Coast to coast - offbeat adventure

[SentraSE-R]

I'm leaving for Peru for a month, staying in remote village schoolhouses and camping a lot. If the Shining Path doesn't find me, I'll be back in a month.

Then I need to plan a coast-to-coast trip in July. I'll be driving my Scion xB, and trying to avoid the Interstates, while driving from San Francisco to Miami and back, via Prattville, AL. I'll be using roadsideamerica.com's map feature to look for oddball and interesting sights to see and places to visit, as that's the kind of stuff I find interesting. I plan to stop for the nightly flight of Mexican Freetail Bats from the Congress Street Bridge in Austin, TX, for example. I'll have a couple of weeks to get to Miami before the cruise ship leaves for the Caribbean. So what interesting sights do you know of along my route? I've visited most of the national parks en route. I've driven the Loneliest Highway, and Hell's Backbone. I'm looking for really neat, little-known stuff, like giant praying mantis sculptures, dinosaur fossils in riverbeds, historical signs for the U.S. Camel Corps, etc.

I'll also be flying to Connecticut and renting a car to drive to New England for a week. I'll take a boat trip to Machias Island, Maine to see Atlantic Puffins and Razorbills. What else do you recommend to see in New England?

Your ideas? Routes? Things to see?

[PaleMelanesian]

Since you'll be (sort of) in the area, check out the giant 70-foot Sam Houston statue just south of Huntsville TX.

7600 Highway 75 S, Huntsville, TX‎ - (936) 291-9726‎

[SentraSE-R]

Thanks. That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for. I hope to see a string of other suggestions by the time I return, to help me in my planning.

[Elixer]

In southern New Mexico I really think White Sands is great, especially on a moonlit night, Carlsbad caverns is also really cool, you can also check out the bat flights there every evening. In Las Cruces be sure to check out some of the New Mexican restaurants, there are some really amazing ones here. Double Eagle or La Posta are both recommended. Both have amazing New Mexican dishes and margaritas. El Paso is a great place to go clubbing if you're into that, and I can recommend places depending on your taste in music.

As far as off-beat kind of stuff, I know a great place to go cliff jumping in the Jemez in northern New Mexico. If you're into camping check out the Gila hot springs near Silver City. Also check out the ditch in Silver City. There's nothing more satisfying than walking a riverbed with old cars, washers and dryers and all other kinds of random crap in it.

Don't stop in Roswell; the area 51 stuff is (IMO) very overrated.

[oldlar]

This is what I plan to do next year: http://www.justsaygo.us/GAS/index.html

[SentraSE-R]

Well, I'm back from Peru. What an adventure! We were refused passage through the village of Pucacocha. The villagers there had heard rich foreigners were trafficking in body parts (eyeballs of young boys), and they blocked the road. Then they demanded to inspect every piece of our luggage. There were 100 of them, and only five of us, so they did just that before they sent us back from where we'd come.

I like the idea of cruising slow roads like US 50, the loneliest highway in America. I'm starting the trip planning this weekend. Carlsbad is one of my favorite parks.

[drimportracing]

Welcome back Darrell, glad your safe.

Looking for the strange and interesting? I couldn't resist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUWET...layer_embedded from "House of a 1000 Corpses" Best horror movie ever. This clip is tame, unlike the movie itself.

And this site is for real, near Amarillo, TX known as the Cadillac Ranch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgtT-...layer_embedded

GPS coordinates, and history of this popular Americana art site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch

I'll add some good ones when I get home tonight like:

http://www.oregonvortex.com/

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Castle

. - Dale

[SentraSE-R]

More. I want more .

[drimportracing]

I'm purposely not going to the RoadsideAmerica website as I figure you've already covered it well. So some of these if not all of them may already be on that site.

Here goes but they aren't all on your way:

*The paper house in Rockport, Massachusetts
http://www.paperhouserockport.com/interview.html
(I made a recliner size chair out of Budweiser cans and superglue 20years ago.)

*Watts Towers, Los Angeles, California:
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildi...ts_Towers.html
He made these out of junk. Worked on it for many years, when completed he said "it's finished" and walked away, giving the property to a neighboring friend. It avoided demolition by the city after being found structurally safe by an architectural engineer many years later.
better link: http://www.wattstowers.us/

*Pirate Days in Alexandria Bay, NY
Bill Johnston and his band of pirates invade Alexandria Bay. Bill Johnston was a renegade after the patriots war, who blew up the British steamer, Sir Robert Peel, hid among the 1000 Islands, and was wanted by both U.S. and Canadian authorities.
This has the coordinates and phone numbers:
http://www.faires.com/EventRecord.php?Id=441

*Lighthouse near Portland, Maine and the Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth, Maine:
http://lobstershacktwolights.com/ Get there at least an hour before close or you won't get lobster. The view in the evening is incredible: http://www.portlandheadlight.com/home.html

*The Lost Colony of Roanoke, Manteo NC:
Elegant costumes and award winning theatrics of a true story of early American settlers in an outdoor theatre:
http://www.thelostcolony.org/ English settlers landed in 1587 and within three years the only clue to their fate was the word CROATOAN carved in a tree (and some blue eyed indians, I know what happened. <1stIndian voice: Hmmm, men folk gone over edge in big canoe many seasons, let's go see if pale women need help with tee pee poles. "Word my brother!" says 2nd slightly ghetto Indian> I took some unartistic license with my reenactment.
1409 National Park Drive
Manteo, NC 27954
(252) 473-3414 Tickets

*worlds largest roadside attractions:
http://www.wlra.us/ Seems appropriate.

and this

http://www.weirdamerica.com/
I'm getting lazy, you look these up. - Dale

One more:
Burning Man http://www.burningman.com/

and another link

Festivals and Renaissance Faires Map:
http://www.faires.com/WorldMap.php with clickable info.

[SentraSE-R]

Dale,

It's too bad you're delivering pizzas, instead of being my co-pilot. Thanks for the great links!