" event, rounding up offbeat Texan wonders. Towns temporarily gave up their civic symbols so Six Flags visitors could see them in concentrated form from April - August 2002.

We hope this isn't a theme park trend -- it could wreak havoc on offbeat vacation itineraries, and no one would be paying the park's considerable admission fee if they don't intend to spend all day riding roller coasters. On the other hand, "Best of Texas" enlightened hundreds of thousands of Six Flags attendees who would otherwise never know about Old Rip or the World's Largest Killer Bee...

Arlington resident and roadside enthusiast Wesley "Texas Twisted" Treat scoped out the exhibits earlier this summer. He offered to be an expert guide at Six Flags on our recent trip, promising to run the circuit of widely scattered sights in less than his suggested half day. We had exactly 50 minutes before vamoosing....

The World's Largest Armadillo greets park visitors outside the gates, a welcome sight after the trot in from a remote parking area. The armadillo, 45-ft. long and weighing 4 1/2 tons, was sculpted in metal by Marc Rankin especially for Six Flags. The plan was to sell it to a town in need of a civic symbol, though it may end up back at Rankin's home base in Strawn, TX.

A Styrofoam replica of the Alamo was featured, constructed as a movie backdrop for TNT's Two for Texas. Looked much like every other Alamo replica you see around the state. Wesley showed us where you can lean over a rail and peek around the back to see the wood framework that holds it together.

Junkasaurus Wrecks, on loan from the town of Bertram, is a dinosaur constructed by the late Garrett Wilkinson of auto parts, including windshield wipers and spark plug teeth.

A giant Strawberry from Poteet is obviously not the big concrete one from town, or the water tower. It appears to be designed for appearances outside Poteet.

The World's Largest Fruitcake, on display inside the Cartoon Candy Kitchen, is 5x6 feet, weighs 150 pounds, crafted by Gladys Farek from Flatonia, TX (you can buy your own for $998.00 at http://www.gladysfruitcakes.com).

Odessa's "Jack Ben Rabbit" stood at a railroad crossing, near the Batman and Mr. Freeze roller coasters.

Old Rip the Horned Toad was a shock -- supposed to have been returned to Eastland in late June, but here he was. His little casket, unguarded (as per prior agreement), sat in a Plexiglas case on a porch where people were in queue for a ride or something. No one was paying a bit of attention to Old Rip. When we loudly pronounced this was the corpse of "Michigan J. Frog," a few kids wandered over We'd never noticed that Rip was missing a leg before, but an examination of some old slides confirms it (Wes checked with the Eastland C of C soon after our visit, and they fessed up the leg has been missing since 1962, when Texas gubernatorial candidate John Connally held Rip by one appendage for a press photo op.) .

Perhaps the most rewarding sight for visitors was the World's Largest Killer Bee. Normally you'd travel 500 miles south to the Mexican border town of Hidalgo to see this giant insect. The fiberglass statue represents the first African honey bee that entered the US illegally in 1990.

We grabbed some fruit smoothies, rushed through a row of crowd misters, and thanked Wesley for the tour. Our time had run out. Mission accomplished! [08/18/2002]

November 26, 2009