saddlesores

okay, so this came up on the amtrak bike box thread, "what be the most interesting/significant/offbeat pop culture sights you've visited while on tour?"

instead of getting lost in the weeds on that thread, howzabout we start a new one?
(apologies to those who already posted)


what was THE thing i remember on tour? well, obviously it was.......the THING.

https://nightmarenews.net/wp-content...thing-sign.jpg


pretty sure they have more billboards than 'south of the border'

https://travel.thefuntimesguide.com/...order-sign.jpg


still in arizona, tombstone.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xYix5ENvBac/0.jpg


in new mexico, the VLA outside of socorro. famous for filming 'contact.' they also do some science.

https://public.nrao.edu/wp-content/u...1-1024x512.jpg


on a cross country tour up north, it was a different, um, thing.
world's largest ball of twine. the REAL thing in kansas, not the pretender in minnesota.

https://kansassampler.org/siteassets/ballTwine2.jpg


[note: all photos stolen from the interwebs 'cause my old hardcopy photos are back in the usa.]

mev

Not quite pop culture, but one of the more interesting sights was Agdam in the Nagorno-Karabakh...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agdam_Mosque

This was 2015, prior to the 2020 war when Agdam was ceded back to Azerbaijan control and the area was otherwise peaceful. The Nagorno-Karabakh is disputed territory. The US most other countries consider it belonging to Azerbaijan but occupied and under control of Armenia. Armenia and perhaps one or two other places consider it a separate state - and one can get visas in Yerevan to visit. We were cycling through both Georgia and Armenia but made the trip to Nagorno-Karabakh as an overnight trip with a regular minibus service. Most of the populated area is around the capital Stepanakert which has an interesting feel that is a mix of former-Soviet city and Armenia.

One could get to some of the outlying areas with a taxi. Some of them were noted archaeological ruins. We were also able to ask our taxi driver to stop through Agdam (for an extra fee). It was mostly ruins, with the mosque being the one spot still standing. One could climb up one of the minarets and look over the area.

In 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war again and my understanding is large portions of the Nagorno-Karabakh were ceded back to Azerbaijan control including Agdam. Not sure if one can visit from the other side. (I know I can't visit Azerbaijan as long as I have the special visa in my passport).

mtnbud

This crop duster was flying UNDER the power lines. I missed my best chance of getting a good picture of him flying unde the lines before I pulled my camera out...

Big Pancakes.

I wonder if that's bad for the paint...

Doug64

Compact "log truck"

indyfabz

Paul and Babe in Bemidji, MN

Hooker somewhere east of Erie, PA

DIY RV in Custer, SD

East Glacier, MT

Yaak, MT

The Burmis Tree in Alberta, Canada

raybo

I was riding up the Passo del Bracco that is in the hills above the Cinque Terre in Italy. I happened to look down and saw this silhouette of two leaves painted into the road's white line.




It some ways, it encapsulated what I like about bike touring. First, I saw something no one else is likely to have seen. It shows the persistence of memory--the leaves are no longer there but their memory is. It demonstrates how ephemeral nature is.

BikeParrott

Random artwork in the middle of the nowhere on the East Central Florida Rail trail. It reminds me of the robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still.

CMAW 

I didn't dare to stick my head in, hunting season!

indyfabz

A bit about the first one: I only took the photo because I liked the retro look of the sign. It was taken in 2012. Much to my surprise, when I watched "Animal House" at home a couple of years later I noticed that the sign appears in the film for a split second. Cottage Grove was the filming location for the film's homecoming parade scenes. "May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"


Cottage Grove, OR

On the GAP at Frostburg

Garrison, ND

Steele, ND

Purto de Padrona, Andalucia, Spain

Niagara Falls, ON

thumpism 

At a nearby park. I was tempted to poke my head in but have not finished exploring this universe yet.

tcs

Phthphth. Didn't have to go on tour for that.

Doug64

tcs, your picture reminderd me of a similar one I took in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

indyfabz

Uh…

Doug64

indyfabz

I hear the Captain went on to get stuck in the Suez Canal last March.

pdlamb

Hmm...

Kind of reminds me of a few years ago when the river east of town flooded. We headed out of town that way for the weekend, and on the way out of town, there was a big (heavy for inland waters) boat sitting in the middle of the median. Apparently the owner found out about it and trailered it out of there before we came back.

But this sailboat... Retractable keel? Looks way too small for that ditch. Was there a large lake just the other side of where you took the picture?

Doug64

I'm not sure of the story behind this. The nearest water is on the right-center of the picture. There may be a channel that can not be seen from the road I am standing on. No, there is no lake beyond the road.

This is the coast of Washington or one of its islands. My guess is that there was a very high tide that allowed the boat to get to where it is. Whether there will be a high enough tide to get it out is the question.

This is from a different perspective. There may a larger canal behind the boat running horizontally across the center of the picture.

dgodave

Oita Prefecture, Japan

dgodave

Oita Prefecture, Japan

Doug64

robow

A friend of mine as we rode across Missouri posing before Boat-henge



And I think I may have posted this one before but I still get a kick out it, just the expression on the dog's face and that he totally caught me off guard as I rode up to him, was either in Louisiana or may have crossed over into Arkansas at this point. And for those that don't catch it, that's the leg of a deer in his mouth.

mev

World's smallest Target store. This one has a partial explanation below...

Since 2005 there has been an art installation near Valentine, Texas. The Prada Store (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prada_Marfa) is a culture landmark in its own right. standing somewhat out of place in a lonely stretch of US 90.

In 2016, the Target store appeared a little further down the road between Alpine and Marathon. My photograph is from 2018 and here is an article from 2017: https://texashillcountry.com/smalles...arathon-texas/. I believe it has been taken down since (https://www.click2houston.com/news/t...en-demolished/), but for a while it was an interesting complement.

Doug64

Vancouver ,BC, 2008

dgodave

Amakusa, Japan.
Stayed at this hotel one night. Read the sign in both pics.
(I shouldn't pick on this hotel because it was really quite nice and they had decorated the interior with lots of cool old vinyl record covers. And comfortable sheep).

djb

Man, there are some real good ones here, but boy I love the "entropy shower" . Starts out fine but ends up in a complete disorganized kerschmozel.