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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Roadside America: Online Guide to Weird American Tourist Sites

There seems to be several categories of tourist sites. The primary category are the major sites in every guide book. The White House, Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower, etc. Everyone knows these and it is pretty much required to visit these sites at least once when one visits an area. The secondary sites are known to locals and a few "deep" guide books. These locations do not get very many visitors and tend to have a very specialized audience but if one is interested in these sites they offer a rich experience. The final category is odd or weird sites. Whether they are a tourist trap or not, these offer an "interesting" experience and have a coolness factor just by being what they are.

Roadside America is an online guide to the third category with some secondary sites thrown in for good measure. Sites like a 1880s robotic cowboy town right outside Sioux Falls, South Dakota; a schismatic Virgin Mary site in Wisconsin, and dinosaurs versus the Union army in Virginia are just some of the oddities on the website.

Navigation is primarily done on a map allowing one to view sites by state. Other great features can be viewed in video clips or a list on how Americans view various countries.

So next time you are going on a trip check this site out and plan a detour to the weird!

1 comment:

Dan tdaxp said...

Everything about the North v. Southern Dinosaurs page is hilarious!