After Thanksgiving with my family I am planning on embarking on a massive Roadtrip.
The goals of the roadtrip are such:
See the parts of the South I have never been to.
To investigate the disputed states of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas and to see if they are or are not part of the South.
To see Route 66 for the first time (If only a small portion).
To see as many cool things as I possible can.
Always be on the lookout for the holy trinity: Fiberglass statues, Wax Figures, and taxidermy.
Here is a rough outline of what my Route will be.
Of course things could easily go off course due to weather, unexpected closures, ADD, wanderlust, or getting lost.
I should probably mention that I will be attempting to complete this trip in only six days, meaning I will constantly be on the move and will never be in one city for more then a day.
If anyone has any suggestions or ideas, please let me know. I may be trying to post videos from the road if I can find wifi.
Mystery Hills, Mystery Houses, Mystery Shacks, Mystery Holes...........Places full of Mystery. An ancient tradition of the American Roadside, these are places where the rules of gravity do not apply. They are inter-dimensional anomalies that only appear within the confines of tourist destinations.
For the uninitiated, these mysterious locations are enclosures where unknown forces affect gravity and the human body. Water flows uphill, balls roll up uphill, and everyone leans at a weird angle like that one Michael Jackson video. When it comes down it, they are pure touristy fun.
The first Mystery House I visited was Big Mike's Mystery House in the tourist paradise of Cave City, KY.
In addition to containing a mystery House, Big Mike's is also home to beloved fiberglass dinosaur "Big Moe".
Inside, guided tours of the Mystery House were given for a bargain basement price of 50 cents. Past framed pictures of optical illusions the guide leads you into the mysterious "Space Room".
Immediately you realize something is off. Walking in a straight line is difficult your body seems pulled towards one of the walls. The Guide then leads you into his room of tricks. Unexplained illusions include a hallway that makes your girlfriend seem gigantic.
And no, I don't know these people.
Other tricks include balancing a chair against a wall with its legs on a small ledge.
And then there is the classic Mystery House lean, demonstrated her by my son.
It was short, but satisfying and well worth the 50 cents.
The Bee-based tourist attraction Bee City in Cottageville, SC has a small mystery house known as the "Bee Crazy Fun House" (There is no humor like Bee Humor).
This was probably the least inspired of the Mystery Houses I have been to, there was no guide, and no lights, just some slanty floors and water running uphill.
The most mysterious thing that occurred in the Bee Crazy house was the fact that while taking the above pictures the auto-focus on my old camera permanently stopped working. Damn you, Mysterious forces.
Last week me and my daughter made our way to Mystery Hill in Blowing Rock, NC.
Mystery Hill is your classic roadside Mystery attraction. Like every good mountain attraction, the back story behind Mystery Hill is based around Moonshine.
The tour begins with the guide talking about a mysterious figure named "Grandpa" who noticed strange occurrences in his orchard. We then get a look at Grandpa's still.
We then get to look at the Revenuer that he buried alive.
You can tell he is still alive, because his animatronic feet are still twitching. Children are then welcome to pose for a photo op inside an out-house with the murderous Grandpa.
We are then brought into the main Mystery room. We are greeted by a Wax Issac Newton, warning us to not break any laws.
And then the fun begins.
The mysterious effects are oldies, but goodies.......Let's take a look.
Mystery Hill also contains some bonus mysteries such as this magic faucet......
And this magic light bulb.....
Also included is a Native American Museum.......
Which contains 50,000 arrowheads, which is indeed a lot of arrowheads
Now for the past several years I have made it somewhat of a personal mission to track down every existing Harrison Mayes Cross that is still standing. If you are not familiar with Harrison Mayes and his crosses, please go over and read my article on Mayes HERE.
In short, Mayes traveled all across America planting concrete signs with religious messages. So far I have photographed 10 of these signs that are still standing in the wild (Some I came across myself, others I was tipped off on).
Now, recently I given a tip about something I have never even known existed: a Harrison Mayes BARN. Mike Curtis tipped me off that this barn was located on the Dixie Highway in Del Rio, TN. I was so psyched I had to head out there to see it myself. And so I did......
I headed out on NC-209, which apparently has recently been dubbed "The Rattler".
Huh? Okay, I'll go with it. I have nothing against giving cool names to roads. It appears this is inspired greatly by the notorious "Tail of the Dragon", a famously curvy road that is beloved by motorcyclists. The swag for the "Tail of the Dragon" is incredibly popular and this is likely an attempt to capitalize on this.
Never the less, I set out on this newly christened curvy road. How curvy? Check it out.
I was driving my Toyota Corrolla, instead of a motorcycle, so the curves may not have had their full effect. I did however enjoy the view. This road is full of amazing old barns.......
As well as some awesome old houses.....
And old broken down vehicles.....
Check out this deer head mounted on a porch....
Or all these old rotten pelts nailed to a barn.....
Look at this Donkey hanging out at a church....
Check out this out built on top of a big old rock....
Or this old school elementary school sign.....
I passed through the town of Luck, NC......which as far as I can tell consists entirely of one abandoned building.....
I passed the state line into Tennessee, where this delightful bar in a single wide trailer sits..........
Finally making my way into Tennessee I finally located the Harrison Mayes Barn, and it was amazing.....
I lettering and verbiage unmistakably belong to Hayes. And what made this even sweeter is that I stumbled upon ANOTHER Mayes Barn a few miles down the road.
To make things even sweeter, 3 days later I photographed another Harrison Mayes cross in Ruth, NC. This was different then the traditional concrete crosses as was made out of corrugated steal.
I know there are more of these signs (and maybe even barns) out there, I just need to find them.
Hey You All! Recently I had the honor of adventuring with Adam the Woo as we hunted for abandoned neon signs in Cherokee, NC.
Check out Adam's video and go over to his channel and subscribe!
Did you watch the video? Good. While we found a great collection of neon signs, Cherokee is in a state of change. With the continued expansion of the Harrah's casino and its massive tower motel the old motels and tourist traps are quickly vanishing. Here are some signs that have vanished in the past 10 years.
This sign was in the video, but for some reason it had been painted solid yellow.
Here is the Cherokee Trader back when it was lit up....
Here are both sides of the Martonian before it was completely overgrown, you can see clearly how "conditioned" is spelled wrong on one side and wrong on the either.
And here is the big Chief back in better days.....
Here is one of the original cabins from Mac's Wigwam Village. You can see they used to be MUCH smaller.
And just in case you wanted another look at the rotten faced old bear.....
Believe it or not, there used actually be another outdoor taxidermy bear a few doors down.....
And of course, here is the random triceratops before his most recent paint job.....
To check out my original article about Cherokee go HERE.
