Man Vs. Beast

Hey You All!

Head over to my Youtube Channel.  I know we are all incredibly bored with the prospect of the Superbowl, so let's take a look a much more interesting past time:  Roadside Hand to Hand Combat with Animals




The Carpetbagger

Please feel free to email me at jacobthecarpetbagger@gmail.com
And don't forget to check out my Flickr Photostream and my Youtube Page

The Tourist Maifesto

Now I love to travel.  Amongst my travels I have heard a word thrown around.  The word "tourist".  It has very very negative connotations.  I'm not even talking about locals using the word to describe out of towners, that doesn't bother me one bit.  What I don't like is when my fellow travelers use the word tourist like it is something negative.

"I don't want to act look like a tourist."  "That place is where tourists eats."  "That's just a big tourist trap."

Despite your political views, I resent this using of the words "Tourist Trap"

 From the sounds of it, the worst thing you can do while traveling is to be a tourist.

I wanted to take a moment to say that I am PROUD to be a tourist.  Why do we need to convince ourselves that we are not.  You can convince yourself you are not a tourist and instead a sophisticated world traveler, but you are cheating yourself.  Traveling is supposed to be fun.

I am proud to head straight for tourist traps and eat up with a spoon the culture they want to sell me.

I will believe ridiculous local legends that make my trip more interesting.

I WILL eat at restaurants just because I saw them on TV.

I will walk around with a camera the size of my head hung from my neck.

I will spend inordinate amounts of money on t-shirts, postcards, and shot glasses and whatever other cheesy nonsense they want to sell me.

I will take the exact same picture of a landmark that everyone else has, because I want my own.

And I will always stick my head in the hole!

I say we leave our pretension at home.   Say it loud.   Say it proud.   I am a tourist!

The Carpetbagger

Please feel free to email me at jacobthecarpetbagger@gmail.com
And don't forget to check out my Flickr Photostream and my Youtube Page

Potter's Wax Musem

Man, this is a really cold winter.   I can't help, but continue to have dreams of Florida.  So, let's take a look at another great Florida tourist attraction:  Potter's Wax Museum in St. Augustine, FL.   Being built in 1948 Potter's was the very first wax museum in the United States of America.  At one time the collection boasted at least 300 hundred figures.  Sadly, when the original owner George Potter died in 1979 his family could care less about the collection and sold off the majority of the figures.   Luckily, a passionate employee salvaged a portion of the wax figures and opened a much smaller venue where it currently sits.

Potter's easily has the most figures per square footage.  Figures are dog piled on top of each other.

So let's take a look around and see what they have.  In the scant 3 rooms they have quite the comprehensive collection.

We have our local Floridian Legends.....Fingerless Hemingway and Pounce De Leon....

We have historical figures.....

 We have Willie Shakespeare and his sidekick Yorrick.....

Napolean....

Princess Di.....

Thomas Edison with his trusty light bulb.....

And here is Mark Twain Dreaming up Huck and Tom.....

Here we have the Evil leadership of the Axis during WWII.   Subbing for Hitler is Stalin, who I guess we like to forget was on our side in the war.

I have noticed that despite being the most notorious human being in World history, I have never seen a Hitler Figure in a Wax Museum.  Maybe it is bad luck to have a Hitler.

Potter's does meet us half way, by giving us Hitler's head on a platter.

Then of course we have our pop culture figures......

And let's not forget Potter's Potter.....

And the saddest Nicholas Cage ever.....

But what really sets Potter's apart is that they are not afraid to pull back the curtain and show you some things that Wax Museums usually don't let the public see, such as their works in progress....

Can you find Stonewall Jackson's shapely thighs?

I don't think anyone wants to play with that thing, Thank you!

They also have an interesting collection of damaged wax figures, that had a really awesome ghoulish effect to them.

 

And don't forget to check out their extra creepy wall of heads.....

And check out this bulletheaded Lincoln?  Ha!

Too soon?

Potter's is an awesome old school Wax Museum.  While their space is small, you will not believe how many figures they crammed in.  I only touched on the surface.   There is a lot to see in St. Augustine, but I would definitely include Potter's in your visit.


The Carpetbagger

Please feel free to email me at jacobthecarpetbagger@gmail.com
And don't forget to check out my Flickr Photostream and my Youtube Page

Where is the South: A Carpetbagger Video

Hey everyone!  Head over to Youtube to check out the newest Carpetbagger video!


The Carpetbagger

Please feel free to email me at jacobthecarpetbagger@gmail.com
And don't forget to check out my Flickr Photostream and my Youtube Page

The Carpetbagger

Please feel free to email me at jacobthecarpetbagger@gmail.com
And don't forget to check out my Flickr Photostream and my Youtube Page - See more at: http://www.thecarpetbagger.org/2014/01/the-wonderful-world-of-water-towers.html#sthash.QBfGPBm1.dpuf

The Carpetbagger

Please feel free to email me at jacobthecarpetbagger@gmail.com
And don't forget to check out my Flickr Photostream and my Youtube Page - See more at: http://www.thecarpetbagger.org/2014/01/the-wonderful-world-of-water-towers.html#sthash.QBfGPBm1.dpuf

The Wonderful World of Water Towers

Even as a kid I loved Water Towers.   I had no idea what they did, but I loved the massive structures sticking up into the sky line.   Even more impressive is when a town decides to customize their water towers.   Let's take a a look at some of the most impressive water towers you can find across the South.

By the way, in case you didn't know their function is to pressurize a local water system using gravity.

This baseball water tower is found in Zebulon, NC.   I'm not really sure what the inspiration is, but I am guessing that somewhere in Zebulon there is a baseball team of some sort.

I include this water tower from Gwinnett, GA, not for how impressive it is, but how unimpressive it is.  "Gwinnett is Great" has to be one of the most half-hearted civic statements of all time.   Let's not forget that Gwinnett is named after a semi-great man.

This water tower in Andy Griffith's home town of Mt. Airy, NC depicts the iconic opening of "The Andy Griffith Show".   That is if you can see it through all these damn power lines.

This atom shaped water tower can be found in Seneca, SC.  It advertizes "The World of Energy", which is an educational display inside a nuclear power plant.  Yes, I did stop and sea it and it was pretty boring.  My wife said that growing up she took a feild trip there every year and has dubbed it "The most boring place on earth".   Cool water tower though......

 

 I'm not sure of the meaning of this water tower in McBee, SC, but I have to assume that it refers to some sort of special flavor of water.

 

This Egg-Shaped water tower can be found in Newberry, SC.  Its kinda cool, but the fact of the matter is that water towers kinda look like eggs to begin with, so it didn't take a lot of effort to make this.

This water tower painted to look like a basket of apples can be found in Mt. Jackson, VA.  I like how I got the moon in this pictures.

This water tank in Savannah, GA is painted to look like plant earth and its pretty awesome.   An interesting easter egg is the fact that the it depicts a giant hurricane headed right towards Savannah (upper right hand corner).   As cool as it is, the old version was even cooler as it was painted as a globe.  The globe can be seen in its original form in the Ben Affleck film "Forces of Nature."

This tower, shaped like a bottle of bourbon celebrates Kentucky's bourbon industry.  One can only assume that it contains actual bourbon.

This beloved Water tower in Florence, KY actually came about as a legal loop-hole.  The tower originally said "Florence Mall".   Someone pointed out that it was illegal to advertize private businesses on a public structures.  The town didn't want to repaint the whole thing so they did a quick fix and changed "Mall" to "Y'all".  The thing is that people loved the change and the tower has since become iconic.

This whimsical hot-air-balloon shaped water tower is found off the freeway in Wytheville, VA.  What I found most amusing is that truckers refer to this tower as "The Doorknob to Hell".

And we end with the legendary "Peachoid", which is easily the most well known and most impressive water tower in all of the South.  Found in Gaffney, GA the water tower has been connected to some controversy with some saying it is too distracting to the drivers on the road, while others say it looks like a giant ass.   I should also mention that I am not at all bitter about the fact that I licensed this image to be used in the show "House of Cards", but they ended up using someone else's pictures.  Oh, well, their loss.

The Carpetbagger

Please feel free to email me at jacobthecarpetbagger@gmail.com
And don't forget to check out my Flickr Photostream and my Youtube Page