Egg-centric roadside: The Humpty Dumpty statue of Coral Springs, Florida

 HD filmed in low-def with the Dumptycam.

When Eccentric Roadside moved its world headquarters to Coral Springs, Florida back in July of 2014, little did we know that our new home town was also the locale of a truly magnificent, some might say eggs-taordinary, work of eccentric roadside art. On the busy corner of Sample Road and Northwest 94th Avenue, tucked in among the South Florida suburban office buildings, strip malls and condominium complexes, sits a delightful deviation: a bronze depiction of that famous children's rhyme workplace hazard victim: Humpty Dumpty. Nattily attired in bow tie and striped trousers and sporting a hey-look-at-me grin, he sits on a 3-foot tall concrete wall in his pre-fall stance. He's the work of famed Minneapolis sculptor Kimber Fiebiger, who has depicted Mr. Dumpty in many of her works. The city of Coral Springs has lots of other sculptures along Sample Road, part of a beautification project from a few years back, but we like this one the best. How can you not smile back when you see this guy grinning at you? He cracks us up every time, and that no yolk.

Jean, Nevada: a Jean-ial community

The splendor of Jean

Thirty miles west of Las Vegas on Interstate 15 is the blink-and-you'll-miss-it community of Jean, Nevada. Jean does boast one heck of a casino, though: the Gold Strike Hotel and Gambling Hall. We were looking for a night's lodgings and were amazed to get a room at this high rise-in-the-middle-of-nowhere hotel for a scant $35 a night. Lovely room, too, with a fridge and a microwave and, eerily, almost the whole floor to ourselves. It seemed more like a movie set casino than a real one. I especially liked the large, folk art-ish Old West twin prospector statues that greet you as you enter the high-capacity parking lot. Unlike the Muffler Men and Uniroyal gals, these two behemoths are probably less than 10 years old, I'm guessing, but they have that same old, decaying roadside-attractions-of-the-past look. Their big, goony faces stare at you, menacing you to come on in and set a spell, pardner... or else. Apparently, Jean is a lovely place to visit but not so much to live in: according to Wikipedia, as of 2006, Jean's population consisted of only two permanent residents. Two? I guess when they vote on something there, it's either unanimous or a tie.