BIG things with SillyAmerica

Today, we'll be talking about the quirky and often-overlooked roadside attractions and big things that can be found throughout the United States. Joining us is Valerie from SillyAmerica, an instagram page and website dedicated to showcasing the weird and wonderful sights of America.

Along the way, Valerie shares some of her personal favourites. She also tells us about some of the lesser-known attractions that are worth seeking out. Craig and Josh also give their insight and opinions into all this BIG in America. 

Throughout the episode, Valerie's enthusiasm and love for these quirky roadside attractions is infectious, and she provides plenty of tips and advice for anyone looking to explore them for themselves. So join us for a fun and informative journey into the weird and wonderful world of roadside attractions and big things in America, with Valerie from SillyAmerica as our guide!

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Transcript

Joshua: 0:00

You wouldn't need very many outfits actually.

Craig: 0:02

Now you wouldn't only a couple of outfits. That's it. What about one of those? Those little Pipi tube things that they come into small ones? I couldn't fit in one of those. Just to be like a clean bodysuit. That's too good. Exactly. Let's see people getting given people visuals now. They don't really need when they're driving in their cars, right visuals of me in a clear plastic suit. That's not good at all.

Joshua: 0:35

Do you love the outdoors?

Craig: 0:38

Do you love to travel?

Joshua: 0:39

Do you love finding hidden treasures and towns all over the United States? Hi, I'm Joshua.

Craig: 0:45

And I'm Craig and welcome to treasures of our town. The podcast that takes you on a journey to explore the unique and charming towns scattered throughout the United States.

Joshua: 0:53

Join us as we venture into some of the country's most intriguing destinations, uncovering the hidden gems and local secrets along the way.

Craig: 1:00

On today's episode, Josh, we chat to a fellow traveler who has some fun ideas. So you know what, let's go.

Joshua: 1:08

fun ideas as well as big ideas.

Craig: 1:12

Exactly fun and big all in one. So this episode, Josh is all about just that big things and roadside attractions. What are we talking about?

Joshua: 1:22

This is one of my favorite topics because as you know, I am a huge fan of roadside attractions and big things you mainly because of our wonderful hobby. Geocaching often brings us to some of these amazing places. It

Craig: 1:38

really does. And I've seen that plenty of your videos, Josh, when you go to see big things, and it's big things we're talking about. Just give them an example of big things like the big ball of twine or

Joshua: 1:48

there are many balls of twine I'm sure. I'm sure Valerie is an expert on all the balls of twine throughout the country.

Craig: 1:57

She is and let's just say as well and that is if people don't understand what we're talking about. We actually mentioned it slightly on the last episode Josh when we spoke about those big boots remember we talked about those big boots down in Houma? Yes, the big shrimp and boots, shrimp and boots. They're the ones they're the ones. So this feels it feels very American. Josh, is it just in America?

Joshua: 2:16

I don't know. I mean, I think there's big things and there's roadside attractions all over the world. But I think yeah, it is very unique to the United States for the amount of roadside attractions. I mean, we are the home of you know good old fashioned route 66 Yes,

Craig: 2:34

you are you are and so what can people get out of these big site attractions Do you think apart from geocaching? You know, like, what else? What do people do when they stop at these roadside attractions? For instance?

Joshua: 2:43

Oh, it's just it's just prime for social media. It's, it's, it's it's Video Eye Candy. It's just, it's just a ton of fun. Yeah. And some might say it's a little silly. And maybe that's why I like it.

Craig: 3:01

It could be a little silly. Now, we say that it's the perfect place to stop and stretch your legs whilst you're actually on a traveling trip somewhere. But guess what, Josh? Guest our guest loves the roadside attractions. And they are, they are her destination who we're talking to. We are

Joshua: 3:19

going to be talking to an expert when it comes to roadside attractions. We have with us today, Valerie Broman. From silly America, Instagram, and all the other social media platforms. Hello, Valerie.

Craig: 3:33

Hello, there she is. So Valerie, your silly America on Instagram, as Josh just said, as well. If people don't understand what we're talking about here, go to Instagram and just Google or check out silly America and you will see some of Valerie's photos. So let's introduce yourself Valerie where you're from. What do you like to do? You know what what about Instagram? Tell us all about it.

Unknown: 3:54

Yeah, so I am from Chicago, Illinois. I grew up there and lived there all my life or around there. Last year though, I moved to Dallas, Texas where I live now. And you know, everything's bigger in Texas so there are so many Woodside attractions to see here. And I love road trips and I really especially love roadside attractions i The bigger the better. I love you know traveling around finding like the absolute weirdest things that I can find.

Joshua: 4:25

Did you move down to Texas just to get closer to more roadside attractions and big things had to get closer to good old route 66

Unknown: 4:33

I would say that it was a big pushing point and we moving but I did I moved for a job. So it wasn't the only reason but because I was looking for somewhere new and you know the idea that I could explore more easily more different roadside attractions here was a good selling point to move out to Chicago.

Craig: 4:53

So put the sounds but Valerie, you've you've been looking at these big things for quite some time. How long are we talking about?

Unknown: 5:00

I think I started my first like road trip that I planned specifically to look for roadside attraction that was in 2007. I think wow.

Joshua: 5:11

Wow, that was before was that before your Instagram account? You just went there because you're just like, I love it. I have a passion for for road trips, and you know, finding fun things. Yeah. Like

Unknown: 5:22

I always I think when I grew up, I always had this like, kind of fascination with roadside attractions and always said, you know, when I'm adults, I'm gonna go and drive around and find them all. And then when they I realized, Hey, I'm an adult, now I have a car, I can actually do this. So my first trip I planned was just like a three day trip around Illinois, I grabbed some friends we went to see in other worlds, I just catch up bottle, pop by statue, the Superman statue, and all these great things around there.

Joshua: 5:54

That's perfect. That's perfect. Your home state is home of one of the coolest little towns with big things. We're gonna get to that in a second. I know we did get ahead of ourselves. But come on. He can't help himself. He

Craig: 6:06

cut that, are you? So you actually went on Instagram? When did you actually Instagram page start? And like it? How long have you actually had an Instagram page now? Yeah,

Unknown: 6:15

so I started a blog in around 2007 or eight, like right after I started that first trip just as like a place to put my pictures because I really love taking photos of all those big things and stuff. And then I started the Instagram, I think around 2015. Just it was a kind of natural extension of that, because I had all these pictures and stuff. And I really wanted to share it with more people and get more people to go in to see all of these big booths at attractions that

Joshua: 6:44

your mission, Valerie that you're hoping that you're inspiring people to check out some of the places that you you've visited yourself,

Unknown: 6:53

Oh, definitely, like I love like I love when I post something, and people are like, Oh, I didn't know this existed, and then they go to find it or like, people will sometimes tell me like, oh, like I went to this place that I saw that you would post it about and like I really love it. Because um, you know, a lot of roadside attractions, they get torn down, or they fall into a pair and stuff. And so the more and more people who go and see them, the more people will keep them up and more will pop

Craig: 7:20

up. Exactly, exactly. Valerie with your travels, though. How far? How far now? Have you been? Like how many states for instance, in the United States? Have you been to, for the purpose, the sole purpose of looking for roadside attractions?

Unknown: 7:36

I think I think in total, I've been to about 35 states to actually find roadside attractions, probably about 30 of those. So and some of them has just been like, I've only seen one or two in that state. And I definitely have plans that I'd love to see, you know, as many as I can in as many states as I can.

Joshua: 7:58

So the million dollar question, Valerie, is we want to know from the roadside attraction expert, what are some of your favorite roadside attractions and big things.

Unknown: 8:12

Um, so my all time favorite will always be one called the spindle which is no longer up. But it was in Berwyn, Illinois, like right near where I lived until I drive. My parents drive past it with me in the car all the time when I was a kid. And it was in it was actually kind of famous for being in the movie Wayne's World, way back when, and it was all these old cars on a spike. That one was kind of the one that just like kind of sparked my fascination and love for these roadside attractions. So that one, it was torn down in 2008. They actually just put one up like a kind of mini version of it back up kind of near there on route 66. Not quite the same much smaller school, but I haven't seen it in person yet, but I'm really excited to. But I think that one will always just have my heart other ones. Because I guess I like weird cars. Carhenge and Nebraska is definitely a really cool one. It is a bunch of old cars that are placed like exactly like Stonehenge. So it's a really fun place to visit you briefly bought up by kz, Illinois, which is just this little town that has so many big things in a small area. So yes, I mean, you have to love it because you can see the World's Largest Rocking Chair, you can see the world's largest mailbox. You can see all of these by just walking across the street

Craig: 9:36

or seeing that judge. I've seen them. I've seen that on one of your videos. I can remember specifically the world's largest. Is that right? Tell me if I'm wrong. You can actually walk up and into the mailbox.

Joshua: 9:47

Yes. Wow. Wow.

Unknown: 9:49

mailbox is actually also like a working mailbox. So you can go up there and put mail something

Joshua: 9:55

that you did post something from that mailbox to the judge. Right. And one of the things I love about some roadside attractions or big things. And if I think about my favorites is the ones that are interactive, because when you put the letter in the mailbox in the world's largest mailbox, if the wind is not too bad, the actual arm, the flag on the outside, if it goes up, how cool is that? It might be one of my favorite big things, just for the reason that it's interactive.

Craig: 10:27

And I'll just let you know now that's very, very, very American. Because nowhere else in the rest of the world do we have mailboxes where the flag goes up when you put it in? Because the mailboxes in Australia for instance, we have to actually get to a dedicated mailbox that's an outward mailbox. We can't put it in our own mailbox and put the flag up. We don't have those things. You see. So that's very American.

Joshua: 10:46

While we're talking about mailbox and mail. On the last episode, correct. We talked about the world's tiniest post office we did it oak Oka P aka P. Florida, Florida.

Craig: 10:58

That's the one Yeah,

Joshua: 11:00

Valerie, have you ever been? Have you been down there to? It's near the Everglades? It's the world's tiniest post office.

Valerie: 11:05

I have not been there yet. But I am. I might be going to Florida later this year. So maybe I'll try to make a detour that way.

Craig: 11:13

But at least put it on your list. It's cool. It really so yeah,

Joshua: 11:17

we haven't talked about the world's tiniest stuff. Now. There's also that that can be a whole different episode. Very good. What other what other spots? Valerie?

Unknown: 11:27

Oh, like there's so many great ones on like route 66 that I love. The blue whale of Catoosa is a really fun line that has a lot of history on route 66. And then there's a lot of like newer ones like, right down the road from there is Buck Adams, which has a big muffler man and the muffler. Man, we're like really these advertising icons that were built in the late 60s and a lot of them were torn down. But a lot of people are building new ones nowadays and the one in Tulsa at Buck Adams is a brand new one just from a few years ago that was created specifically for that souvenir shop. 66. So that one,

Joshua: 12:10

yeah. Is it true Valerie that some of the big things are often things that are repurposed? Like I'm thinking in Minnesota, we have the this guy called the happy chef, which was like a statue outside of a restaurant. And they end up, you know, changing them or making them look different. Have you seen a lot of that repurposing of some of these?

Unknown: 12:33

Yeah, definitely. I actually I saw one of those happy chefs in Iowa that was now an umpire head on, like baseball field and such. So there's, yeah, there's definitely a lot that kind of got molded together, or you can tell that there is something, something a little different that they used to be one thing and now it's something to

Craig: 12:50

that's really cool. Just to let everyone know who's listening as well, in the show notes. Josh, in the show notes. I plan to put Valerie's website, she's got a website. Now, Valerie, I did look at your website. I stalked where you've been. I'm from you. I'm actually currently in New Jersey Israel live. You don't have New Jersey on your website. What why not? Is it Have you heard bad rap for that good.

Unknown: 13:13

I only write about and places that I've actually been in I have unfortunately not been in New Jersey yet. Except for like a little like, you know, across the river or whatever, from New York City just like into that. So I haven't really done any road trips of New Jersey yet. Being from Chicago, I've done mostly road trips around the Midwest so far. You know, I hope to get there soon as

Craig: 13:37

well. Just to let you know, there is one big place in a near Atlantic City called Lucy the elephant she has just recently I'm talking recently I'm talking the last month he she's just recently been refurbished. And again, you can walk up her back leg and into her belly. So you know she's one of those ones. If she does have an entry fee though, do you find Valerie with any of yours that they do have entry fee sometimes.

Unknown: 14:02

Sometimes I think most of them that I've been to are usually free to see a lot of them sometimes have little egg donation boxes if you want to donate to keep them in good condition and stuff and help with the restoration and such. So I'd say most the majority of things that I go to or have seen unless they're like a weird museum or something inside are free, but yeah, definitely. I think usually if they charge something, it's usually going straight to keeping making sure that it's staying up kept.

Craig: 14:35

Yeah, yeah.

Joshua: 14:36

So Valerie, you're pretty close to Wisconsin. Have you been to the house on the rock? Which is a sort of like a crazy Museum. I've never been there, but I'm curious if you have it. It seems right up your alley.

Unknown: 14:48

I haven't. That's like I have like a huge bucket list of places that I want to go to I actually so surprisingly, I didn't have a car for the last 10 years until I moved to Texas. This. So most of my road trips were just where I'd have to rent a car and go somewhere for that. So like I would usually plan like a bigger trip here and there and stuff. Now that I have a car, I'm able to take a lot more. I've tried to go at least every other weekend to go see something big. But yeah, there's still so many things that I really were so close, but so far away. I couldn't get Yeah,

Craig: 15:23

so So you do have a bucket list then? What was that? You do have a list like a physical list. Do you have an actual bucket? Yeah, like I

Unknown: 15:29

haven't like a ton. There's so many different ones that I want to go to. I think I have lists of like, I want to get to every state. Lucy is definitely on my list house on the rock is definitely on my list. Other big ones? I would say I definitely. In California. There's a lot of big things like the cabin on dinosaur. There's like a big artichoke, I want to see. There's just so many there's so many and so little time sometimes it

Craig: 15:57

really is actually Josh, just recently, you went to New Mexico with your son and you saw the world's biggest pistachio?

Joshua: 16:04

Yes, I did. And Alamogordo just outside of White Sands National Park. Yeah, that was a surprise to and that's a West one of the things I love Valerie about, you know, roadside attractions, world's biggest things often it is fun to just happen upon them. That you know, you don't necessarily plan for it. But you're like, oh my gosh, I saw side of the road, the world's largest pistachio. We're going to stop, we got to get a picture. We gotta get some video.

Craig: 16:31

And I saw the picture of you Josh too. And I'll just say this, it's like a knot in a knot. You know what I mean? Like, yeah,

Joshua: 16:36

exactly. So Valerie, I think what we would love to know is your, your planning process, your research process, of course, like you've got the internet, that's great. But is there is there something that you use to plan your trips, to map them out to strategically hit as many destinations in one trip, tell us a little bit about your process of planning your trips.

Unknown: 17:04

Yeah, so I am a huge planner, when it comes to these trips, I actually use a software called Air table which is kind of a database software that I used at work and that I bought a subscription for myself because I love using it so much. Because so I create like a spreadsheet for everything and I'll go on, like roadsideamerica.com is a great website for finding roadside attractions, they pretty much have a list of every single thing and map so you can go and look at like find what's on your route and find things there. And then I'll do that I'll Google things I'll you know look around and I use Instagram a lot to like I'll go through different hashtags and stuff and save save attractions I see that other people have gone to that I really want to see and I usually just compile all of those and everything into a big database and then I put the address there I categorize them if it's like a roadside attraction my hotel diners wherever I want to go. I rank everything in terms of like what is a messy item? What's a high item? What's kind of a low item because like sometimes I'll plan a trip that's like a week long and I have 300 different stops Wow. I want to I can't make stops so um so I'll link them to make sure you know that I'm seeing those must see but then if I have like an extra hour I can see what else is in my learning and and then I take all those addresses and even put them into a Google Map and I have my map from my trip.

Craig: 18:36

Josh I must say yep. Are we thinking the same thing we're thinking exactly the same thing might I'm telling you now I look straight in your eyes and your little finger up and same thing and that is tell us Josh you

Joshua: 18:49

think and you plan very much like a geocacher so Valerie we're gonna have you know this is not a geocaching podcast but this is a podcast guided by the guided by the hobby of geocaching because geocaching is just an incredible tour guide. It brings us to a lot of these places a lot of these places that you mentioned they're actually geocaches hidden there. So everybody wants to know I want to know Valerie Have you heard of geocaching and have you ever done it?

Unknown: 19:18

Um so this is gonna be a surprising answer here because I do know of geocaching and I've done it once before, okay, but not on one of my road trips. I did it in Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Oh

Joshua: 19:31

wow. She's got a country we don't have that exactly. Exactly

Unknown: 19:37

why I was I was traveling there with somebody I had met through like Twitter and we were traveling together there and he was big into geocaching. And so I was with him when we were exploring Angkor Wat and so he was doing the Geocaching there and so I got to experience that can you

Craig: 19:55

believe it Josh? She currently lives and resides and travels in The most populated geocaching country in the world. And yet yet she has not found one in the United States. But in Cambodia.

Unknown: 20:08

They haven't like specifically gone to do it here. Yeah.

Joshua: 20:11

Well, you know, Valerie, that's got to change. We're going to challenge you right now your next trip. Yeah, we'll help you, we'll help you. And we want to challenge you to try to find a geocache at your next. Next roadside attraction. The next big thing because they're everywhere. There's there's ones at the blue whale, there's ones at the dinosaurs in California, they're everywhere, everywhere, 3 million, 3 million hidden worldwide.

Craig: 20:39

And just to let you know, Valerie as well, some of them themselves are literally what they call virtual geocaches. Just to give you a little bit of an idea, virtual means that there's not actually anything for you to pick up or find. But the virtuals most cases are at the big attractions. You see the roadside attracts the big things. So all in some of them would be just take a selfie with these. So literally, you could log how many Josh? Can she log by all her photos on Instagram?

Joshua: 21:05

Probably a lot she she probably already has 100 finds exactly doesn't even know it so it doesn't even know. So, so she is a geocacher? Yes. So here's the thing that I just think is fascinating. Valerie is following your Instagram account, you go to the roadside attractions, but you plan so much, I'm not shocked that you're a planner, because you plan your outfits to match to match the attraction. For example, strawberry point, Iowa, which I've been to, of course, Valerie has a beautiful strawberry dress right in front of that giant strawberry. So tell us a little bit about your roadside attraction fashion. So actually,

Unknown: 21:50

this kind of started, I didn't always do that. But I'm in my family was actually planning a trip to Disney World in 2020, which didn't happen. But in preparation for that I started following a bunch of like Disney bloggers and Disney content creators on Instagram. And a lot of them do something called Disney bounding, where since you can't wear a costume to the park, what they would do is they would dress like a Disney princess but make it fashion. And so they kind of like you know, wear those colors or wear something of the style and make it like to make their photos kind of Be Cool Disney photos and stuff on there. And so I ended up following a lot of these in preparation of my trip. And I just kind of got inspired from that of like, Oh, what if I took that idea of Disney bounding and made it roadside attraction bounding until that strawberry point one was actually the first trip that I actually started doing this, this on because I found this strawberry skirt. And I'm like, I was right there I can go. I was in front of a strawberry with the strawberry skirt.

Craig: 22:58

I didn't actually realize Valerie, I've been following you on your Instagram page now for a few weeks, etc. After Josh mentioned it to me. And I didn't even to be honest with you. But now you tell me about it. It rings a bell. I remember this one. I saw it today actually, where you're in like a blue dress sort of thing. And you're with these big men and or family by the looks of it this family, but they're all in blue. So that makes sense. Now, that makes sense. Oh, wow. Wow.

Unknown: 23:25

I do a lot of changing in my car.

Joshua: 23:28

Exactly. That was that was sort of my next question. Because you're taking multiple outfits for one day. It sounds you know what? Correct this sounds like actually more planning than geocaching.

Craig: 23:39

It really is. It really is. Now let's get into it as well. Speaking of planning, you are planning that much that you've planned out and you have a book now. I do tell us about the book. And by the way, just listed now again, the link for the book is in the description or the show notes. So link for the book directly in the show notes. Tell us about this book.

Unknown: 24:02

Yes. So I have a book called The Road Trip journal and activity book. And as the title implies, is half journal and half activity books. So when you're going on a road trip, there's a lot of spaces to you know, write about your day, there's journal prompts that you can write about to reflect on your travels and what you saw and all of that and keep kind of a log of where you went, how you felt what was what was going on. But then the book also has 100 different activities that you can do in the car, or at your hotel around or at a roadside attraction when you get out of the car. So it's really a lot of fun things there is you know, tried and true classics like license plate game. There's social media inspired challengers like a gas station Snack Challenge where you can go into the gas station and like everybody in the car picks out something different for the car to try. And there's a lot of equating pumps and things like that, that people can do while they're traveling and stuff. So it's really a great book for people who want to have more fun on a road trip. Or even if you don't love road trips, it'll make you it'll give you something fun to do in the car that you can just work on.

Craig: 25:18

You know what, Josh, you're right, this reminds me bring back bring back the old school road trips here and I'm talking about so if you're a single person by yourself, this book is good for you. If you're a couple or two friends, this books good for you. You know what, Josh, if you're a family, this book is good for you. Can you imagine instead of the kids being sitting on the iPads actually have them with a heads up, not down, going through this book, checking out and playing these these roadside games? Valerie? I did see I did, I did actually have did some research. And I did look and some of those games that you actually have in this book. Just I didn't even realize I had never heard them before. But they sound great. And so much family fun as well. So definitely check out this book. I'm telling you Josh's it's worth Yeah, what inspired

Joshua: 25:58

you to create it, Valerie?

Unknown: 26:00

Yeah, so I always just, you know, I love her chips. And I think that a lot of people are kind of intimidated by them. They don't think big. You know, a lot of people just stare like a road trip is point A to point B. And so I've always about inspiring people to you know, do much more on the road than just drive. So I got it's a great book for you know, people to do things in the car and have more, more activity, more involvement than just, you know, driving.

Craig: 26:29

Yeah, and it makes it will make the kids Josh well make the kids talk to the parents.

Joshua: 26:33

There you go. And another thing I love about it, you know, one of the things that a lot of people say that are geocachers that they love about it is that we love checking off boxes. We love we love Been there done that or like there's like an a sense of accomplishment when we've gone somewhere and done something. So it sounds like with some of these challenges. It's like, we did it, we did the challenge. So I think that's that's really appealing to something like that.

Craig: 27:06

What I like about it to Josh's well, just by the sounds of it is if it's a physical book itself, you're not going to throw it out after you've actually done your road trips, you know, I mean, so you can actually have it in your bookcase years down the track. I'm talking when the kids for instance, they're 56789 10 When they're 20 of the 21st birthday party, you get the book out and go remember this road trip, and it did spark those memories. You don't I mean, love it. I like about it to love. Yeah, that's a great idea.

Unknown: 27:30

Yeah, definitely. And it's definitely something that you can use, you know, across multiple road trips, too. So there's so many activities, and there's enough room for I think, about 50 different days worth of journal entries. So you know, for most people taking if you're taking a weekend trip here and there, if you're taking a week long road trip, there's so much that'll keep you entertained. And yeah, then you have this great souvenir from your road trips for for years to come. It's

Craig: 27:54

a great idea. Granted, Josh, you know, our Patreon, we've got it, we've got a Patreon, by the way. And our Patreon, we put it out there for our Patreon 's to ask Valerie some questions as well, knowing that she was coming on. And Tim from Patreon. His question to her was, what makes a great roadside attraction? And does it need to be more than just the attraction itself? I think that's a great question. What makes a great roadside attraction to you, Valerie? Yeah, that is

Unknown: 28:19

a great question. Um, you know, I don't think I think it's kind of different for everybody. Because for me, like I love just about any type of attraction, whether it's, you know, a smallest thing, biggest thing a muffler, man, a museum, anything like that. But for some people, I think a lot of people are looking for, you know, the biggest, the biggest of the big, whatever, if they're going to pull off the road. So I think it's a different for everyone. I don't think there has to be anything besides just the attraction there, like a lot of them are, you know, at a gas station or at a souvenir shop or at a hotel or something like that, which are really great. But I don't think you need that for an attraction. I think that attraction is just anything that makes you smile. And I think that it really it's just pulling off the road and seeing something that you've never seen before.

Joshua: 29:10

Yeah, that sparks joy. I think if I was to answer that question, I said it before I do love the attractions that are interactive, that you do something that and you would we would argue like if you take a photo that's interactive, but sometimes there's there's ones that you can, I don't know, do something or involve yourself with I love those. And then I'm also a fan of like if a roadside attraction is well maintained. Right, if something's falling apart and the city that it's in, there's not a lot of love put into it. It sometimes can feel like a little bit of a, I don't know like boy this thing is really rundown. So I'm thinking of, you know, fresh coat of paint on that Jolly Green Giant is important.

Craig: 29:51

I'm with both of you there as well for me what makes a great roto attraction is we have we have them in Australia. We do have them in Australia as well. The one that comes to me On for me in Australia, everyone listening to this from Australia will understand this when I say the big banana, the big banana is located literally, literally halfway between Sydney and Brisbane, which is the two major cities of those two states. Now it takes you I'm probably gonna say about 11 hour drive to you from Sydney to Brisbane, right. So it's directly halfway in the middle. So it's the perfect stop. The big banana is located at a Banana Farm, it is maintained perfectly to the point where they've even got, where you place your camera, where you place your phone, for instance, they've got little holders, where you can place your stuff and then run up to the thing and whether your remote controls or your Bluetooth. Take your selfie, Josh from that far away, because this banana is I'm telling you, it is huge. It has the shops next to it as well, where you can get frozen bananas dipped in chocolate on a stick and all that sort of stuff as well. So it's delicious. And of course they've got all the all the other things you know, like everything, everything banana, everything you can think of this banana.

Joshua: 30:57

Well, how, how awesome is that? Craig? It has its own phone holder. I'm just thinking of Valerie right now. We didn't even talk about that you're often traveling alone, Valerie. And so how awesome would it be to every roadside attraction? You just put your phone in there? Do you carry with you? I assume some sort of setup tripod situations. Yeah,

Unknown: 31:18

I bring my tripod. And then I set up my DSLR with the phone app to take pictures. I do like delayed pictures and such so I can get all my own photos.

Craig: 31:33

Well, there you go. If you're listening to this, and you have you own or you're part of a roadside attraction, listen very wisely. That is Australia does it good by having but Josh, they don't have just one for instance, they've got two different standards, because one is for phones and one is for DSLR cameras. Because there's different they have different focal lengths, you see, so and you can even put the phone on. It's on landscape mode or portrait mode as well. So they're different to saying, you know, there's a good thing.

Joshua: 31:59

So, Valerie, you're talking to two people that are vloggers with a V. And we're so used to getting strange and funny looks every time we're filming or taking photos. When you're out seeing these places. And you have your setup and you have your your strawberry dress and strawberry point Iowa, do you get looks? Do you get people saying things to you?

Unknown: 32:21

I do well, there's, you know, a lot of times I'm at a roadside attraction. And it's kind of in the middle of like, nowhere and there's like corn all around me. And it's like, there's no one around and it's great. And I can take my time. I do sometimes get strange looks. But I also was recently last year was I was in Denver, and I was outside like a popular museum and there was like brunch going on down the block. And like there were tons of people around while I was taking pictures with these giant cows outside. And this woman walked by and she yelled I love an independent woman love and that just made my day like you know you look for all the people you think are like looking at you like you're crazy. You're weird like, people get it like sometimes you just got to

Craig: 33:02

do with her Instagram you got to remember as well and you know of all people Instagram is not just about photos now there's reels, and Valerie have seen some of your reels. And I'm telling now you are like your reels as well. The movement you get in there as well with the selfies ever. You know, it's the same thing. Everyone's gonna look at you and go, Oh, look, there's an influencer in the wild.

Joshua: 33:22

Valerie, speaking of Denver, Colorado, I was just looking at your Instagram today again. And I noticed you went somewhere that we mentioned on the last show, Craig and that is meow Wolf. Oh, wow. Is that what you were referencing when you're mentioning the museum? No, I was

Unknown: 33:41

outside of an art museum. But I definitely was. It was a great experience. And I can't wait. They're actually opening one in Texas soon. Not too far from Oh, cool. I'm excited for that.

Joshua: 33:52

Yeah, I just got back from the one in Santa Fe. Oh, and it was just an incredible, unbelievable experience. It's hard to describe. We talked about it in the last episode, but we could do a whole episode on meow Wolf. But if you don't know we're talking about listen to the last episode.

Craig: 34:10

Yeah, yeah, we and we talk we go in depth a little bit more. And also maybe in an upcoming episode we're going to talk about even more when we talk about New Mexico. We're going to New Mexico in the next episode, Josh?

Joshua: 34:22

Yes, they go. Well, we'll talk more about New Mexico

Craig: 34:26

now Josh, you're interested in this question as well. Again, Yeah, him from Patreon. He says the same thing and I know you're interested Josh and that is salary. This is exact question being that I'm not me, but this is from Tim. Being that I'm from Minnesota. What do you consider to be the best roadside attraction in my state?

Unknown: 34:45

So I've definitely been to Minnesota I've been to a lot of really great ones. They're on my bucket list is the Paul Bunyan and Blue Ox because I think that's kind of probably the most classic well known one I'm in Minnesota, but I haven't been there yet, but I hope to get there sometime soon. One of my favorites there is Otto the otter in Fergus Falls, which is this big otter. Just because it's adorable. I love it. And I know another big one is the jolly green giant statue, which I know you've said is one of your Yes,

Craig: 35:26

I think that's your number one Josh, just saying it's,

Joshua: 35:28

well, I grew up about 10 miles from it. So it has similar to you, Valerie? It sort of sparked my interest in big things, because I would drive by it all the time.

Craig: 35:41

That's so cute. Valerie, thank you so much for for joining us on the show today. You've been great.

Unknown: 35:48

Thank you for having me.

Craig: 35:48

No problem at all. And remember everyone as well, the show notes themselves, the show notes have all the links that we've discussed, including Valerie's new book. What else do we want from our missing Josh? What am I missing?

Joshua: 36:00

Oh, that was it. I just wanted to make sure people knew where to get the book. What's where's the best? Yeah, where's the best place for people to get your book?

Unknown: 36:05

Um, you can go onto my website. It's really america.com. And there, there are links to it all over the place. So you shouldn't be able to find it there.

Craig: 36:14

But pretty much through Amazon think it is, isn't it?

Unknown: 36:16

Yeah, yeah. And you can get it. It's on Amazon. It's on Barnes and Noble. It's bookshop.org. It's pretty much any bookstore that you look for it. You can search for the roadtrip journal and activity book. And you will find it perfect.

Craig: 36:30

Perfect. Thank

Joshua: 36:31

you. So Valerie, congratulations. I know that is amazing accomplishment to have something published like that. So way to go and we wish you the best success on on the sales.

Craig: 36:43

Absolutely.

Unknown: 36:44

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks again.

Craig: 36:47

So Josh, how good was that big things.

Joshua: 36:50

We are cut from the same cloth. As Valerie. Yep. Just the way she was describing how she approaches her trips and how she decides where she goes. And she prioritizes Yep, they just like we prioritize our geocaching adventures.

Craig: 37:10

Yeah, yep. And she's writing a book as well. Just like you've written a book Josh.

Joshua: 37:15

We're the same person. You don't have the same fashion. And you don't get dressed up like she does. What if we started dressing up like the geocaches that we found?

Craig: 37:26

Like, I'm going to do something an MA can look yeah. I'm gonna address all in green.

Joshua: 37:32

There it goes. Craig again, dress it up like an animal can exactly social media.

Craig: 37:37

What? How would you dress up then there's a bison tube or meat tin even.

Joshua: 37:43

You wouldn't. You wouldn't need very many outfits actually.

Craig: 37:46

Now you wouldn't need a couple of outfits. That's it? Or what about one of those little Pipi tube things that they come in the small ones? I couldn't fit in one of those. Just be like a clean bodysuit look too good. Let's see people getting given people visuals now that they don't really need when they're driving in their cars, right visuals of me in a clear plastic suit. That's not good at all. Anyway, Josh, I thought to myself as well, well, well, Valerie was talking. I thought what what roadside attractions have I been to and which ones I want to go to? And so I made my little little top five list of myself.

Joshua: 38:23

Have you thought it is not a coincidence?

Craig: 38:26

I was trying to segue in nicely.

Joshua: 38:30

For people to know that we actually planned some of these conversations we do.

Craig: 38:34

We do plan some of them but not all of them. Some of them are off the cuff, like dressing up as an MA came was off the cuff. But anyway, Josh, your number one for your top, your top five it nurses in no

Joshua: 38:45

particular order. And I have been to four out of the five of my roadside attractions that I selected. And my number one, but in no particular order is the Cascadia dragon. And then Dahlia Illinois.

Craig: 39:04

Yep. And you took that from me because that's my number one as well. I actually found that one when I did my very first road trip across the United States in 2018. And that was obviously with a geocache there as well. That spoiler alert is underneath the league. Yup, but that's the one that breathes fire. You gotta get

Joshua: 39:25

to describe it. It is a very tall, silver metal, fire breathing dragon.

Craig: 39:33

And at the front of the Dragon as it breathes fire. The front is a knight in armor as well.

Joshua: 39:39

It is so cool. And it checks the boxes for me because it was interactive. You have to go to the liquor store, or I believe the hardware store and you have to purchase tokens Yeah. To to get the dragon to actually blow fire.

Craig: 39:58

That's right and you put the time tokens in a little box that separate from the actual dragon so you can actually see the fire at the same time it's happening and whatnot as well. Because you think about it Josh, it does take money to for it to breathe fire with actual LPG gas, you know, that's something too so it's

Joshua: 40:14

interesting because I did read some of the history of it before I went there. And it was a strategy by some local person there to sell propane to campers because I believe there's a camp area like RV area really close to the dragon. And that was a way for them to sell the propane.

Craig: 40:41

That's what it is. That's what it is. Well, that's my one, two, that was my number one as well because that reason my number two there, Josh and again, mine are in no particular order. I've done this one. I've only been to three of these my five. But the second one for me is a place called Lucy the elephant in Atlantic City in New Jersey. We just spoke about it to Valerie, because she needs to put it on her list. It's just been refurbished. It is a virtual as well. Yeah, Lucy the elephant. She is huge and beautiful. stunning, stunning. Go Google these ones up guys. If you'd haven't heard of these ones, you have to google them up. Lucy does have she's like a an elephant like India, an elephant in India where they have the seat on top of them. So she's actually got a seat on top of her itself as well. And she's got windows out of her belly and out of a chair. So you can actually walk up the inside of a leg. She's all gray now as well. She used to be different colors. She used to be before she refurbish. She had painted toenails. She had different colors on different toenails. So that was pretty cool. But she is big.

Joshua: 41:44

I'm looking at a picture of her right now. Oh, yeah, is huge. Yeah, I'm looking at it. And she's two times the size of a two story house. So it looks like she's she's four storeys tall. And what's really funny is, how am I going to pay? Paint a picture for people in words, there's a window, out the back. And the window at the back is the actual butthole. Yeah, it's under her toe. But the tail is like moved to the side. So you can see. So you can see out the window slash the anus.

Craig: 42:23

That you're listening to this, just pause it right now. And you'll have to google Lucy, the elephant in Atlantic City and have a look at the photos and you'll see exactly what Josh was talking about. So yeah, that's my number to Josh, Lucy, the elephant.

Joshua: 42:35

Is there a geocache? There?

Craig: 42:37

There's got to be Oh, it's a virtual? Oh, yes. In saying that at the moment the virtual is disabled. Because the paint, the paint has changed everything else as well. It's a 2002 virtual, and they had to disable it because all the questions are, right. There's no real answers, you see. But but the reviewer can't get a hold of the CEO, Josh because it's 2002. I'm hoping that review is given the CEO 12 months to contact them back. So I think that's pretty reasonable. Because it's an old virtual, you know, I've got my eye on it though. If it does go if it does go I'm gonna go I've got my little virtual waiting in the in the wings. Ready? Do

Joshua: 43:19

you have a virtual virtual credit? Yeah,

Craig: 43:23

I've had two now already. What? Yeah, haven't you?

Joshua: 43:27

I haven't gotten one.

Craig: 43:30

It's the accent Josh's.

Joshua: 43:31

Oh my gosh.

Craig: 43:34

Now my other virtual is is in Australia. And it's actually a Tee Tee five virtual in Australia where you literally have to walk for almost two hours through a beautiful Bush walk, but a certain time of day and you got to time it correctly with the title area, because it's a rock shelf that comes when it's in high tide, it's all full. But otherwise, when it goes out again, we're talking about Instagram. This is one of the most Instagrammable locations in Australia. And it's called the figure eight pools because when it's low tide, there is literally to these big figure of eights of just pool rock pools. And they're so deep and the you actually have to take a photo to log it. You in the rock pool like actually swimming in the pool. So to fall.

Joshua: 44:17

Wait a minute, did I see a video of you like naked? Doing that? Virtual you sent me a geo challenge of the month that you were naked

Craig: 44:27

yet? No, no, because you don't log your own virtuals No, that was a different one. That was that was an earthcache that one, but yeah, and technically I wasn't naked. I was just wearing budgie smugglers. So

Joshua: 44:37

and well just use your imagination with a budgie smuggler smuggler,

Craig: 44:43

you smuggle nuts snuggle smuggle. budgie smuggler, you don't have a budgie smugglers Is this an Australian term and again, Google it and have a look at those photos. It's not it's a swimwear, it's a form of male swimwear. Gosh anyway, what's your number two Let's move on move on

Joshua: 45:02

my number two. Now I'm kind of cheating here. Craig is the whole city of kz Illinois.

Craig: 45:10

You can't pick one out of that whole place. How many of us there in that city,

Joshua: 45:15

I would say there's at least 20 At last 20 roadside attractions. Some are Guinness Book World Record size things. Let's see if I can think of as many as I can off the top my head, world's largest post. postbox huge pencil. Barbershop pole. teeter totter, rocking chair. World's Largest pizza slicer. This is off the top my head. There's a giant taco. There's a huge birdcage. There's a large wooden airplane like a toy wooden airplane. Giant wood nickel

Craig: 46:04

is 10. I, I got one for you. I remember because I remember your video. Okay, we did a video of it. And it was the the not the anvil. But the the what do you call it the hammer at the courthouse?

Joshua: 46:17

Oh, yes. That was in a nearby that was in a nearby town. So it wasn't Oh, it wasn't exactly in KZ. But the other it's so funny because the other little towns are like, we want to hop on this huge thing train. You know, so yeah, look up kz, Illinois, and the whole list will be there. But if you like big things. You gotta go there. It's fantastic.

Craig: 46:42

Yeah, well, I've got this one. My next one is on my to do list my bucket list. And because when we spoke about these lists today, I actually asked my wife I said to her, you know, because she loves the big things as well. She's a geocacher as well. And her favorite her favorite is the world's largest bison actual bison. And that's in Jamestown in North Dakota. So that's her favorite and she'll show me photos of it too. It is huge. And yeah it is it's it looks exactly like a normal bison does but it's just monstrosity like it's huge. And you see Josh we've got these little we've got these little Bisons ourselves her and I we take on some of that some of our road trips away. And we've actually got different Instagram pages like buddy bison is an Instagram page and whereby the bison itself has the Instagram page so again, that's another reason why she likes it so much is the is because it is represents the bisons themselves. So there you go. That's That's my number three.

Joshua: 47:40

I'm looking at it right now. It's 3800 pounds.

Craig: 47:45

Yeah.

Joshua: 47:47

That's a very heavy bison. Wow.

Craig: 47:52

Yeah. Yeah. So you don't get in front of that one. Lucky, it's lucky. It's a human made that one. Yeah. And we have a real one. Can you imagine them being real that size? It's like a dinosaur. Yeah, exactly. what's your what's your next one? Josh?

Joshua: 48:10

I have not visited this yet. Oh, really? You've got one of you haven't so excited the day I do because it will make a fantastic YouTube video. I told you that. I loved roadside attractions that were interactive. This one is maybe the most interactive one I've ever heard of. It is a geocaching virtual. And that is the world's biggest ball of paint.

Unknown: 48:36

How to get a ball of paint. So

Joshua: 48:39

this guy in Alexandria, Indiana, it's inside of a building. And it's a giant ball of paint. And what he does, he invites people to come in and add their layer of paint to the ball. The layer dries, the next person comes they add a layer. And so I don't know how many layers there are. But it is currently I believe, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Yeah, the world's biggest ball of paint. We'll get this Greg. When you add your own layer, you are now the world record holder. Oh, wow. Is that not cool? That is

Craig: 49:20

really cool. Just do you actually get a certificate? Yes. You do

Joshua: 49:24

know the the the guy gives you a certificate says you are now a world record holder. You now have created the world's largest ball of paint. How cool is that?

Craig: 49:34

That is I'm just looking at again just I'm looking at photos now as we speak. And what we're talking about now is this ball. I mean, can you imagine how many times people have had to actually add to this ball of paint. So there's balls hanging from the roof and it looks like you're taking from an actual ball and chain. But it's it's it's got a weight like it's it's got a scale on the top of it. And what this person does by the looks of things once you paint it over Then they they rewired basically and then they put a new weighted number on there. So the way that number that I see I think this is going to be from only six months ago was it looks like 24,703 pounds. Wow. I mean, it could be a little bit heavier than that now, but

Joshua: 50:18

yeah, I'm looking at a picture of Mike Carmichael. i He must be the owner of the ball of paint and Ron and, and he is it's a picture of him with coat. Number 24,612

Craig: 50:31

coat number. It's a coat number. Yeah. It's not white. It's coat. Oh, okay. But

Joshua: 50:38

for people that I know have been there. They say that he is very geocacher friendly.

Craig: 50:44

Oh, absolutely. Well, and he's, he's people friendly.

Joshua: 50:48

Yes. And so I gotta go there. It's gonna make a great video. And I've always wanted to be a world record holder. So

Craig: 50:57

you will kind of sum it to some people. I wonder how long it actually takes you but because by the looks of it to you paint it over, not just a part of it. You actually paint the entire ball. Like each person paints the entire ball with it with a roller bought books or things as well. Probably doesn't take that long. No, I wouldn't take that long. But I fail. I got

Joshua: 51:19

to do it. Craig. It's a geocache. It's a world site attraction. It's gonna make great video. And I'm sure if you go on YouTube, you can probably see video of other people painting this ball of paint. Exactly. Well

Craig: 51:33

my next one, Josh, you've actually done this one and I haven't done it because it's on my bucket list. You've done it and I'm gonna say that some of our Patreon because we've got a few Patreon as well they're in the sorry that our patrons that are on Long Island, or you got to remember they're on Long Island. In Long Island, you're, you're on Long Island, we make sure that it's called the thing. Now it's not that big. But tell us about the thing just because you did it. You've done it and you've got a I think a tick tock and a reel on it as well.

Joshua: 52:04

Yeah, tell us about that. You think it's not it's not huge? No, it's a statue of from Marvel. The character the thing from Marvel and it's it's created out of almost like scraps of metal. But the cool thing about it is how creative a geocache is hidden on the thing.

Craig: 52:27

Yeah, cuz it's not a virtual that one. It's it's a traditional, I think, isn't it? Yeah. So I can't

Joshua: 52:33

believe you're so close to it. You've never been there. Well,

Craig: 52:37

New Jersey and on Long Island, you got to go through New York, which gives me like, you know, it gives my wife anxiety to just drive through New York with to go to because they've got a mega coming up to Josh on on Long Island. They've got a mega coming up. I think in September. I haven't looked at the details. But for me to drive there. It's going to take me nearly three and a half hours to drive there. Yeah, just to get through New York. So but yeah, so there's a new mega coming on to Long Island. But anyway, I should get the thing at that particular time.

Joshua: 53:09

Right by the water in a really cool, like fishing area. With like a lot of restaurants and yeah, it was really cool. We'll get

Craig: 53:19

ready because when I do do it up my phone a friend just saying. What's your next one, Josh?

Joshua: 53:27

All right. Fourth one, we've already talked about it. There's a lot of astrology for me. I just looked at it is the Jolly Green Giant in bluearth. Minnesota, which is in southern Minnesota. Right on i 90. It is exactly what you think it is. It's 55.5 feet tall, Jolly Green Giant towers over the city. And get this Craig it wouldn't. Where's size? 78 shoes?

Craig: 53:57

Wow. 78. Wow. Well, I'm not sure if you actually had this in your list, either. I'm just looking when it was introduced was in 1903. That's 120 years ago now.

Joshua: 54:11

Well, the Jolly Green Giant character was Oh, is that what it is? Yeah. But um, Miss statue was placed in 1979. And it's a really interesting history. You know, all these things usually have interesting history. Yeah. And it was a DJ, from Blue Earth and by the name of Paul Hedberg. And he often had interviews, he interviewed people. And they're the Jolly Green Giant, like canned factory where they have canned vegetables. It was in it was in Blue Earth. So what he would do is he would hand canned vegetables to his guests, and his guests would always ask, well, where's the Jolly Green Giant? And thus, he was like, You know what? I've got to build that's a great idea. Have the city built the jolly Jolly Green Giant and get this even in winter. The people of the town they knitted they knit a scarf for him to wear on those cold winter nights and

Craig: 55:16

this isn't this one you just reminded me this one isn't is not on my list so I'm not going to class it as this is going to be an A for me. And my wife actually has a virtual at this one and it's called the bayside Bayside Bayfield sorry Bayville dinosaur. Again, it's not big, it's not huge, like it's I'm going to say it's going to be 12 foot long because it's one of the old the Brontosaurus type dinosaurs but the history of this dinosaur i i helped I'm doing with inverted quotes I helped the place the virtual. In other words, I did the real research for it and actually did the write up and this dinosaur has been there for over 100 years it has had so many facelifts but Josh get this this dinosaur itself where it was it used to be the old like the old main thoroughfare obviously it's not now because they put the parkway through but it used to be the old thoroughfare so a lot of heavy vehicles trucks and whatnot used to come through it lost its head that many times that they had to move it back away from the road because it kept the the head gets on getting knocked off by trucks and but what reminded me was you said about the scarves. This thing gets dressed up every single holiday. So you know, we just had for instance, we had St. Patrick's Day, it would had a green St. Patrick's hat on and a green scarf around. It's Nick. Your next is Easter. It's actually there now with rain with bunny ears as well. So yeah, that's the that's the dinosaur down here in New Jersey.

Joshua: 56:41

Well, that's fascinating. Yeah. And speaking of dinosaurs, that's my last one. What a great segue. It's the Cabazon dinosaurs in Cabazon, California. I've been here it is a movie location from one of my favorite 80s movies and that is Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

Craig: 57:02

I've seen the video that you've put on on the jaw.

Joshua: 57:05

And in the same way. In the same way Craig they paint these dinosaurs to fit the current time of year. So when I was there in February, one of the dinosaurs was pink and it had a had a heart tattoo and it was a Valentine's dinosaur. There are two dinosaurs it's a trying to source Rex and a brontosaurus you can go up inside the Brontosaurus and there's of course there's a gift shop in there. And you can also go into the mouth of the trying to saurus rex is right along the highway. I found it was in between Joshua Tree National Park and La it was like the halfway point. Perfect roadside attraction towering over the interstate. That's my last one and of course there's a geocacher there of course

Craig: 57:49

when I asked my wife today about the roadside attractions which one she likes as well. That was her next on her list was those dinosaurs she loves those dinosaurs now when you went there Josh I do believe you went into the into the gift shop and you made a purchase what did you purchase?

Joshua: 58:06

I purchased that's funny that you remember that Greg? Purchase a sticker that said Large Marge sent me

Craig: 58:14

that's the one see I do remember your videos George. I do mainly because that when I particularly when I edit it but anyway. Yes. And I had to find the whole segment the segment from large March sent me on to on YouTube as well to actually paste that in. If you

Joshua: 58:32

don't know that reference, that is from Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

Craig: 58:35

Exactly which you do a great peewee just saying.

Joshua: 58:41

Some dinosaurs I had to do it.

Craig: 58:45

It sounds better than what it looks. I'm just saying. I did. You brought

Joshua: 58:49

it up. So if anybody brings it up, I got to do it.

Craig: 58:52

That's right. That's right. Well, Josh, my last one. Again, this one I haven't done but it is on my bucket list. And I thought Valerie kind of touched on it but it's maybe a different one. Because she touched on the what was called the stone hinge the car hinge one right in. In Nebraska. This one's called the Cadillac Ranch in Texas. So have you seen that one? The Cadillac Ranch in Texas? I

Joshua: 59:17

have not been there. But uh

Craig: 59:20

yeah, have a look at the pictures now. So the Cadillac Ranch in Texas is those ones that the cars are all pretty much like on an angle, nose down. And you people go there graffiti paint left, right and center and they're everywhere. All in a beautiful row, all these Cadillacs. So that's the one that I looked at was the Cadillac Ranch in Texas. And you know, Valerie might actually go that we might contact her and I'll ask her that later on. Has she been to or will she go to the Cadillac Ranch in Texas?

Joshua: 59:48

Yes, I'm looking at pictures now. Yeah, they look like they're, you know, many different colors that look like they're kind of graffitied. Yeah, I've also seen a roadside attraction, I believe just outside of Vegas. That's where the cars are, are kind of in the ground like that as well. But they're all painted like one color like pink and green. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah,

Craig: 1:00:08

yeah. I don't recall which one that one is the,

Joshua: 1:00:11

the everybody in is shouting to us in through their, through their radios right now because they like oh yeah, they don't.

Craig: 1:00:19

And if you do if you do know which one it is, then by all means contact us, you can contact us on our Gmail that's treasures of our town podcast@gmail.com. That's where they can contact us to give us any of these information. If we miss anything, just because then we do. We're only human. We don't research everything. Although you're researching now.

Joshua: 1:00:42

Yeah, I don't know. But I've seen pictures of it.

Craig: 1:00:44

That's right. That's right. But we did have there was an honorable offside. correctly. Honorable mention. Yes. Yeah. What's the one?

Joshua: 1:00:53

I've seen these, these heads of presidents? Williamsburg, Virginia, there's 42 giant heads of presidents. And it's sort of cracked like last place. Yeah. Like it's really like kind of rundown. But it looks a little creepy. And pretty darn cool. Just to see these gigantic President heads. What are they going to do with these heads? I don't know why it was there. I'm sure somebody knows that. Maybe from Virginia. But it looks fascinating. I'm interested in the giant President heads of state Williamsburg, Virginia.

Craig: 1:01:29

Absolutely. And where are they going to go? If or if they're going to stay there? Are they going to open up to be a proper, like a real attraction or not?

Joshua: 1:01:37

I think they're too rundown. I mean, if you look at the videos and pictures, there's kind of like, you know, weeds growing up, but that's kind of like, I think that's kind of like the appeal of it. You know, we like these kind of hidden last places. This is sort of kind of like

Craig: 1:01:51

locations. That's right. actly exactly. I like it. I like and you've got another one. One more. Yeah,

Joshua: 1:01:58

we could go on and on. Craig could we could Santa Claus, Indiana. Oh, I haven't seen this. Just everything. Santa Claus. I mean, so much everything Santa Claus that they've named the town, Santa Claus. We got multiple Santa Claus statues. This is like the home of Christmas, man. If you want to. You want to visit Santa for real? You gotta go to Santa Claus. Indiana. There's a little workshop. If you go there, right before the holidays, you can write a letter to Santa. And he will mail you a letter back.

Craig: 1:02:33

Once again, just from looking at photos now. Yeah, you're right. Santa Claus is the town name. And then there's Santa Claus. Statues everywhere throughout the town and the statues range in size. I'm going to say from about six feet tall, up to about 12 foot tall one big one is can you imagine how busy that place would be at Christmas time?

Joshua: 1:02:53

Oh, yeah. It's it's a destination. I mean, there's an amusement park in the town get get what the music parks called. It's called Holiday World.

Craig: 1:03:02

Oh, wow. Uh, yeah, I just say it now. Holiday. Well, it's a theme park in, in Santa Claus the town. If you'd

Joshua: 1:03:09

like to see it. I have a Christmas Geocaching Vlogger episode where Reese and I my daughter. We visit Santa Claus, Indiana.

Craig: 1:03:18

Oh, that's really nice. How old that was that video. How long is that one couple years

Joshua: 1:03:22

old? Yeah, we've recorded it. 2020

Craig: 1:03:26

Is this the one with features Goliath?

Joshua: 1:03:28

Don't give away the ending crack. Sorry. Sorry. Yes. He's in there somewhere.

Craig: 1:03:35

Very good. Very good. All right, Josh. We're gonna have to come to an end to this show. I guess we can find credit because we'd like to keep it under an hour. under an hour is nice. So

Joshua: 1:03:47

talk about this all night. We could do more episodes. Can we, Greg, please can we do more episodes of big things and roadside attractions,

Craig: 1:03:54

we may do a Part B later on down the track. As someone famous other person would say that's for another show. But But guys, if you have been enjoying this podcast itself, we'd really appreciate your support by Patreon, you can support us on Patreon. And you'll be helping to us create even better content and keep it free for everyone. So in other words, no annoying commercials halfway through. That would be nice. Yeah, so please consider just as the only annoying commercial exactly, please consider joining our patreon@patreon.com forward slash treasures of our town. Oh, wow. All right, Josh, next episode for us. And next episode, we will chat all things, New Mexico and breaking bad you were just there with your son. You're in for a treat. So make sure you tune into that one. You really are. It's going to be huge. So how can people find us otherwise Josh? How can I contact Oh, feel

Joshua: 1:04:47

free to reach out to us at treasures of our town podcast@gmail.com where you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, all the places.

Craig: 1:04:55

So that's it for our show today. Please subscribe rate and review on you Enter your favorite podcasting apps. And as always, Josh knew

Joshua: 1:05:03

your travels always lead you to the most unexpected and big places. Finding amazing hidden gems around the world. See you next time everybody. We're out