From sea to shining sea the USA is packed with amazing and unique attractions. Here is a small flavour of what is on offer.
There are many options for seeing the unique roadside attractions. These range from the traditional ‘road trip’, or the increasingly popular option of escorted tours to the USA. However you choose to do it, you are in for a wild ride.
Special Places
The continental USA has huge amounts of variety geographically speaking. One of the great joys about visiting is being able to take in such radically different landscapes and ways of life. Some of these are in surprising locations, one example being the Desert of Maine.
In Freeport, Maine the Desert of Maine is located in a part of the country better known for lush greenery than shifting sand dunes. It was once a farm, until a combination of overgrazing and a failure to rotate crops led to it turning to sand. Abandoned by the family that owned it, the East Coast desert was turned into a tourist attraction in the 1920s. As well as the desert the site is home to a farming museum and a museum of sand!
The General Sherman Tree can be found in Sequoia National Park, California. It is the biggest tree anyone has found on Earth to date (by volume at least). Giant Redwood trees like this are all impressive, but this one is especially massive, stretching up over 80 metres. The national parks of California are nothing short of spectacular and visiting is a great experience.
Where is the true heart of America? You would be surprised if someone said ‘Lebanon’! Well the Geographic Center of the U.S. is in Lebanon, Kansas. If you are passing through this part of the world why not call in?
Donuts and milk
A classic combination to be sure, and in the USA you can see both of these elements celebrated by famous roadside attractions. Randy’s Donuts, in Inglewood, California is famous for the giant donut adorning its roof and has appeared in many films, for example Mars Attacks as well as the video for Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
To wash down a giant donut, you need a giant drink of milk. Fortunately the USA is seemingly awash with gargantuan servings of bovine lactation! The Hood Milk Bottle is in front of the Children’s museum in Boston, Massachusetts or alternatively the Benewah Milk Bottles can be found in Spokane, Washington.
Bats, man
The World’s Largest Baseball Bat is in Louisville Kentucky, proving that the state is about much more than fried chicken. Rumoured to be 120 feet tall and weighing in at 68,000lb this colossal bad stands as a testament to America’s love of the game of baseball. Fittingly the bat is on the side of a baseball museum, which means it scores a home run in terms of being a tourist attraction!
