This could be the start of something big

There's nothing like going out of your way on a road trip to see a depiction of something ordinary blown up to a huge proportion. Here are a few of our favorites (we've blogged about all of them so click on the captions to read all about 'em):

 The Big Duck, Flanders, New York

 The Longaberger Basket Company's world headquarters in the shape of a big picnic basket, Newark, Ohio

 Albert the bull, Audubon, Iowa

 The Big Blue Bug, Providence, Rhode Island

 Big Fish Supper Club, Bena, Minnesota

 The Jamestown Buffalo, Jamestown, North Dakota

 The Coffee Pot, Bedford, Pennsylvania

 The Idaho Potato Expo, Blackfoot, Idaho

 The Milk Bottle Restaurant, Raynham, Massachusetts

Salem Sue, Salem, North Dakota

The May Museum of Natural History of the Tropics, Colorado Springs, Colorado

 The World's Largest Catsup Bottle, Collinsville, Illinois

 The World's Biggest Office Chair, Anniston, Alabama

 The World's Biggest Easel, Goodland, Kansas

The World's Biggest Tooth, Trenton, New Jersey

Ah, look at all the lovely people: Rigby, Idaho's historical museum

One of our favorite things to do when passing through America's small, out-of-the-way towns is to take a look inside the local museums and historical societies. There you will find proud tributes to people and things outsiders might find mundane or trivial but that are of great meaning to the locals. The small eastern Idaho community of Rigby has a terrific museum that is actually a twofer: the Jefferson County Historical Society shares space with the Farnsworth TV & Pioneer Museum, commemorating Philo T. Farnsworth, Rigby native and inventor of television. And all of this is housed in a former motel, adding to the quaint roadside ambiance. Here's looking at you, Rigby, with your TV inventors, atomic quilts, big-haired lady composers, stuffed bears and breastfeeding manuals on display. We'll be here remembering you, wearing the face that we keep in the jar by the door.

Happy birthday, Bob Newhart

Today is Bob Newhart's 84th birthday and we'd like to wish him many happy returns. One of our all-time favorite eccentric roadside attractions is the Bob Newhart statue in Chicago (and you can read about it here). One of the best things Bob ever did was close out his Vermont-based sitcom "Newhart" by referring back to his previous sitcom "The Bob Newhart Show". We find out the entire series was dream when Bob wakes up in bed next to Suzanne Pleshette as Emily, making it, in our humble opinion, the best series finale in the history of TV. A youtube search reveals a  little coda during the credits we had forgotten all about. Check it out here.