Oddities
Macabre Museums, Tourist Traps, and Road Trip Diversions
What makes a road trip? It is the little, wonderful oddities that we stumble across during that long stretches of highway between where I was and where I am going. Sometimes, we can even plan them. So, let me share some of my favorite oddities encountered in our travels.
Road Trip Gems
There are places we travel to: landmarks, natural wonders, celebrated museums, comfortable getaways, and world renowned institutions. And then there are the in between places. The sites that might confuse you whether or not you have slipped into the Twilight Zone: Lovecraftian structures, timeless installations, and creations that exist for the simple sake of their own existence. These are the gems that we occasionally stumble upon but, more often miss. A week later someone may hear you traveled through Joshua Tree and ask if you visited the Krblin Jihn Kabin but you will be far away by then.
So, don’t miss out.
We have shared some of our favorite oddities here, for your enjoyment.
City Museum
St. Louis, Missouri
New Orleans Pharmacy Museum
Voodoo, Leeches, & Heroine
Monument Rocks
Kansas’ Eighth Wonder
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Blues, Satanic Pacts, & Americana
Outdoor Art
Found scrawlings, remote installations, and outdoor museums. These strange, whimsical places are often off the beaten path but a path worth traveling, nonetheless.
Prada Marfa
Marfa, Texas
Maryhill Stonehenge
The First US WWI Memorial
Starr Kempf's Kinetic Sculptures
Colorado Springs, Colorado
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The Cabazon Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs mean a lot of different things to different people. To children, they are awesome monsters and rubber toys. To the movie buff, they mean Jurassic Park and apocalyptic fears of
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Robolights
Robolights has been the continuing project of Kenny Irwin Jr. since 1986. What was intended as a dystopian Christmas display of robots and found objects has become a block spanning marvel
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Krblin Jihn Kabin
The Kabin may be part of the Kcymaerxthaere series of pieces by Eames Demetrios but it certainly stands on its own in drawing your attention into an alternate world. This dilapidated
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Noah Purifoy’s Outdoor Desert Art Museum
Noah Purifoy's Outdoor Desert Art Museum fills ten acres of "environmental statues" outside of Joshua Tree, California. Visitors wander down a dirt road to the yard of towering sculptures of found
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Desert Christ Park
Desert Christ Park is an early foray into biblically themed parks. It's not nearly to the state of gems you might find in Kentucky, but it has it's own charm as