Best Fun Places

 Bizarre places are fun!  Most of these places are free. The ones with a fee are marked.

14. Wall Drug – Wall, SD

It’s purely a tourist stop, but you don’t have to buy anything. Where else can you ride a Jack-a-Lope?

13. Delorme Map Store – Yarmouth, ME

The store is now closed but the 41’ diameter globe is still open and great to see for free. Besides testing ourselves on geography, we could remember the places we’ve visited and dream about new places to explore. This is the World’s Largest Revolving/Rotating Globe!

12. Magnolia Beach – TX

I’m listing this as the best boondocking location we’ve ever seen. No water or electricity, but you can camp on a beach for free. It felt like we had a beach to ourselves. A wonderful relaxing place to be.

11. Tornado Beam – Goliad, TX

Back in 1902 a tornado came through Goliad. It destroyed a newly constructed bridge. One of the iron beams flew almost a mile to land in the backyard of a house near the courthouse. The beam is so deep that no one was able to pull it out. This iron beam doesn’t seem to be on anyone’s list of bizarre places. We heard about it at the local museum.

10. Mound Cemetery – Marietta, OH

I love this one since it is both a mound (built between 800 BCE and 700 CE for chieftains) and a cemetery. The cemetery surrounding it has soldiers from the American Revolution to the present.

9. Tree Sculpture Tour - Galveston, TX

I loved this. It’s a walk among beautiful homes to find these sculptures made from trees that fell during Hurricane Ike. Some were funny and many were just gorgeous art. What a wonderful way to spend a few hours!

8. Backyard Terrors and Dinosaur Park - Bluff City, Tennessee

This is a free, but be nice and drop off a donation. This is an amazing display of full-size dinosaurs made by a guy in his backyard. The guy tries to make them as accurate as he can and includes information on the different dinosaurs. I don’t know how many there are, but let’s just say “lots”. The dinosaurs are placed along trails and some have sound effects.

7. Sloss Furnaces – Birmingham, AL

Walking through an iron mill from the mid-1900’s is a bit surreal. Big equipment where the rust just adds to the ambiance. Free!

6. Coral Castle – FL

If you were in love with Agnes Scuffs but she didn’t reciprocate your feelings, of course you would build a bizarre castle during the middle of the night! The tools used were handmade and no one really knows some of the methods Ed Leedskalnin used. The grounds are full of tables, beds, bathtubs, sculptures, and astronomical items.  I can’t picture living here, but I loved the look of the place. This one is $15 per person but is so unique it is worth it.

5. Very Large Array (VLA) – Socorro, NM

I love astronomy so telescopes are pretty cool. The VLA is equivalent to a radio telescope with a 13 miles radius. The view of these 27 radio telescopes is surreal. Plus they are in several movies like Independence Day, Terminator Salvation and Contact.

4. Kitt Peak National Observatory – Tucson, AZ

To get to the observatory, your car has to climb a steep hill. It’s better to disconnect at the bottom and just drive up. Below was warm, but we were freezing at the top of the mountain. But it is worth it to see the amazing equipment (25 optical telescopes and 2 radio telescopes) and to dream about what astronomers are finding.

3. Colorado River Raft Tour – Page, AZ

Instead of scheduling a week-long trip through Grand Canyon a year in advance, we took a four-hour motor raft tour on the Colorado River up to the Grand Canyon. The tour (Colorado River Discovery) starts at Glen Canyon Dam and travels through Horseshoe Bend. Views include an incredible rock walls, petroglyphs, and wild horses. This one costs $92 per person, but it’s worth it!

2. Luckenbach, Texas

There is no place as laid back as Luckenbach Texas. Spend several hours drinking beer and listening to the musicians who show up for Picker Circle. All types of people show up. This is true America. Music is free but, of course, you pay for a beer and food.

1. Cadillac Ranch – Amarillo, TX

For both of us, this is our favorite bizarre place to visit. The ends of ten Cadillacs are buried in a field in the middle of nowhere. Yet there are always people of all ages stopping with cans of spray paint to decorate the cars. They say whatever you paint will last less than 24 hours before someone else paints over your masterpiece. That’s part of the cool factor. The cars now have thick layers of paint. Who knows what they will look like in a few years!