Author Archives: Jim Hejl

Erwin High School Mascot

By | | Native Americans, People
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In front of Clyde A. Erwin High School you can see Chief Willy. The sports teams are nicknamed the Warriors and I suspect the Chief is their mascot. (BTW, Clyde A. Erwin was the North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1934 to 1952.) If you look closely you can see that I am holding an umbrella, it was raining pretty good, but that’s OK, all part of the Big Thing experience. The rain held off all day while we were at Biltmore. It rained for the next 90 minutes until we got back to the cabin in Gatlinburg. Good timing!

willy

Erwin High School Mascot

 

Chief Pontiac

By | | Native Americans, People
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If you only visit the Smokies once, be sure to leave a day to visit the Biltmore in Asheville. It’s the largest personal residence in the US. Quite a place. However I was more intesested in getting some Big Pictures. Here is Chief Pontiac who stands in front of Harry’s Cadillac-GMC located at the corner of Patton and Florida behnd the Sav-mor. They used to sell Pontiac brand cars there until GM discontinued the line. Maybe he should now be called Chief GMC?

pontiac

Chief Pontiac

Early Girl Iron

By | | Objects, Other Big Objects
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Another planned photo from Roadside America located in Asheville, NC. We left the Biltmore Estate at mid-afternoon and we were hungry. Food costs at the Biltmore were in the style of the house, a personal pizza was $18 to give you an example, yikes. Fortunately, while tracking this Big Iron in downtown Asheville we found the Early Girl Eatery. Here’s a note from their website: “Early Girl Eatery opened its doors in mid October of 2001. Centrally located in downtown Asheville on historic Wall Street, the critically-acclaimed and locally beloved eatery offers delicious southern food in a casual, charming atmosphere.” While traveling we are always in search of local, non-chain restaurants and Early Girl didn’t let us down. Highly recommended.

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Early Girl Iron

Tennessee Coke

By | | Food and Drink, Soda (Pop)
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On our way to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a little R&R, we passed through Pigeon Forge, it was a busy Monday afternoon and traffic was moving slowly. Eagle-eyed Deb spotted this first of many Big Things present in town. We made a quick U-turn and grabbed this Big Coke out in front of the Country Bottle Shop selling Coca Cola Collectibles. The bottle says “Return for Deposit,” I wonder what the deposit is for a bottle this size?

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Tennessee Coke

Berea Hand

By | | Objects, Other Big Objects
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On our way down to the Smokies we decided to stop for lunch in Berea, Kentucky, a nice college town and also the home of the Boone Tavern. Since Deb is a history teacher, the Boone Tavern sounded like a good place to eat. We drove through campus and into downtown and found the Boone Tavern. The Tavern turned out to be a little upscale for what we anticipated. White tablecloths, etc. Anyway we left and on the way to the car spotted the Main Street Cafe, a few doors down. This is a good local restaurant, The lunch menu offered a great choice of classic american food with enough trendy choices for the local college diners. Stop in if you are in the area Oh! I almost forgot, this big hand is next door in front of the Berea Arts Council.

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Berea Hand

Big Kentucky Mortar

By | | Objects, Other Big Objects
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Not all Big Things are things of beauty, especially when they assume new ownership. This is a case in point. The mortar and pestal configuration has all aspects of a drive-thru pharmacy. Now it is a liquor store, not what I was expecting when I was planning a Big Things route for our trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The thing about planning ahead of time that sometimes you get great and sometimes lesser. This is the lesser.

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Big Kentucky Mortar

Tennessee Chicken

By | | Animals, Chickens
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On our way down to Smoky National Park and our cabin in Gatlinburg we were traveling down I-75 in Tenessee and spotted this Big Chicken at exit 141. We needed gas and thought it would be a good time to fill up and also get a shot of this chicken in front of Stowers Super Store. A very interesting place with lots of stuff out front. This patriotic chicken caught our attention. Just had to get it.

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Tennessee Chicken

 

Super Bowl Scarve

By | | Objects, Other Big Objects
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Indianapolis was Super Bowl crazy in January 2012. I volunteered and received one on the 13,000+ hand knit scarves. I was surprised to see one around the neck of a dinosaur at the Children’s Museum where I volunteer once a week. The dino’s scarve is a story in itself. This is from the Indystar web site, “How do you knit a 30-foot scarf for a dinosaur? With broomsticks for knitting needles and 5,000 feet of rope, said Karin Schmitt, owner of Broad Ripple Knits, who helped make the dinoscarves.” Take a close look and see the dino is wearing a big whistle and headset with microphone. He probably was helping the zebras.

scarve

Super Bowl Scarve

Indy Ice Big Skate

By | | Objects, Sports
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I spotted this Big Skate outside the Fall Creek entrance to the Indiana State Fairgrounds where the Indianapolis Ice play. This year they are playing downtown at the Bankers Field arena while the Pepsi Coliseum is being refurbished. The Ice are members of the US Hockey League, hospital an U20 (players are under 20 years old) hockey league. These guys are looking at a shot to play in the NHL.

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Indy Ice Big Skate

Keystone Homebrewing

By | | Beer, Food and Drink
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In 2011 we visited Philadelphia for Christmas. While there we visited the new location of Keystone Homebrewing, which is Andy’s store of choice. I had been to the old location a couple of times, it was located in an old house and it was jammed with products for the homebrew crowd. This new location has all kinds of room with more products available. I didn’t expect to find these large items. This threesome of images taken at Keystone Brewing during our visit were lost for a while, I’m glad I found them. I did think about buying the glass, what an excuse, “Officer, I only had one glass of wine.” Do you think that would work?

 

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Keystone Glass

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Keystone Cap

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Keystone Beer

Freddy Hill Cow

By | | Animals, Cows and Bulls
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Freddy Hill Farms is more than the name implies. We stopped by with Andy and Lindsey to get some fresh milk to make cheese, but soon fell prey to the many delicious ice cream varieties, even though it was December. The Seipt family learned how to make rich ice cream while at Penn State, but they have added many more reason to visit. They have a mini-golf course, driving range, pro shop and more. Lucky Andy lives nearby Freddy Hill’s located on Sunneytown Pike in Lansdale, PA. Stop in if you want some super rich ice cream.

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Freddy Hill Cow

 

NJ Nutcrackers

By | | Seasonal
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Ben and I were on our way to the Apple Store on Rte 73 in Marlton, NJ. When we pulled into the shopping center we spotted these Nutcrackers guarding the entrance. Had to stop and grab this image.

nutcracker

NJ Nutcrackers

 

Nashville (IN) Dogs

By | | Animals, The Rest of the Animals
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A found image from our trip down to Columbus and Nashville, Indiana during Fall Break (one day) 2011. Shopping is in order in Nashville, an artsy village in southern Indiana. I’m not quite sure what these big dogs were doing in front of “For Bare Feet Too” a store dedicated to selling socks. More bewildering was the dog wearing the number 18 jersey, which was Peyton Mannings number. Remember this is the 2-14 Colts season when Peyton didn’t play. Go figure.

Nashville Dogs

Nashville Dogs

Columbus Globe

By | | Objects, Other Big Objects
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On the campus of Indiana University/Perdue University in Columbus we tracked down this Big Globe fountain. Named Discovery it is called a kugel, from the German word for ball. A mere 12 pounds of water pressure supports the nearly 2, 300 pound globe, made from granite from South Africa. Each of the books is made from a different type of granite from the Bavarian Forest in Germany, and together they weigh more than 9,400 pounds.

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Columbus Globe

Fuzzy’s Vodka

By | | Food and Drink, The Rest of the Food
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Carmel Indiana has an Art Fair downtown every year which is a nice way to spend a few hours and a few dollars. This year we were shopping for a couple of presents when lo and behold, out front of Old Town Tavern, was this big bottle of Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka. Turns out it is the renowned golfer Fuzzy Zoeller’s creation. It’s 5 times distilled and 10 times charcoal filtered. Of course, as you could expect the slogan is “Get Fuzzy!”

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Fuzzy’s Vodka

Bethany Beach Gelato

By | | Food and Drink, Ice Cream
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Bethany Beach has many good shops and places to explore. It was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours browsing around the shops. The experience was much difference than the shops in Ocean City, Maryland, where we rented a condo for the week. We stopped at a coffee place but then found this shop selling gelato. A nice cone outside.

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Bethany Beach Gelato

Illinois Muffler Gal

By | | Muffler Gals, People
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Last Big Person on the last leg of the out-West trip yielded this version of the Big Muffler Gal. She stands on SW Washington Street in Peoria. The only other Muffler Gal I have stands in Hilltop, NJ and is one of the first photos I have. She was updated when I last visited her and she changed from a Jackie O look to a Wonder Woman. This gal has nothing to hide!

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Illinois Muffler Gal

Peoria Chicken

By | | Animals, Chickens
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East Peoria, our last stop on our Out-West trip and the target was this Big Rooster with a top hat. Not only does he have brightly colored plumage but is wearing a top hat. If you look closely there is a string of lights that almost looks like a veil.

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Peoria Chicken

Clinton Iowa Chicken

By | | Animals, Chickens
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We made our way through Minnesota to the Mississippi River and took a right planning to follow this Mighty River down to the Quad Cities. Along the way we were passing through Jan’s home town of Clinton, Iowa. This city was a treat, much larger than I imagined with a nice riverfront park. Just south of downtown we spotted this Big Chicken. While he is a pretty common variety of Big Chicken he does advertise Angelo’s Pizza & Pasta at the corner of 11th Ave S and S 4th Street. Angelo’s was closed when we stopped or I might have stopped for a slice.

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Clinton, Iowa Chicken

 

Princeton Iowa Chicken

By | | Animals, Chickens
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The fine feathered friend wears a top hat to advertise Bridges Restaurant in Princeton, Iowa, an old river town along the Mississippi. He sits on the top of the roof to avoid any possible floods. Not sure if the restaurant is still open.

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Bridges Chicken