Ai yi yi! Dillon, South Carolina's South of the Border

We're still getting over a little touch of ill health so here's another rerun post of one of the eccentric roadside all-time greats: South of the Border in Dillon, South Carolina. Click here to read our previous posts.

Beloved souvenir of the week

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...the Bar Harbor, Maine pocket comb.

Beloved souvenir of the week

We picked up this gem at a flea market for about 25 cents. Several years later, Sherry's parents bought a used furnished camper and inside was the exact same plate. I considered it a sign from God that the camper was truly blessed...or maybe God likes to go to flea markets, I'm not sure.

Beloved souvenir of the week

As you might have gathered, we're big fans of old-fashioned roadside souvenirs. One of my favorites is this beauty from the Devil's Rope Museum, a barbed wire depository in McLean, Texas. It's a stunningly crafted shellacked plank of Texas with a deluxe rope border and a fine sampler from legendary barbed wire innovators J. Brinkerhoff, T.V. Allis, D.C. Stover and C.D. Rogers. I don't remember what I paid for it, but it was worth every penny. It's so beloved, in fact, that it's hung on my office partition just above the equally beloved "God Bless This Camper" souvenir plate...a spot of no higher honor, barb none.

Beloved souvenir of the week: Miss Atomic Bomb poker chip from Las Vegas' Atomic Testing Museum

I did a post some time ago about the incredible Atomic Testing Museum of Las Vegas, Nevada, and it is a place that is not to be missed if you're a non-gambling eccentric roadside attraction fan. A prized memento of that stellar trip is the poker chip I purchased in their superior gift shop. Poker chips make great Vegas souvenirs because they're small, inexpensive and very Vegas-y, baby. But this isn't just any souvenir poker chip. Emblazoned on this fine keepsake is Miss Atomic Bomb. Back in 1957, a photo shoot was concocted to honor the atom bomb being tested in Vegas, and who better to do this than a pretty showgirl decked out in a cotton-ball mushroom cloud explosion swimsuit. But who was Miss Atom Bomb? A Mr. Robert Freidrichs of the National Nuclear Security Commission has been searching for Miss A.B. for some time and has compiled some impressive data. He's determined her to most likely be Lee Merlin, a 1950s Vegas model who, if she's still alive, would most likely be in her early seventies today. Check out this website, conelrad.com, for more of the explosive details. If anyone out there in Eccentric Roadsideland has seen her, or if you're tuning in now, Miss Merlin, drop us a line. You da bomb.

Me encanta recuerdos de mal gusto desde el sur de la frontera*: I love tacky souvenirs from South of the Border

Pull his pants down and he pees. Hilarity ensues.

Richard Petty is ready to greet you...

...as is this friendly native American.

The place looks like it hasn't changed since forever.

Religious icons, anyone?

Nothing makes a roadtrip more fun than a stop for some useless junk, and South Carolina's South of the Border has some of the best crappe of anywhere in the world. Inflatable chili peppers? Check. Risque bath towels? Check. Souvenir backscratcher? Check. Who wouldn't want one of thousands of these precious keepsakes as a memento of the all good times had by all? The decor here is wonderful, too: hand-lettered signs, old wooden counters and shelves, friendly poncho-wearing help. And you can pick up a whole bunch of treasures without breaking the bank. Yo quiero South of the Border.

*if this translates to something ridiculous like "Bite the wax tadpole" it's because I don't speak Spanish and used an online translator.

Odd souvenir of the week: Las Vegas lip balm

Every once in a while you come across a souvenir that makes you go "huh?" and such was the case with this item. While patronizing a CVS drug store on the Las Vegas strip I spotted a huge dispenser full of lip balm. Nothing to see here I thought, until I noticed the little sticks had the classic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" logo on the label. No other brand name, just that. Sure, people are apt to get chapped lips from the hot Vegas sun and people probably kiss each other more here than wherever back home is, but I'd never seen a cosmetic with a city's logo on it before. A practical souvenir and at a popular price, to boot.

Souvenir shopping in Annapolis, Maryland: Crabby Road

You can't beat a fish sandwich in Annapolis!

Stevens Hardware: great stuff since 1961!

We spent a lovely day in the pretty, well-preserved Colonial town of Annapolis, Maryland in 2007. It's a great place to walk around, get a delicious bite to eat and souvenir shop. Any place that refers to itself as "the crab capital of the world," as Maryland does, is tops in my book, and the souvenirs bear this out. Stevens True Value Hardware store on Dock Street is one of those great American institutions: the downtown independent local hardware store. It was opened as a general store in the late 1800s and the Stevens family has been running the place since 1961. They've weathered the ups and downs of good and bad times, including being flooded by Hurricane Isabel in 2003, and, in addition to the usual hardware mainstays, offer a glittering array of souvenirs for the tourist trade. My favorite was the brass crab door-knocker... a real beauty. Who doesn't know a crabby person who wouldn't love to receive this as a gift item? So quit your crabbin' and get down to Annapolis. You'll be glad you did.

Las Vegas's Bonanza Gift Shop: The whole kitsch and caboodle!

No trip to Las Vegas would be complete without a visit to the Bonanza Gift Shop, the world's largest (and perhaps most taste-challenged) gift shop. It's a strip mall the size of a Vegas city block full of deliciously awful "gifts" and souvenirs. Need a Royal Flush potholder, fake vomit, squirting slot machine or a plush parrot that hurls obscenities at passersby? They got 'em and lots, lots more! I've always loved junky souvenirs and this place is the Nieman-Marcus of tasteless wares. It amazes me that a prime piece of Vegas strip real estate (Sahara and Las Vegas Blvd.) could be occupied by this old-fashioned kind of a place. It dates back to 1980 but feels more like a place I'd consider one of my favorite roadside attractions when I was a child back in the sixties. It's wonderful and a connoisseur of crappe such as myself could spend all day here. According to their website, the place is a "virtual cornucopia of Las Vegas souvenirs and gifts with a little bit of everything else thrown in. Over 40,000 square feet of shopping hysteria. The bizarre, the unusual, yes even the weird all available in one giant place." Celebrities who have visited the place include Angelina Jolie, Michael Jackson, Condoleezza Rice, Cindy Crawford and Ringo Starr. As they say, when in Rome, buy fake Elvis sideburns like the Romans do. Here's their website: http://www.worldslargestgiftshop.com/cgi-bin/shop/index.html

Las Vegas's Bonanza Gift Shop slideshow