I’m looking for my ‘big ball of twine’ so to speak.
My vacation is coming at the end of the month. My wife and I will be driving from Atlanta to Kansas City, MO, probably through Nashville and St. Louis.
From there we’ll be going to Frontenac/Pittsburg, KS, Branson, Tulsa, Oklahoma City and back to ATL through Memphis.
So I thought it’d be fun to catch any cheesy touristy places along the way. You know, like in the movie Michael, they stop and see things like the big frying pan, or a big ball of twine.
Do you guys have any suggestions?
In the mean time, I stumbled across this site that I’m going to have to check out.
If you’re taking I-24 from Nashville to St. Louis, after you cross the Ohio River from Kentucky into Illinois, get off at the first exit, and go into Metropolis, Illinois, so you can see this!
And then on your way to St. Louis drive to St. Genevieve, MO, using the St. Genevieve-Modoc Ferry to cross the Mississippi River. If you hit St. Genevieve at the right time on Sunday morning, you can see some people in their French Cavalier outfits at one of the Catholic churches. This is stuff you probably can’t experience anywhere else.
Tulsa is nice enough, but you may want to skip it and OKC, there’s just not much here to see and your time might be better spent elsewhere. Rather than repeat myself, here’s what I had to say to another poster who was in town for a business trip:
If you do go back through Arkansas, and are interested in oddball attractions, there is Crater of Diamonds State Park. For a small fee, you can dig for diamonds, which are found fairly often. Nearby is Hot Springs, which has some preserved Victorian era bath houses.
Memphis has Graceland–Elvis home. From Mempho, you could take U.S. 78 to Tupelo, MS and see the house where he was born. Tupelo also has a car museum. Afterwards, 78 to Birmingham, I-20 back to Hotlanta.
What route are you taking from Missouri through Oklahoma? There’s several really cool oddities I can recommend if you’re following old R66.
How about OKC to Memphis? Straight out I-40 or state highways? There’s some lovely places out that way as well.
I’m skipping all the standard attractions of OKC & Tulsa since you specified cheesy tourist. If you want museums & such, let me know. Contrary to Furious_Marmot’s continual whining, there’s some cool stuff here.
Sadly the places are non negotiable. That’s why I’m trying to add some spice to the trip…
[ul]
[li]Going to KC, Topeka because my wife has family there we’re going to visit.[/li][li]We’re attending a family reunion in Pittsburg / Frontenac[/li][li]We’re then going to hang out with my my sister and her husband for a mini vacation in Branson, MO[/li][li]Off to Tulsa to see my family[/li][li]Day trips will be taken to Oklahoma City and Okmulgee to see other family[/li][li]The way I like to drive home from Tulsa is across Arkansas, through Memphis to Birmingham to Atlanta.[/li][/ul]
Where do you live in Oklahoma? I lived in Tulsa for several years, um… several years ago. I still go there once or twice a year though. I grew up in NW Oklahoma in a tiny town called Shattuck.
I kind of just answered this in regards to a previous post but since I’m reading this one now…
First leg of the trip is to get from Atlanta to Kansas City, KS for 2 or 3 nights. The maps we’ve looked at indicate that the best plan is to go ATL -> Chattanooga -> Knocksville -> St. Louis -> Kansas City. Once we’re in KC, we’ll be taking a day trip to Topeka (Leg 1 = visiting wife’s family).
Second Leg of trip is from KC to Frontenac/Pittsburg KS for a couple of nights (leg 2 = enright3 family reunion).
Third leg of trip is from Frontenac/Pittsburg to Branson, MO (Leg 3 = a few true vacation type days to hang out in Branson with my sister and her husband).
Fourth leg of trip is from Branson, MO to Tulsa for 4 or 5 nights, with day trips to OkC and Okmulgee (leg 4 = visiting old friends from when I lived in Tulsa to visiting family in OkC, Tulsa, and Okmulgee).
Fifth leg of trip is from Tulsa back home to ATL. Tulsa -> Memphis -> Birmingham -> ATL.
And you’re right, we won’t have time for museums really. I’m thinking more of the “look, here’s a picture of me standing next to a big huge ‘xxxxx’.”
Basically, small town oddities, and thinks of that ilk.
We’re considering Graceland. My brother says we have to go. He didn’t think he’d like it, but now he stops by there anytime he’s near. The problem is that it’s not really in line with my plans of “not slowing us down too much.” Maybe this will be the exception.
OK, that’s just too weird. My grandmother lived in Shattuck for years.
If you’ve got a little time, I’d recommend the R66 trip from MO to Tulsa. We did this last year and it was very entertaining. Tons of little towns with that 20s & 30s architecture still in place and the usual highly photographic oddities, shops and signs.
The World’s Largest Totem Pole is an absolute must. We just happened to see the sign by the highway and had to turn around and go back. Totally terrific and just what you’re looking for.
There’s a section of the original R66 somewhere up around Tulsa, I’ll try to find the directions. It was really neat, in an odd and forlorn way.
I didn’t think the Tulsa to OKC stretch was as interesting, but I think we missed part of it and we were very tired by then.
A detour through the Talimena Drive and Hot Springs might be a nice part of the trip to Memphis. I’m not sure how much time that would add, though. Not a lot of cheesy tourist traps that I remember, but beautiful scenery. We did that one a couple years ago.
If you go down that way, there’s an absolutely tremendous Italian place in Krebs. Not the famous place, the other one. And the mostest greatest little county museum you’ve ever seen in your life. Not much accuracy in their exhibits, but hellaciously entertaining, if you like that sort of thing.
I’ll check with the SO and get back to you. He’s an absolute goldmine for this kind of stuff. He’ll detour hours for a giant ball of twine.
Near the Round Barn, also on 66 is Pops. It’s a newly built gas station that is supposed to be in the vanguard of a resurgence of interest in Route 66. There’s a huge modern looking sculpture of a soda bottle out front that changes color.
Up the road in Stroud is the Red Rock Cafe, which was built out of…red rocks left over from the construction of the Rt 66. They don’t make them like that anymore. They are said to have really good chicken fried steaks made with pork and served with brown gravy and spaetzle. The place burned down last year and has just recently reopened.
Also, you know about the oil derrick in front of the capitol building right?
Well, since you’re going to be in Kansas, you can literally find your ‘big ball of twine’ in Cawker City. Unfortunately it’s a little bit north and west of where you’re going to be, but if you’re going to be in Topeka for a day or two you could probably make an afternoon of it.
Woah. I would really like to go there, but I don’t know if I could convince the wife (or maybe even myself) to burn six hours to see it (A little over 3 hours from Topeka, one way).
Mein SO is being uncooperative, the twit. He did recommend the roadside America site, but you’re already looking there.
So far he’s only come up with museums. Odd, different museums but still. Not the “stop and take a pic and move on” type thing you’re looking for.
Well, OK, the Rt 66 car museum isn’t really. It’s just a guy who collects cool, old cars and has them in a shop where you can look at them. It’s two rooms and takes about 5 minutes, except for the chatting part. That’s also where we got the directions for the original strip of road I mentioned before. But I can’t remember where it was exactly and I can’t find it online.
The other’s he’s suggested are Woolaroc, which is pretty cool but is definitely a more involved trip, and a little railway museum (in OKC, I think). More details on request.
Oh yeah, if you’re gonna be in Tulsa, you gotta get a pic with the praying hands, doncha think?
There is the Gold Dome in OKC, as well, but that’s not nearly as entertaining.
I’ll bug the dude some more; it’s been a crazy week.
It would be a gigantic detour, but I think it would be worth it for one of the greatest roadside-ball-of-twine-type places in the United States.
In Lucas, Kansas, is the “Garden of Eden.” It’s a house and gardens built by an eccentric old man in the late 19th / early 20th century. The house is a log cabin whose logs are actually long slabs of post-rock limestone. The house is surrounded by a crazy sculpture garden of amateurish unpainted concrete works of slightly spooky folk art. The old man built a mausoleum on one corner of the property, complete with glass-topped coffin, in which you can still view his mummified remains.
I went with my mom when I was a kid, and it was just one tour tour guide and the two of us on the property. This was during the trip when my mom decided we should go into the interior of our home state (born/raised in KCK), and see what there was to see. Answer: nothing. There is almost nothing worth seeing in Kansas. We drove around the highways of the Sunflower State for three days, and afterward agreed that – except for the Garden of Eden – it had been a gigantic waste of time.
(We also saw the actual “World’s Largest Ball of Twine,” in Cawker, and the “World’s Largest Prairie Dog Colony,” somewhere along I-70.)
The following year, we did the same thing with Missouri, and that trip was much more rewarding. We went to Hannibal, MO (which would be only slightly out of your way), a nifty little town where nearly everything is Mark Twain-themed. There are several surprisingly decent Twain museums, including his boyhood home.
The first destination has been chosen as it will make a good stop about 3 1/2 hours into our trip, and should coincide with breakfast quite nicely. It’s not exactly an ‘oddity,’ but pretty cool nonetheless: The Musica Statue
