Root Beer Family: Mugs You Love

In the 1960s big-headed, cartoony statues appeared outside A&W drive-ins to promote the chain's four-size hamburger menu: Papa Burger, Mama Burger, Teen Burger, and Baby Burger. Those burger choices are long gone, but the figures crop up all across Roadside America in other restaurants and displays. One Oregon town loved its mug-hoisting family so much that they've been preserved as a cultural treasure. Story

*****

House on the Rock

Garnering new attention as the freakish rendezvous point for deities in the Starz series American Gods, House on the Rock was one of our original Seven Wonders of Roadside America. Yes, still great. And mere mortals still aren't allowed to climb on the mythical creatures carousel. Story

Patsy Cline Museum

Examine the Country Music superstar's gold lame pants, her vacuum cleaner, and her wristwatch of death. Nashville finally gets around to honoring Patsy only 54 years after her untimely skip off life's turntable. Story

White Sands: Alien Dunescape

Otherworldly White Sands is only a half hour from downtown Alamogordo, so it has breathable Earth air. Snow saucer down the white gypsum crystal dunes year-round, and watch out for unexploded bombs from the nearby missile range. Story

Mummified Human Arm

The Slater Memorial Museum is a dignified institution filled with classical art and serious scholarship -- and one ropey, withered human arm. The limb was a gift, and has been on display since the 1970s. Story

Sheriff Knocking on Heaven's Gate

Members of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department found the "Heaven's Gate Away Team" at its 1997 suicide house. The Sheriff's Museum offers a diorama depicting the fatal comet commute, complete with a dummy wearing Nike sneakers. Story

Forest of 10,000 Glass Insulators

Stanley Hammell was an obsessed collector of glass electrical insulators, and he filled his yard with fake telephone poles to display his treasures. Now that he's gone, visitors can take home a souvenir insulator. Story

Lincoln's Last Train Ride

Virtual reality from the 1960s. Take a ride aboard a jiggly 50-year-old replica of the Lincoln Funeral Train with your host -- Abe's chatty ghost. The actor playing Abe is now also dead. Story

MOBA: Bad Art That Makes You Feel Good

The Museum of Bad Art offers an ever-changing gallery of the worst in well-intended art, tastefully staged on the basement walls of an old movie theater, next to the bathrooms. Story

Gulliver's Gate: NYC's Sprawling New Mini-World

$40 million worth of miniature cities and people. Lots of moving parts. All the best tiny moments of the entire world, and for an extra fee you can have yourself scanned, shrunk, 3D printed, and added to the display. Story

Dream Machine: For the Selfie List

26 feet tall and metallic, this Las Vegas outdoor art has been compared to a jellyfish, an alien fungus, or the mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb. Story

*****

Video: Oddity Odysseys Drives the Musical Road

Southern California roadside attraction nuts Bethany and Drew turn their car into a poorly tuned musical instrument. Originally created as a TV ad stunt, the grooves in a road in Lancaster play the William Tell Overture.

Watch the video

*****

Root beer and driving. That's okay.
The RoadsideAmerica.com Team