Clinton, Tennessee: Museum of Appalachia - Perpetual Motion Machine

My husband and I made the detour for this gem on a trip from Nashville to Charleston (SC). After a brown bag style lunch from the gift shop snack bar, we wandered through the outbuildings. One of our favorite displays, right inside the door of the main building, was Gol Cooper's glass eye, complete with the pocket knife that ended his original. Irwin's anecdotal descriptions of nearly EVERYthing proved both amusing and time consuming.

We spent a solid 2 hours on the property but could have easily filled much of the day. A bit pricey at $18 but worth the short stop none-the-less. p.s. Loved the peacocks!

The Museum of Appalachia is a pretty nice museum of historical artifacts and such, but they have one thing not mentioned in their brochure, which may be of interest to roadsideamerica-holics. A guy by the name of Harrison Mayes spent much of his life carving large signs that say "Jesus is Coming Soon," "Prepare to Meet God," etc., and putting them up all over the world (a lot of them have since come home to roost). He said God told him to do this, and he also hoped to eventually put them up on all the planets! The exhibit is not listed on the tour map (probably because they're still working on it), but it's definitely worth the price of admission......