Roadside odditys are really my thing

On the way home from camping we stopped at Brandon, IA to visit Iowa's largest frying pan!
Not a far drive from Iowa City as its between Cedar Rapids and Cedar Falls (just off the interstate). If you are looking for a short day trip go visit this fun roadside oddity.

World largest wooden nickel

Here is Iowa City we have our very own roadside oddity: The world Largest Wooden Nickel!

oddities birthday roadtrip part two

Part two of our adventure and the sign points to our next oddity


The plow in the oak. (Exira, Ia)


Only working Danish windmill in America (Elkhorn, Ia). I also recently learned I have Danish ancestors. (Lynne go ahead I know you want to comment on this one :) )

I do look rather Danish don't I


What a 'mean' looking viking!


Little mermaid (from the children's book) (Kimballton, IA)



Albert the Cow (and Albert the cow campground-not kidding!) (Audubon, Ia)
This is the self timer pictures where John yelled turn around faster and I made it (although I do look at bit deer in the headlights :) )


Yup hes a bull alright ;)
10 foot tall rotating ear of corn. Coon Rapids, Ia)
Yup that's a big ear of corn!

After that we headed back home. A great time and a lot of great oddities.
Check out a roadside oddity near you and send me your story. You can also find oddities and upload them to the roadside America website.

oddities birthday roadtrip part one

For my birthday this year John 'got me' a road trip. This trip was secret until we came home early from work on my birthday and then I had to solve what we would be doing.
But before we could go its traditional for me to be able to pick a fresh strawberry...and I found one in my 'patch'


The first part was whisking me away to Des Moines for the night to stay at the Sheraton in West Des Moines with shopping and relaxing (no dinner as I was to full from a wonderful treat day at work!! My co-workers know my love of choclate :)). Wonderful!!! I even ran into Cy at the mall!


The next morning I slept late and then we took off on a tour of Iowa Oddities :) Which was about the best present he could have gotten me! I loved every minute of it- photos, road tripping, good music, funny jokes, seeing and doing new things and did I mention pictures? Here are the oddities we visited:


The first bank Bonnie and Clyde ever robbed (Stuart, IA)


The first train robbery in the west. (Adair, IA)


The smiley faced water tower (Adair, IA)



(ok so click on this picture to look at it largly- story behind it. I set the self timer on camera on a tri-pod or the car if we have nothing else. So its a long ways to get to the tree and my timer is 10 seconds so I run as fast as I can and didn't make it. John did yell out turn around but I just wasn't quick enough- this time (see part 2 when it comes up))

(I then played with my camera and learned how to use the custom timer for 30 seconds- so much better!)
The tree in the middle of the road (Brayton, IA)

More to come in part two stay tuned!