Category Archives: Other Big Objects

Early Girl Iron

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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.

iron

Early Girl Iron

Berea Hand

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On our way down to the Smokies we decided to stop for lunch in Berea, illness 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.

hand

Berea Hand

Big Kentucky Mortar

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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.

mortar

Big Kentucky Mortar

Super Bowl Scarve

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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

Columbus Globe

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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.

globe

Columbus Globe

Colorado Guitar

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Colorado was a surprising cornucopia of Big Things. Right after finding the big so-called “Adirondack” chair, we happened upon this giant guitar. As you can see it is a pretty nice find, and unexpected. I was wondering if we would get to the park after finding the chair and also a rooster and heron (on the Big Animals page.) If you haven’t been to Estes Park, go. And take US-34 into town. It’s spectacular. I was there a few years ago when I was “working” and knew I had to get back.

guitar

Colorado Guitar

 

Klown Museum Doll

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Appropriately in a town that calls itself the Klown Kapital of Nebraska – Plainview is home to a Klown Museum right on US-20. There are 4,800 Klown Dolls in this small museum. I’m, pretty sure they could bill themselves as the Klown Capital of the world. I’m sorry we were there on a Sunday when the museum was closed they offer free tours and bottled water which we could have used, it was 99 degrees. This image is “Stumpy the Klown” and is the museum mascot which stands out front (stumpy since it was carved from a tree trunk – get it?)

doll

Klown Museum Doll

Iowa City Nickel

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Imagine growing up in Iowa City. Wouldn’t you think that this Big Nickel would be something that you knew about? It is right on Dubuque Street on the way out of town. Not the case, as I can personally attest. When I told Dan (Iowa City born) about this sight he knew nothing about this, nor did his buds who he consulted. Just shows what we can miss in front of our eyes.

nickel

Iowa City Nickel

 

Chiropractic Clinic Spine

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This 20 foot tall spine is carved from a tree trunk. Appropriately it is located in the backyard of the Rexroth Chiropractic Clinic in West Burlington, Iowa. We took this photo while accompanied by new Bird Doggers Ann, Beth and Jerry. It was Ann’s suggestion that I take my shirt off to “make a better photo!”

spine

Chiropractic Clinic Spine

 

Home Show Guitar

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The Indianapolis Home Show is the first event that I associate with ending Winter and looking forward to Spring even though some years we attend in the snow. We see some of the same vendors each year making it somewhat comforting to attend. This year we found this booth for a cabinetmaker that had this Big Guitar. Turns out he made this guitar just for fun. Imagine owning a 16 ft. guitar. He made this in only a couple of weeks. Pretty cool!

guitar

Home Show Guitar

 

Down River Golf Quarter

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This Big Quarter is out in front of the Down River Golf Course just east of Everett, Pennsylvania. We stopped by on the way back from Philadelphia for Christmas. Looks pretty cold and it was. Maybe next time we visit, if it’s warm, I’ll take my clubs and play 18.

quarter

Down River Golf Quarter

Franklin University Mortarboard

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Even though Steve didn’t spot this, the Big Thing professional in me was able to make the stop in Columbus a double dip with this big Mortarboard hanging over the middle of the street on the campus of Franklin University near the Frasch Hall parking lot F. Check it out.

Mortarboard

Franklin University Mortarboard

Columbus Gavel

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Birddog Steve Harper called this one in from Columbus, Ohio in December, just in time for us to stop on the way to Philadelphia for Christmas. This was harder to get than it looks. The gavel is in a reflecting pond and or course since it is winter there is no water. However the floor of the pond is very slick. I jumped in from the edge and nearly went topsy turvy.

gavel

Columbus Gavel

DC Mall Eraser

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We made a trip out to DC the last week in October with Jerry, Beth and Greg for the Jon Stewart “Rally to Restore Sanity” on the Mall. Not only were we able to add our presence to the turnout but as an added benefit I was able to get this Big Eraser. There’s another Big Eraser like this in Las Vegas which you can see on the Bird Dog page. I think they are the same size.

eraser

DC Mall Eraser

Papa Bear’s Bed

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During our trip through Wisconsin we drove right past Papa Bears Northwood Store and would have missed this Big Bed. Lucky for us we stopped at Mark’s Market, an open air vegetable market down the road. We grabbed a couple of Big Fruits and Vegetables and when talking with Mark he asked if we got the Big Bed. “You can’t miss it,” he said. Well we had, and backtracked to get this image. By the way, Papa Bears looked like a nice store. Stop in if you have the chance, south of the Wisconsin Dells on US-12 in Baraboo. Thanks for the tip, Mark.

bed

Papa Bear’s Bed

 

Geppetto’s Big Clock

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On the 2009 Wisconsin trip we stopped and grabbed this shot of the “World’s Tallest Grandfather clock. The address was a little confusing to the GPS on my Blackberry and we had to backtrack a bit. The clock was in front of Geppetto’s Top of the Hill Shop. Not sure they were in business or not, a little uncared for appearance though there were vehicles around. One extra benefit was the town of Pilsen was right down the road (9 miles or so) and being a 100% Czech I just had to have my photo taken with the town sign. Not much there, a dozen house, a church and auto repair shop. No bar? I thought that was strange.

clock

Geppetto’s Big Clock

Andy’s Big Pencil

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Andy gave me this Big Pencil for Christmas a few years ago. I had a photo from Christmas morning but cannot find it. Since then it’s been in my office. Here I was working on the details of this web site when this photo was snapped. I like it when someone askes me for a pencil to write down a note!

pencil

Andy’s Big Pencil

Haines Shoe House

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The old lady that lived in a shoe could have lived here. However the Haines Shoe House was built by Col. Mahlon Haines, a big self promoter who had a string of shoe stores, go figure. Anyway we now enjoy his self-indulgence with this 25 ft high shoe house located coincidently on Shoe House Rd., off US Rte 30 in Hellam, PA., just East of historic York.

shoe house

Haines Shoe House

 

Effingham Cross

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This is billed as the World’s Largest Cross and I can believe it. Standing 198 feet tall with a 113 foot cross bar it is larger than the cross in Indian River, Michigan which was one of my early Big Photos and can be seen very near the bottom of this page. This cross is between exits 157 and 159 on I-55 in Effingham, IL. There is a great restaurant in Effingham named the Firefly Grill. Highly recommended if you are passing through near lunch or dinner time.

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Effingham Cross