Vacation Planning of the Doomed

[kz_blogorambling]

When we traveled home and back, I relied on several guidebooks with titles like "Iowa Oddities" and "Off the Beaten Path in Illinois" and of course my trusty iPhone app from Roadside America. I like to find us interesting stuff to look at (like the large pitchfork). Many times we're near things in which we are interested, but we don't have time to stop (or we're passing through after closing time). For those attractions, we vow to stop on some future trip. Like, next time we'll swing by and see Algona (IA)'s huge cheeto. And we'll definitely go to the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake Iowa.

Then there are other attractions. Attraction which hold no appeal. Here's a place we passed where we are not stopping and WILL NEVER STOP:

http://www.klowndollmuseum.com/

Comments

[betawriter.livejournal.com]

There is a Roadside America app? I wish I had known that before! However, my Mark will probably not be thrilled with it when we road trip to WY at the end of August. He's already giving me grumbles about my fervid desire to see that rock from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

[crankyasanoldma.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been super glad we have it--although it's got some flaws and not all of the sites are well-documented.

It's not a free app, and you have to buy it in zones. So, being cheap, I only have it for one region of the midwest.

[gundy.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about that app. That'll come in handy at the end of this month, when we go to visit Camp Fancy Lad.

[crankyasanoldma.livejournal.com]

The NYT had an article about summer camps on Sunday. It focused on one camp in the Poconos but talked about them generally, too.

[jdoh.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's not a museum, that is a level of hell.

[slitterst.livejournal.com]

Can't sleep, clown will eat me.

[delphica.livejournal.com]

Yeah, wtf Karen, I thought we were friends and then you go and link to that horror show?

[edwardina.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Emphatically!

[100ofme.livejournal.com]

When I take road trips I never make side trips, unless the whole point of the road trip is the side trips (did that even make sense?). My goal is to get from point a to point b in the shortest time possible.

Although this last time we drove out to Colorado I did have to stop in Iowa at The World's Largest Truck Stop just to say I've been there...

[crankyasanoldma.livejournal.com]

We used to fly everywhere, so it's a treat to actually SEE where we are passing through. Also, maybe because I grew up in NE where most travelers are just trying to get the hell through the state as fast as possible, I like doing it another way. My husband also puts together funny photo essays that he sends to family, and interesting stops make for great material for him. LOL

[100ofme.livejournal.com]

Yeah I drive everywhere and I hate driving. If my husband is driving I don't mind making the extra stops, but it's usually just me and the kids.

And yeah that's usually my goal when I drive through NE LOL...Sometimes it feels like I've been driving through that state for days. I was actually thinking of going home through Kansas and Missouri this time just for a change of scenery, but I know Nebraska and Iowa pretty good now so I don't know...

Oh funny photo essays sounds like a fun thing!

[crankyasanoldma.livejournal.com]

We had planned to swing south and go through missouri, but we couldn't get across the river unless we went down to Kansas City which was too far out of the way. So we took a northern route through Iowa and avoided I-80.

Has a clown ever made you smile?

[katiekilldare.livejournal.com]

Wow. Thumbs down in the Klown Doll Museum. I am looking at their hundreds of clown dolls, but I'm only seeing the one clown doll that dragged that kid under the bed in "Poltergeist".

[haardvark.livejournal.com]

Is that the Doll museum next to the corn palace in Mitchell IA? Went through THAT one on my honeymoon. Gave me nightmares for WEEKS.

[crankyasanoldma.livejournal.com]

Damnit, you Canucks need to learn to distinguish our BIG FLAT SQUARE NEARLY-IDENTICAL AGRICULTURAL FLYOVER STATES. Unlike you guys, who just threw them all together and called them "Alberta," we chopped ours up.

Mitchell is in South Dakota. I've never visited the Corn Palace, as it happens. The Klown Doll Museum (shudder) is in Nebraska. Iowa is next door to both.

[jdoh.livejournal.com]

Life hasn't been lived until you've been to the Corn Palace. That is a sight. And unlike Haardvark, I don't think it is anywhere near as scary as a clowndoll.

Iowa: Gateway to Hells. That should be their motto.

[haardvark.livejournal.com]

The Corn Palace (apparently recently relocated to the Dakotas!) isn't what skeered me to my marrow. It was the doll museum next door that did it.

http://www.realtraveladventures.com/archives/enchanted_world_doll_museum_is_a_wonderful_real_travel_adventure_for_the_whole_f.htm

I am pretty sure that's the place. I was too timid to look at the site for more than a few seconds

Bottom line, I'll take clowns over dolls any day of the week and twice on sundays.

[haardvark.livejournal.com]

Aw shit, that's embarrassing. And if I'd left the abbrev off like my first instinct dictated I'd have been in the clear. Dangit.

[democritus.livejournal.com]

Klowns with a k are 10x scarier than clowns with a c.

[edwardina.livejournal.com]

Killer Klowns from Outer Space!