First thing Saturday morning we hit the road for Cave City. We didn’t actually get a chance to go in any caves. Booo! The one we really wanted was sold out for the day and before we knew it everything was closed. But we did visit all kinds of silly little gift shops full of rocks, which we both enjoyed.
After leaving Kentucky the next morning we stumbled upon the most exciting little part of our trip. I was using the Roadside America app, like I always am when I’m basically anywhere outside of a twenty mile radius of Cleveland. I found an elephant and since I was tired of being in the car already I suggested we stop and find it. As we approached, right off the side of the highway, we spotted the area where it was. Not only was there an elephant, there was a giraffe, a horse, some clowns, a castle and two ferris wheels. ALL ABANDONED. We both freaked. It was such an awesome find!
Apparently there used to be a fireworks store there but in July of this year it burnt down. There aren’t really any traces of the building left, it was apparently cleaned up but they left behind all the fun stuff. One of the ferris wheels was already starting to do the mean lean, I’m not sure how long they’ve been out of use but it doesn’t seem like this one will be standing too much longer.
A quick drive away from that is a giant dragon, not quite as exciting as two ferris wheels but still pretty awesome. This guy was massive. He’s located behind an dollar store and there was actually someone camping right near his feet. I don’t know what that was all about but I tip toed up and took a photo of the big dude anyway. Can’t not photograph a massive dragon.
Like I said above, the dragon is only minutes away from the elephant, giraffe, ferris wheel place, and oddly enough he used to be in front of a fireworks place that also burned down a few years back. I saw on the app that someone mentioned the dragon has been for sale since 2013. I couldn’t find anymore information on it but I sure hope he finds a nice home! I wonder what the going price on something like that is.
In North Carolina I stopped to check out the grave of Daisy and Violet Hilton. Daisy and Violet were Siamese twins who toured the US sideshow circuit in the 1930’s. The twins were poor at the time of their death so they were buried in a donated plot and share a headstone with an acquaintance’s son. If you’re interested in reading more about them, I actually read this book not too long ago. It was pretty interesting.
Last silly little roadside attraction of the trip was a shell shaped Shell station in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It’s no longer in service but it is in excellent condition! Preservation North Carolina actually spent one year and $50,000 restoring it to it’s original condition. Eight of these were originally built in the 1930’s all around the area but this is the last remaining one. I am forever a sucker for novelty architecture.
And that’s what we saw on the trip! I have two more posts about awesome places we visited that I’ll be sharing soon.
xoxo