Part Three and Talkin’ Turkey

While “driving” to my my next post — part three of “The Historic, the Fun and the Popular” — I hit a few bumps in the road!  I was waiting to get the last of my pictures developed, and then the holidays hit, quickly followed by an online course I was teaching in January, the start of the spring semester, and an unexpected, but glady accepted, trip to Turkey.  So a big mea culpa for making one of the biggest no-nos in blogging — not posting regularly.

The good news is that the pictures are developed and the spring semester is drawing to an end.  So part three, which will focus on popular music and culture, isn’t that far away.  Nor is a post or two about “the off ramp” discoveries I made in Turkey.  And when I say they were off the ramp, I mean WAY off!  I visited many archaeological sites now in the middle of nowhere that were thriving cities thousands of years ago.

One more look ahead — I’m hitting the road in mid-May  for Wisconsin and will be coming back through Chicago.  Route 66 roadies know what that means!  Yes, I’ll be hitting the Mother Road for the Illinois trek to St. Louis and hope to keep a daily log.  Who knows?  Perhaps I’ll keep going . . .

The Historic, the Fun & the Popular (Part 2)

Sorry for the delay in getting this second part posted — I still get my pictures developed the old-fashioned way!

No road trip of mine would be complete without stopping at the world’s largest something-or-other. Thus, those sites, along with some other quirky attractions, make up the second installment of “The Historic, the Fun, & the Popular.”

Stop 1: The World’s Largest Light Bulb is atop the Thomas Edison Memorial Tower in Menlo Park, N.J. (I suppose this could qualify for being historic, but anything with “world’s largest” in its name needs to be categorized as “fun.”) Menlo Park, of course, is the birthplace of the light bulb. The tower marks the spot where Edison’s workshop once stood; the workshop is now part of Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Mich. The light bulb itself is 13-feet tall and is illuminated at night.

Stop 2: In nearby Linden, there is a cemetary that houses a very unique tombstone. Yes, I know that cemetaries and tombstones probably shouldn’t fall under a “fun” category and I don’t mean any disrespect; you have to agree, however, that this is unique. The full-size 1982 Mercedes Benz limousine sadly marks the grave of 15-year-old who never got the car of his dreams in life. The 36-ton piece of granite is mind-boggling in its detail, down to the tire treads, grill work, and the boy’s name on the license plates.

Stop 3: The World’s Largest Tooth is actually a 15-tall sculpture that sits along a main thoroughfare in Hutchinson Mill, N.J. See my Nov. 26 post for a photo.

Stop 4: Tuckerton, N.J., is home to one of several 20-foot high champagne bottles in the area built by the Renault Winery in the 1920s. This one is white stone. Another one is located further north in Bayville, N.J., but I couldn’t find that one (although how one can miss a tall champagne bottle I’m not sure).

Stop 5: I didn’t really stop in Atlantic City, N.J., just drove through it, but it’s worth a mention because I felt like I was on a giant Monopoly board. It was nostalgic as well because, long before the casinos came into town, my family spent our summers there when I was growing up.

Stop 6: Just south of Atlantic City was my final stop — a place I had wanted to see for many years and, in fact, was the whole reason I was on the New Jersey shore — Lucy the Elephant. Lucy is the trademark of Margate City; she even appears on the town’s water tower. Open up ANY roadside attraction book and you will see Lucy gracing a page. Now 127 years old, Lucy is in great shape, thanks to local renovation efforts and is designated as a National Historic Landmark. Lucy is six stories high, weighs 90 tons, and is covered in 12,000 square feet of tin.

The Historic, the Fun and the Popular (Part 1)

As you know, I just returned from 10 days on the road and a visit to way too many sites to talk about in a single post, so I’ve decided to split the travel tales up into three categories: the historic, the fun and the popular. Today, a look at history:

Stop 1: Nearly 77 years ago, the “crime of the century” took place in Hopewell, N.J., when the 20-month-old son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped from his nursery and found murdered two months later. The wooded land surrounding the Lindbergh home has shrunk from 600 acres to 350, but the original home still stands. Lindbergh gave the estate to the State of New Jersey to be used to help boys; it now houses the Albert Elias Residential Group Center.

Stop 2: The New Jersey State Police oversaw the investigation into the kidnapping and has the largest collection of archives of the crime. It’s museum in West Trenton houses a wonderful exhibit that includes the wooden ladder used to reach the outside nursery window, ransom notes, ransom money, the baby’s clothes, other trial evidence, and trial footage.

Stop 3: If the kidnapping was the crime of the century, the trial of Bruno Hauptmann, the man accused of the kidnapping, was the trial of the century. It was held at the Hunterdon County Courthouse in Flemington, N.J. Hauptman was found guilty and died in the electric chair (which is usually at the state police museum, but is currently on loan to the Newseum in Washington, D.C.). The trial is reenacted at the courthouse every October. The conviction of Hauptmann remains controversial to this day. My aunt was 10 at the time and recalls the family huddled around the radio the day he was executed. She said she remembers no one in the room saying anything until after it was over. Then my grandfather uttered, “Some day they’ll find out that man didn’t do it.”

Stop 4: More than a century before the Lindbergh kidnapping, two American political rivals met in Weehawken, N.J., along the Hudson River to engage in a famous duel. Alexander Hamilton would die in the duel with Aaron Burr. A bust of Hamilton and the rock where he supposedly collapsed is near the original dueling site.

And the Survey Says . . .

While planning a trip during Thanksgiving week, I asked you to help me decide which route to take — the New Jersey shoreline or further inland. Well, it was a tie! So, I did both! I hit the road Tuesday at 8 a.m. with 13 stops on my list; I arrived at my final destination at 9 p.m. with most of the attractions crossed off. I couldn’t find one, one didn’t exist anymore, and I couldn’t see one because it got too dark. Still, not too bad for a roadie’s day’s work.

Stay tuned for full details, which I hope to post in the next week. I’m still on the road and posting this from a family member’s computer. In the meantime, here’s something to tide you over — the World’s Largest Tooth in Hutchinsons Mill, NJ.

Help Me Plan the Next Trip!

I’ll be getting on the road again the week of Thanksgiving.  After visiting my son in New York City, I’ll be heading south to spend the holiday with my family near D.C.  I’ll have to go through New Jersey to get there, but there’s so much to see, I need your help.  Take the poll and let me know which route to take; details on the attractions can be found at http://www.roadsideamerica.com/location/nj.

Motoring to the Motor City

I just returned from another road trip — this one a 36-hour roundtrip to Detroit.  I went for a dinner associated with a professional conference, but took advantage of the brief time I had to do some sightseeing.

First stop was the World’s Largest Tire, located along I-94 in the Detroit suburb of Allen Park.  The giant Uniroyal 3D advertisement is 80 feet tall and weighs 12 tons.  This was actually the second time I had seen the tire, even though it was my first visit to Detroit.  The tire was originally a ferris wheel built for the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, which I attended as a child.  Nearly 2 million people rode the gondolas that circled the tire, where the tread exists today.

 

Next was the Largest Stove in the World (my God, Detroit has it all!).  This giant 15-ton replica of an antique stove was created for the precursor of the World’s Fairs, the 1893 Columbian Exposition.  Built by the Michigan Stove Co., the restored stove now resides at the Michigan State Fairgrounds.

 

 

Last stop was downtown Detroit at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Woodward to see the giant fist of a world heavyweight champion, a monument dedicated to Detroit’s own Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber.  A pyramid structure suspends a bronze 24-foot-arm and fist 24-feet above the ground, weighing in at 8,000 pounds.  Striking!

The No-Name Storm and the World’s Largest Hammock

My stepson just got married in a destination wedding in North Carolina. Of course, my theory is always “why fly when you can drive.” I eagerly look forward to mapping out my routes for a road trip and searching through my many roadside Americana books to see what treats I can pass along the way. While I was looking forward to the drive itself on this trip, I was a bit dismayed when I realized that, according to my books and the Roadside America Web site, I had already seen everything along the way: the place where John Wilkes Booth was captured (near Fort AP Hill in Virginia); the spots where Stonewall Jackson was shot and died (and where his arm is buried) near Fredericksburg, Va.; the milk bottle building in Richmond; the Monitor-Merrimac observation site in Hampton Roads, Va.; the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk, N.C.; Roanoke Island; the “UFO House” in Buxton, N.C.; and, of course, the lighthouses of the Outer Banks.

Still, some time on the beach, especially celebrating such a special occasion, would be nice. Unfortunately, the weather got worse as I headed south from New York. By the time I got near my destination, high winds were whipping sand around so much that it stung when it hit your skin. Later, we would be hit with what was called the “no-name” storm — rain and wind of almost tropical storm status that pounded our beachfront house, took out electricity and nearly postponed the wedding.

But there’s always a silver lining under any dark cloud, and this storm had a special silver lining indeed. It came in the form of a sign I saw as I was headed toward the Wright Brothers Memorial Bridge that would take me from the North Carolina mainland to the Outer Banks. The sign promoted the World’s Largest Hammock. I will go hours out of my way to see the world’s largest anything — I’m a roadie, that’s what we do. The weather was too bad to stop on my way to the beachouse, but had cleared a bit three days later on my return trip, so I treated myself.

The World’s Largest Hammock is located at the Nag’s Head Hammock store in Point Harbor, N.C. I LOVE the store’s description of its roadside attraction on its Web site: “Remember that family vacation as a kid, when Dad stopped in the middle of nowhere so you could all stare at the World’s Largest Ball of Twine? Come on, how relaxing was that? Now, if all that twine had been woven into the World’s Largest Hammock, that would have been something to see!” I mean, is that written for roadies, or what?! The hammock is 42-feet long, holds up to 8,000 pounds and was woven out of nearly 10,000 feet of rope.

I stopped, I snapped my pictures, and I continued my return trip with a smile on my face and the satisfaction that there are always surprises on the road, even if you have traveled it before.

I’m H-e-e-r-r-e-e

SPLASH!!!

The sound you just heard was me jumping into cyberspace (assuming you can hear splashes in cyberspace). I enter with reluctance and yet I’m starting to become curious about where this exercise will take me. As a public relations professor, I owe it to my students to keep them current on the profession and equip them with the skills they need to be successful. Social media is here and, darn it, it’s not going to go away! So, as the old saying goes, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. This blog is the result of an assignment I have given my students to enter the blogosphere. It’s only fair I do, too. Who knows, perhaps I will embrace it, as my friend and former PR colleague Bill Sledzik has — he also began his blog as a result of learning in order to teach.

I tell my students to blog about their passions, and I will take my own advice. As you hopefully have been able to tell by the graphics and tab names of this site, it is “dedicated to the magic of the road that lays at the end of the off ramp.” I LOVE road trips. I LOVE to drive. I LOVE going an hour out of my way to see the world’s largest something-or-other. I LOVE lingering at a bar I have found along the way and talking with the locals and learning about their part of America.

A special place of my heart belongs to Route 66. I don’t really know why I have been so drawn to it, however. Growing up, our family vacations were road trips to the East Coast, nowhere near the Chicago to LA route. It seems I just innately knew about the Mother Road. It held some sort of magic for me — a freedom I thought was waiting for me if I could just drive on the asphalt. Imagine my disappointment when I found it that it technically doesn’t exist anymore — that I would never be able to touch the magic. Then I found out that while it’s true you won’t find Route 66 on a regular road map anymore, that doesn’t mean the road isn’t alive and well. It is beckoning and the people who live along it are waiting for you. I know. I’ve been there.

I hope this blog will serve as a portal of sorts that will contain updated information about Route 66 preservation efforts, stories about other roads, existing and past roadside attractions, and my own road trip diaries. I hope you enjoy the ride . . .

Bookmark this on Delicious