News from the offbeat tourist attraction landscape of Roadside America.
Sightings Vol. 12, No. 1 - January 15, 2016
Sightings

The New Year Is Safely Strapped In...

....and ready to coo adorably at the mention of 2016 road trip resolutions. More trips. More sights. More fun. Let's go!

Plan to see odd roadside art? Check out the Fish With Human Breasts, the 30-Foot-Tall Robot, retro Apple Boy, the thought-provoking Nyberg Sculpture Park, or the soulful Our Lady of Shoes.

If weight loss is a 2016 aspiration, how about visiting fast food museums that serve no food? We report from the Waffle House Museum, the Replica of the First In-N-Out Burger, and the World's First Pizza Hut. A spry Colonel Sanders Statue waves in approval.

Committed to expanding your worldview? Gain a better understanding of the Tiki peoples and their cuisine at the Tonga Room. Shop for electronics just like the Ancient Egyptians. Then dine under the Sistine Chapel in Spray Paint.

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Trunkations: Up Ahead in 2016

Trunkations.We take stock of what did and didn't happen on the oddball attraction landscape, and look at some promised points of interest for the New Year.

Sweet 16: Looks Like a Beauty

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The Volo Museums

Volo Museums.As it winds through a half-dozen warehouse-size buildings, Volo offers a unique hodgepodge of wonders: from an Iraqi roadside bomb to a 14-foot-tall King Kong. But its collection of bizarre cars are its true stars, including a $1.4 million Cat in the Hat "Whatchamajigger," a two-tone pink station wagon customized by Elvis, and a fake Bonnie and Clyde Death Car with 160 real bullet holes.


The Dillinger Museum

Dillinger Museum.Speaking of gangsters, John Dillinger is the most popular one in Indiana. His museum recently reopened in its third Indiana town -- and its best location yet (a former morgue). See Public Enemy No. 1's original tombstone, his Pants of Death, the fake gun he used to break out of jail, and and three different Dillinger wax dummies, two of them depicting him as a bloody corpse.


Big Bronze Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee statue.Hwaa-yaaaa! The world's most famous martial artist is immortalized in a larger-than-life bronze statue in the middle of L.A.'s old Chinatown. Despite its proximity to Hollywood, this is no tribute to Kato of The Green Hornet; it's classic Hong Kong Bruce, bare-chested, nunchucks in hand, poised for a street brawl.


Abby Normal

Indiana Medical History Museum.The highlight of any trip to the Indiana Medical History Museum is its collection of human brains in jars -- and not just any human brains, but the brains of insane asylum patients who were cut open in the very rooms where you take your tour! We're such fans of pathology specimens that we also visited the Human Body Parts Museum in Texas.


Matchstick Marvels Museum

Matchstick Marvels Museum.For nearly 40 years Pat Acton has lived in a little farm town in Iowa, methodically gluing millions of matchsticks together into giant models of aircraft carriers, Space Shuttles, and medieval cathedrals. A rotating exhibit of his masterworks is displayed in the town's Matchstick Marvels Museum, but don't expect to see Pat -- he's sitting at home, nearby, gluing together more matchsticks.

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Spotted by Tipsters

Pumpkin Rock.Giant Pumpkin Rock: It's always Halloween at Giant Pumpkin Rock, first reported by tipster Emily and later confirmed by tipster Der. From its hilltop perch, the pumpkin-shaped rock -- enhanced in orange by an anonymous artisan -- can be seen for miles.


Mr. Spock Muffler Man.Muffler Mr. Spock: We've seen Muffler Men customized as clowns, astronauts, Frankenstein monsters, plantation masters, beer-hoisting rockers, even half-human rabbits -- so it was statistically certain that someday a Muffler Mr. Spock would turn up, as spotted by Ry A. on a Utah rooftop.


Alien Head.Alien Head: Although not a real alien head, it's a suitably weird-looking prop used in the 2014 film Alien Abduction. Burke County is so proud of this claim to Hollywood fame that it displays the head in the county Visitor Center. Tipster Ralph C. asked to wear it -- and they let him.


For more fun discoveries and updates from the road, head over to the Latest Tips.

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Attraction News from Roadside America

Civil War dinosaur.As always, we flash our high beams for observant, hard-driving tipsters such as Mallory B. and Jennifer, who reported the theft of Colorado's supposedly undesirable Mile Marker 419.99. Clint reported the return of Pioneer Pete the Rooster, brutally hacksawed by lawless thieves 2014. Justice also prevailed in the conviction of the brain thief who stole from Indiana's brains-in-jars museum, mentioned earlier.

The museum at The Christmas Story House now has the Red Ryder BB gun used in the film. Advances in technology have restored speech to Pete, the Legendary Robot Talking Crow of Kentucky. The self-declared Smallest Church in America was set on fire and pretty much destroyed, but it's being rebuilt (It helps that it's so little). Minneapolis unwisely removed its Mary Tyler Moore statue, then brought it back after a public backlash.

The last Death Chair from Nevada's gas chamber is now permanently displayed in the Las Vegas Mob Museum.

Looking ahead to the summer, Mark Cline reveals that he plans to reopen his Dinosaur Kingdom attraction (closed since 2012), a unique timeslip of Rebels, Yankees, and prehistoric monsters. Can't wait!

Follow our Twitter news: @roadsideamerica

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Shush, babies.
The RoadsideAmerica.com Team

Apps & Tools

Roadside America iPhone app Roadside America for iPhone
11,000+ USA/Canada offbeat attractions, including new research targets, interactive "Near Me" maps.

$2.99 on the App Store (incl. access to 1 region); addtl. regions or "All Access" unlock is optional in-app purchase.
iPhone, iPod touch (iPad compatible)

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Roadside Presidents iPhone app

Roadside Presidents App for iPhone
US Presidents, VPs, First Ladies, even dastardly assassins -- visit where they lived, worked, played, died!

$2.99 iPhone, iPod touch, (iPad compatible). Available on the App Store.

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Roadside America iPhone app My Sights Route Planner - Save places you read about on Roadside America to your computer desktop, create a trip, and then email it to friends or export a .cvs file to upload onto a GPS device (Garmin, TomTom, etc.). Learn more and try it!

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Main image: Dragon Man's Military Museum, Colorado Springs, CO