Touring the USA

RoadSide Tourist Attraction Links

House on the Rock
Some call this the mother of all wacky roadside museums. Others are not too impressed with what he did to some of the historic value of the antiques.  Everyone who has been there tells me I must see it, the UCM has been called a small version of the House on the Rock.

* Roadside America
This is a great site based on a great book.  There's a lot of wacky things on the side of the roads -- this site talks about most of them.

Road Trip USA
There's a good tour book titled, Road Trip USA and this is their site.

Two Lane
Here's a lot of information for the traveler who gets off the interstate and finds the secondary roads instead.  A lot of good links here also.

Roadside Online
Their philosophy: eat in diners, ride trains, shop on main street. put a porch on your house, and live in a walkable community.  A great site.

RV4FUN
These guys have a ton of info on RV's and good links to various state info.

Old Gas Stations
The UCM gift shop is located in an old 1915 Standard Oil gas station.  Here's a site dedicated to these old gas stations.  Lots of links are on their page.

American Highway Project
Here you'll find great photos of vintage roadsides.

Motel Americana
Lots of stuff about roadside motels.

Tinkertown
Ross and Carla Ward's truly fantastic museum near Albuquerque, New Mexico. A great statement by true artists.  Their slogan is ''We did all of this while you were watching TV."  Many of the UCM exhibits are inspired by Ross Ward's work.  The UCM Museum has been described as a Southern version of Tinkertown.  If you are in the area, stop in and tell them hello from me.  Don't judge their museum by their slow web site.

On The Road Again
The biggest ball of twine in Minnesota? No problem! A fun site.

Hidden America
Roadside trips and interesting personal notes.

Travelers Advantage
This is a good discount travel club with a cheap trail membership.

World's Largest Roadside Attractions
A collection of larger-than-life roadside attractions with a good link page

Route 66 Magazine
A Route 66 Magazine is the first and only slick, four-color publication written expressly for the Route 66 roadie. They have a great bookstore and gift section! Let's support this group -- they take the high road.

U.S.A. Centric
A site to find locations in the United States that are strange,
interesting, and sometimes a complete waste of time.

Texas Roadside Icons
A collection of memorable artifacts along Texas highways.

The Walter Anderson Museum
Walter was a very passionate artist in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.  He and his brother, Peter, started Shearwater Pottery, which still exists there.  I met Peter a couple of times when he was in his eighties(?).  The last time I saw him he was riding a bike barefoot and said that that he didn't have time to talk because he was going to chase blackberries. There are a lot of Walter Anderson stories in the area, like about the time he rode a bike to China or something. Walter's work has been reproduced beautifully on tee shirts. Ocean Springs is about 90 minutes from the UCM, on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

* Roadside Art
Much of America's great art can be seen from the window of a passing car.  This site has a good link page.

Roadside Architecture
Various roadside attractions in Minnesota.

The Orange Show
A major folk art landscape in Houston.

The Museum of International Folk Art
A major museum In Santa Fe, but don't see it without seeing Tinkertown,  (as mentioned at the top of this page - it's, the real thing ).

"No matter how strange you are, there's something unique in you. Something that not only makes you happy, but makes the rest of us feel happy that we don't have to be you and do what you are doing!"
- Arlo Guthrie

National Scenic Byways
Provides travelers with current, detailed information about scenic byways throughout the United States.

* Marsh' s Free Museum
Although Jake The Alligator Man is the most heralded of the weird to wonderful oddities you will encounter at Marsh's Free Museum, there is much, much more at this great roadside attraction in Long Beach, WA.

  George Ohr Museum
This museum celebrates the story of the Mad Potter of Biloxi, Mississippi.  George made pottery during the 1910's.  He was great showman and claimed to be the world's best potter.  For one Mardi Gras parade in Biloxi he piggybacked onto a moving parade with a truck driven by a friend.  On the back of the truck he placed himself up on a wooden cross and dressed himself as Christ on the cross.  He was run out of town for a while after that.   In the 1960's the Ohr family showed an antique dealer a stash of about 1000 pots George had packed away when he changed profession (he became a car dealer).  The antique dealer bought them all, wrote a book about George, and ‘crazy' George was discovered.  This museum is part of the town's library; they did a good job on the exhibit and also display other artists in other rooms in the museum.  Biloxi is about 75 minutes from the