The Jackalope Bar is a popular dive bar in Austin, Texas named for my favorite animal. And what would a bar with a name like that be without a giant fiberglass jackalope inside! What is a jackalope? The jackalope is a mythical North American animal often described as having the body of a jackrabbit with the horns of an antelope. The name is a portmanteau of the two...
On June 19, 1987 the world’s largest gold pan was unveiled in Quesnel, British Columbia. The 3,000 pound big steel gold pan is 20-feet in diameter and accompanied by a giant mock gold nugget and a big shovel and pick. Across the front printed words declare the location to be “Gold Pan City.” The Canadian roadside attraction was created by Linden...
A large wheelchair in Williams Lake, British Columbia in Canada celebrates Paralympian, activist, and philanthropist Rick Hansen. Rick Hansen was born on August 26, 1957 in Port Alberni, BC and grew up in Fort St. John, Abbotsford, and Williams Lake. As a teenager he was paralyzed in a car accident. In the years since he started playing wheelchair sports, eventually...
“There’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark out, and we’re wearing sunglasses.” You can find these Blues Brothers Statues in Rock Island, Illinois. The Blues Brothers started out as a Saturday Night Live sketch in the late 1970s where John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd played fedora...
John Dillinger was once a notorious gangster and the FBI’s “Public Enemy No. 1.” His crime spree occurred during the Great Depression, when he and his gang were responsible for robbing banks, breaking out of jail, and killing and injuring numerous men. That all ended on July 22, 1934, when the FBI were tipped off that he was watching the movie “Manhattan...
If you didn’t know where the Walt Disney Birthplace in Chicago, Illinois was, it would be easy to miss. It is, after all, a house. Just an average, plain, nondescript house on a residential street in the Hermosa neighborhood on the North side of the city. But that house was once home to Walt Disney, the animator, voice actor, writer, and film producer who was...
Who doesn’t love a good road trip movie? Movies that capture the thrill, the fun, and, yes, sometimes the dangers of hitting the open road. Here are some of the best road trip movies to watch tonight, films that epitomize car travel. You’ll find something for everyone: comedies, dramas, family-friendly, horror, classics, and more. Ready to watch...
The Fertile Ground mural in Omaha, Nebraska is painted across the NRG Energy building near TD Ameritrade Park. At 70-feet tall and 465-feet long, this is one of the largest murals in the country. The 32,500 square-foot mural was created by artist Meg Saligman as a gift to the city from the Peter Kiewit Foundation. She began work on it in June, 2008 and it completed...
Road trip sandwiches make for quick and easy lunches for car trips, near or far. Packing your own meals will save you the time and money that comes with stopping at a roadside diner or for fast food on the way to your destination. But what should you pack? And how should you pack it? Read on for some of our favorite recipes for road trip sandwiches and tips on how to...
The American Computer & Robotics Museum in Bozeman, Montana (formerly the American Computer Museum) features a comprehensive history of the computer with “4,000 years of humanity and technology on display.” Their mission is to “collect, preserve, interpret, and display the artifacts and history of the information age.” The museum was...