When one thinks about tourist attractions, more often than not, Niagara Falls, The Mona Lisa, or Machu Picchu come to mind. But what about those hidden treasures tucked along the roadsides of rural America? Take the World's Biggest Office Chair in Alabama or the World's Largest Paper Cup in California for instance. Or head over to Wisconsin to see the ten-story-tall hammer.
"Or perhaps you don't want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth, which is only four short hours away?" ~Clark Griswold, National Lampoon's Vacation
Michael, John Travolta's character from the movie of the same name, was a temporarily earth-bound angel also intent on taking in the "big" sights
Similar to these two fictional fellows, the Mosimans are also fond of visiting road-side oddities. If it's weird...we want to see it. So it wasn't surprising that we were willing to forego the unwritten Austin/San Diego directive that dictates that one must never travel, by car, beyond a fifteen minute distance when Sydney discovered that we were within the Wyoming County-approved driving distance to what was, arguably, the World's Biggest Shovel.
The Mosiman women were beyond delighted over the prospect of seeing this wonder. For some reason, Douglas wasn't quite as thrilled but eventually he threw in the trowel and agreed to go.
"Why?" Douglas wondered, scratching his head as his three companions raced to the shovel like Dorothy and her pals skipping through the poppy fields to Oz.
He just didn't get it. One does not ask, "Why." One should instead be asking, "Why did it take so long for us to discover it?"
The next hour was spent on a groundbreaking photo session. We were pretty pleased with the perspective shots that tricked (no-one) viewers into believing we were holding a standard-sized shovel. "I could have stayed home and done this with an actual shovel," muttered Douglas.It was all going well until the camera was handed to me...
"A little to the left," I instructed as my daughters staggered beneath the weight of my son-in-law's airborne, horizontal side-plank.
"Closer. A smidge to the right," I gestured, squinting into the camera.
"Mom! YOU'RE the one who's supposed to move!" Savannah yelled before gravity won the tug-of-war contest for Douglas. "Are you all right, honey?" I said, rushing over to help dust him off. "You look a little pale."
"That gives me an idea!" Sydney announced, immediately Googling another road-side oddity.
"Can we go home now?" Douglas asked, tiredly. "Sure!" his wife said, smiling, "but...can we stop for a scoop of ice cream on the way?"
Super cute! Looks like you guys always have a blast!
ReplyDelete