MUFFLER MAN LOSES HEAD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST. ROBERT, Mo.—You’ve heard of the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow, but what about the headless muffler man of Route66? Last April, severe storms decapitated the “Mega Mayor,” a twenty-two-foot fiberglass Goliath standing proudly over Uranus, Missouri—an out-of-this-world tourist attraction in unincorporated rural Pulaski County. Back in 2015, self-proclaimed “Mayor of Uranus”

Louie Keen—often decked out in a patriotic red, white, and blue suit—transformed an old roadside mall into an entertaining themed destination known for its delightfully cheeky puns. Highlights include the Fudge Factory and General Store (“The Best Fudge comes from Uranus”) and the World’s Largest Belt Buckle, a ten-foot-tall, thirteen-foot-wide clasp officially certified by Guinness World Records.

Keen added the iconic muffler man to his Putt Pirates mini golf course in 2021. Fiberglass artist Mark Cline reassembled shattered fragments of a 1960s-era muffler man cowboy from Calgary, Alberta, that had ended up in a junkyard, casting a one-of-a-kind likeness of Keen himself—accessorized with a mayoral sash, hat, sunglasses, and an oversized golf ball and putter.

After strong winds blew the Mega Mayor’s head hundreds of feet to the northeast, the bean was recovered but declared damaged beyond repair. Keen tells us that Cline crafted a shiny new replacement to restore the figure to its former glory. The new noggin has been attached to the old neck. It looks a lot better than a pumpkin.

Photos courtesy Mayor of Uranus.

 

 

A DAY IN OREGON CITY

A DAY IN OREGON CITY

Experience the history, sights, stories, and flavors of Oregon City. Find more itinerary ideas like this in the video.

 

Visit Website

TUNNEL VISION: IT’S A BEAUTY! BUT DON’T LOOK!

SEDONA, Ariz.—We all know what they say about scenic byways: When you’re driving the best of them, be sure not to look out your car window. And that advice is doubly true if you’re motoring through Arizona.

At least, that is

the conclusion drawn by a new study released by a Boston law firm that lists the most distracting byways in the country. Starting with a slate of All-American Roads designated by the Federal Highway Administration, attorneys at Jason Stone Injury Lawyers tallied the number of related hashtag mentions on Instagram and paired them with their individual

TripAdvisor ratings. The verdict? Red Rock Scenic Byway in Arizona is most guilty of being eye-catching .

“The iconic red sandstone canyon near Sedona city measures only 7.5 miles, but visitors will likely spend more time there than just the 20 minutes it takes to cover the entire byway,” the report noted. “The Red Rock has a record 1.68 million related hashtags on Instagram and 4,285 reviews on TripAdvisor rating it as a 5-star scenic drive.

As if that’s a crime.

We do applaud the advice to make frequent pit stops and travel with others who can take turns behind the wheel. We’re also not surprised to see the Las Vegas strip on the list of distracting drives: The Circus Circus clown freaks us out every time.

Photo courtesy the National Scenic Byway Foundation

INSPECTION STATION – Midwest Bedrock

 

INSPECTION STATION
MIDWEST BEDROCK, by Kevin J. Koch

Native Midwesterner Kevin Koch freely concedes that the spaces he celebrates in “Midwest Bedrock” rarely stack up by traditional standards to the majesty of, say, the Rockies or the grandeur of the Maine coast. He likens them instead to “grace notes,” described musically as “so tiny [their] time value is not counted in the rhythm of the bar.”

And over twelve chapters, one each for the states the U.S. Census Bureau considers part of the Midwest, Koch rhythmically unpacks the geological and geographical wonders of lesser-known but no-less-interesting spaces. No Ozarks, no Six Flags, no Rushmore here. You get Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail, the Niobrara River and northern Sandhills of Nebraska, the headwaters of the Mississippi at Lake Itasca in Minne-sota, the effigy mounds of Iowa’s Driftless Area, plus stops in Michigan, Ohio, Indi-ana, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and the Dakotas. It’s a slow-burn whirlwind.

The featured sites are places Koch has driven to for over forty years, often with family in tow for what he calls “chaos hik-ing and camping” or long bike rides. They are locations he has explored in essays and as an outdoors/travel columnist for the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. The result is less Lonely Planet, more Henry David Thoreau, and Midwestern to the core.

“This tour of the Midwest has brought surprises in lands we thought we knew,” Koch writes. “But in the end even the out-siders get one thing right: this place is the bedrock.”

—Jeff Nazarro

Excerpt from the Winter 2024 issue of AMERICAN ROAD Magazine

Click to buy on Amazon.

*As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

 

KANSAS CITY, MO – Lumi Neon Museum

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The “lightbulb moment” for founding Kansas City’s Lumi Neon Museum came in 2017 when professional photographer Nick Vedros’ favorite camera shop was closing its doors. Vedros was saddened to see the store go, but horrified to think that Crick Camera’s neon sign might end up in the trash.

“I rescued it”—the owners gave the 1946 vintage sign to him for free, says Vedros—“but I didn’t know what to do with it. It was fifteen feet wide so it didn’t fit in my house,
but I didn’t think it belonged in my house, anyway. I thought maybe it could be rehung in an alley in the Arts District somewhere.”

Seven years later, “Neon Alley” is about to flicker to life: the Lumi Neon Museum is set to open at Pennway Point, a six-acre entertainment district under construction near Kansas City’s Union Station. The free exhibit, slated to open soon at the time of this writing, will be set up directly under the new KC Wheel, a 150-foot observation wheel that began spinning in December 2023.

“Neon Alley will be in the center of Pennway Point with more than fifty signs dating back to the 1930s,” says Vedros. In addition to the restored Crick Camera sign, the collection will feature signs to spark nostalgic memories for residents throughout the Kansas City metro area. Highlights include Cascone’s Grill, the black cat from Katz Drug Store, the Savoy Barber Shop, Davey’s Uptown Rambler’s Club, Jennie’s Italian Restaurant, Winstead’s, Harzfeld’s Department Store, the 4 Acre Motel, Stephenson’s Apple Farm Restaurant, Fun House Pizza & Pub, Broadway Hardware Co., and Town Topic Hamburgers. The one-ton former I-70 Drive-In sign will be suspended ten feet in the air at the entrance, serving as a portal to the exhibit.

All the signs will be fully restored thanks to donations from sponsors, including new neon tubes, paint, wiring, and cabinets. Placards will detail the history and significance of each
sign on display, says Vedros.

“I think there’s an interest in this from Millennials and Gen Z who love the authenticity of these signs, as well as the Boomers who look back on them with fondness,” he says.

—Bob Curley

Chaos to Calm

Discover winter in Starved Rock Country!  Watch our video and start your Flock to the Rock journey!

Location: LaSalle County

Visit Website

FINALLY, HERE’S A MUSEUM YOUR KIDS WILL GIVE A CRAP ABOUT

The Poozeum, which opened early in 2024 in Williams, Arizona, is devoted to the study of coprolites—fancy paleontology speak for fossilized dinosaur droppings.

Like most things associated with dinosaurs, some of these poops are huge: one, dubbed the “Barnum,” is a twenty-pound monster deposited by a Tyrannosaurus rex in South Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation around sixty-five million years ago.

This astounding specimen is just one piece of the Poozeum’s comprehensive collection of Cretaceous caca. Samples gathered from around the world and put on display can be traced to a variety of prehistoric animals and often feature various “inclusions”—bits of bone and teeth from whatever happened to be on the delivering dino’s menu that day, for example. Some coprolites even have bite marks—proving, perhaps, that dogs didn’t invent the practice of eating poop.

Founded in 2014 by Guinness World Records coprolite collector George Frandsen as a virtual and sometimes traveling exhibit, the Poozeum has finally found a permanent seat in the Grand Canyon State—a hole in the ground that might have just looked like an enormous rest stop to a traveling Triceratops.

Jokes and puns aside, the study of coprolites is serious science, revealing much about how dinosaurs lived and what they ate. And while the Poozeum isn’t above bathroom humor—one exhibit shows a T. rex squatting on a giant toilet— the free museum is highly educational, with thousands of authentic coprolites on display.

Read more fun articles in the current issue of AMERICAN ROAD.

A Day In Lake Oswego

Acclaimed dining, a celebrated art scene, scenic views — the list of things to see and do in Lake Oswego goes on. This is just one of the amazing stops on an Oregon’s Mt. Hood Territory road trip!

Visit Website