The envelope please: The Concrete Potato Awards for 2012

As 2012 comes to a close, it's time for our annual Concrete Potato Awards, given for excellence in eccentric roadside attractions we've been to in the last year. Named after the Idaho Potato Expo, seen in the masthead of this blog, it been a tradition here at Eccentric Roadside for, well, a while now. It was tough to whittle the nominees down to 10, but whittle we did and now, without further ado and in no particular order we present this year's Concreteys (and remember, it's an honor just to be nominated...)

The Farnham Colossi, Unger, West Virginia

Salty the Seahorse, Mattapoisett, Massachusetts

The Purple Cow, Dooms, Virginia

We completed our trinity of highways named in honor of actors from "The Andy Griffith Show": The Andy Griffith Parkway of Mount Airy, North Carolina, and Don Knotts Boulevard of Morgantown, West Virginia were seen in 2012, joining the ranks of the Jim Nabors Highway of Sylacauga, Alabama, toured in 2010.

The road blogger summit (featuring Fuzzy Galore, Roadside Wonders, Retro Roadmap and yours truly) at Sine's 5 and 10, Quakertown, Pennsylvania

We saw lots of eccentrically named streets last year. This one, from somewhere in Connecticut, is my favorite.

The Big Duck, Flanders, New York

Don't Go Here, Connecticut

Odd, West Virginia

The 12-foot handcart of Johnston, Rhode Island (with two 5-foot-six-inch Ringo Starrs for scale)