Tips, leads, stories from travelers, plus Roadsideamerica.com Team reports on quirky museums, ironic monuments, and must-see oddities! Trip planning caution: Some tips may not be verified. Over time, attractions change, move, burn down. What's a vacation without a little risk? Submit your own tip.
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- Montgomery, Alabama - The MOOseum Enough "Mad Cow" panic -- let's hear from our trusted food provider, the American cattleman. This interactive museum opened in 1995, promoted as "Alabama's only children's educational MOOseum devoted to the history and preservation of the beef cattle industry,"
"Meet Adam Bainbridge, a one-of-a-kind cattleman. As the official spokesman for the AL Cattlemen's Association, he's your guide to the Mooseum's galleries." Adam is an animatronic, we think. Find out how many everyday products contain cow. See a 21st century cattle operation. Welcome to Slim Buckaroo's Cattle Club. Billed as a "Children's Educational Center," but obviously promoting a lobbyist's view of Beef -- it's what's for dinner. You can buy items with that very slogan in the Mooseum gift shop. [Roadsideamerica.com Team, 01/01/2004]
The MOOseum:
Address: 201 South Bainbridge St., Montgomery, AL [Show Map]
Directions: Two blocks south of the State Capitol, on the corner of Adams and Bainbridge, in the Alabama Cattlemen's Building.
Admission: Free.
Hours: M-F 8-4:30. Closed for lunch noon-1 pm. (Call to verify)
Phone: 334-265-1867 - Scottsboro, Alabama - Unclaimed Baggage Center Visiting this location only goes to prove having a great marketing director or firm brings people who would normally not enter the doors. ABC Good Morning America, Oprah and the numerous websites go on about how great it is.
The first clue should have been the number of people walking out without making a purchase. Items were priced much more than I expected. Don't waste your time. If you decide to visit and are as disappointed as we were, there were some highlights: the Blue Willow House (great food within the antique store) and the covered bridges around Fort Payne. [Donna, 07/27/2009][RA: We were there years ago -- they had some obvious airport luggage booty then. Seem to recall buying other people's music CDs on the cheap, still in their little travel pouches.]Unclaimed Baggage Center:
Address: 509 West Willow St, Scottsboro, AL [Show Map]
Directions: Off Hwy 279.
Phone: 256-259-1525 - Eureka Springs, Arkansas - MUD street There are TWO sites that were featured in Ripley's Believe it or not: The Basin Park Hotel, which has all eight stories ( or so I forget how many) with a direct exit to ground level from every floor! Then there is little known Pivot Rock and Natural Bridge. The largest freestanding rock formation which has a base circumference of only about 10 inches, and the top measuring around 10 feet across! We have a Live Steam locomotive here in the original train depot from the 1880's, the court house, which along with many businesses on main street, you must enter through the second floor, because the first floor of these buildings are underground! The street "MAIN" used to be called MUD street, for a reason! One year there was a great torrential rain that brought TONS of mud down from the hills and they just never dug it out!
We elected a dead mayor, one of only three towns in america to do that! One of our mayors posed (supposedly) nude for one of the state-wide papers! We have no two parallelly intersecting streets either! [Thomas Hawk, 03/04/1999]
Pivot Rock and Natural Bridge:
Address: Pivot Rock Rd, Eureka Springs, AR [Show Map]
Directions: From the intersection of US 62 and Hwy 23, drive north on US 62 for one mile. When you see the sign for Brackenridge Lodge, turn right onto Pivot Rock Rd and drive north 2.5 miles. The road will get narrow, but keep going until it ends. - Milford, Connecticut - Wild Parrots of Connecticut Yes, There ARE parrot colonies all along the
southwestern shore of CT. One of the newest colonies is in the big pine trees
at the main entrance to Beardsley Park in Bridgeport. This species is called
the Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus)and the Audubon Society Field Guide
explains that they escaped from a dropped crate from South America at JFK
Airport in the '60s. They've had no trouble adapting establishing colonies in NYC and
all the way up the coast to Milford. They build huge stick nests and when a
colony gets too big or something happens to a nested tree (lightning hit one
in Fairfield in the '80s), they split up and start new ones. They are quite
entertaining to watch. [Stein, 07/14/2001]Wild Parrots of Connecticut:
Address: Milford, CT
Directions: Main entrance to Beardsley park is on Noble Ave a few blocks noth of the intersection of Noble Ave and the Post Road (Route 1 aka North Ave) - Old Saybrook, Connecticut - Elizabeth Tashjian Vows Dark Forces Will Not Drive Her Nuts
After a social worker found Elizabeth Tashjian, aka "The Nut Lady," comatose on the floor of her Old Lyme home (and Nut Museum) in late May, few believed she would survive. While the 89-year old artist lay in Middlesex Hospital's ICU, court officials appointed a conservator to handle her estate. ... [12/01/2002] Complete News Story
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