Natural Bridge, Virginia: King Kong Crushing Airplane

Mark Cline's big gorilla is still next to the Pink Cadillac Diner (and maybe the folks at Dinosaur Land should get in touch with him about a new biplane -- the one in Kong's hand at the Pink Cadillac looks way better than the replacement plane at Dinosaur Land...) The diner also has a pink Cadillac out front (of course) and an Elvis statue inside. I really liked the little guy who greets you at the front door of the restaurant, holding a menu that says "2 Eggs" (crossed out), "Omelette" (crossed out), "Scrambled Egg" (crossed out), and finally "Ham!" He's probably a re-purposed Humpty Dumpty, and he looks more like some of the whimsical pieces (as opposed to the scary pieces) that are at what's left of Mark's Enchanted Castle Studios.

The restaurant itself has obviously been around awhile, and when I quizzed my server on its history, she pulled out a vintage postcard that showed that the restaurant was once part of a motel made up of small individual cabins called Tiny Town.

At the Pink Cadillac Diner, along with King Kong crushing an airplane, Humpty Dumpty sits creepily near the entrance.

Inside the diner you can find a bronze statue of Elvis, cardboard cut-outs of The Duke and James Dean, a big stuffed pink flamingo, photos from yesteryear, and more. The food is good and varied, consisting of burgers, chicken sandwiches, chili, chili dogs, and liver. They have beer and hand-dipped ice cream as well.

On the wall facing the road, in the big dining area (to the right when you first walk in), above a window next to Betty Boop, is a foam-board "painting" of an unknown scene. I don't have a picture, but it is one of a kind: a Cadillac with a French flag in its window is on a desert road, with a snake in the foreground, a cross, and tons of other confounding imagery. The tripped-out color scheme suggests its inspiration. Be sure to look at it for more than 10 seconds and try to come up with a conclusion.

We encountered a huge statue of King Kong holding a crushed airplane in his fist, and he looked mad. It was in the parking lot of the Pink Cadillac Diner. He was approximately 14 to 20 feet tall and looked newly painted. If you travel along Route 11 you can also see Foamhenge from the road, however you cannot walk up to it as it is closed temporarily.