Roadside America. - book reviews

Whole Earth Review, Fall, 1988 by Sarah Vandershaf

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Vacationers of America, did you know that you con visit a memorial cairn at Ground Zero Numero Uno near Alamogordo, NM? See conclusive proof that evolution NEVER HAPPENED at thee Creation Evidences Museum in Glen Rose, TX? Gaze upon the wonders of Liberace's closet in Las Vegas, NV? Blow away dinosaurs with your mini M-16 at the Prehistoric Forest in Marblehead, OH? Forget Disneyland! This is the real America!

And Roadside America is your guide. This book is not for people who colt themselves "travelers" ond buy theirr vacation wordrobes at banana Republic. This is a travel guide of the tourists, by the fourists, ond for the tourist. The only museums Roadside America is interested in are the kind that feature wax dummies in bloody Indian massacre scenes under ultraviolet light. If you hove Ie right attitude, you will find that places you once thought to be irredeemably boring ore actually gardens of tourist delight. (Oklahoma, for instance, boosts Oral Roberts' Prayer Tower AND Enterprise U.S.A. AND the Tri-State Spooklight!!"

Roadside America does, however have one humongous flaw: The outors refused to mar theirr sparkling narrative wit such picayune details as addresses ond phone numbers and directions. How do ffiese guys rink we're gonna find these places - by psychic affinity? Granted, many of the attractions (i.e. Wall Drug, SD and House on the Rock WI) ore locoted on such desolote strealss of highway that you 'd have to be a blind, mummified, rollerskating parrot to miss Me signs leading you in. But some good sights - such as the nut Museum in Old Lyme, CT - are pretty well hid.