Monday, November 09, 2009

Sit On This, Lincoln!

Everyone loves a good statue, but who says they all have to be dead presidents or civil war soldiers!?! Here's a handful of kooky, crazy statues around the country that you might want to visit on your next road trip!

Bob Newhart - Chicago, Il Cable outfit TV Land installed this "interactive" statue of Bob Newhart as his character Dr. Bob Hartley from the 1972 - 1978 sitcom "The Bob Newhart Show." Dr. Hartley was a Chicago psychologist so here you can lay down and tell your problems to Dr. Bob - even though he won't really help you out...because he's a statue! They originally installed this statue in front of the actual building that was used as Dr. Bob's office exterior on the show. Later, they moved to piece to Navy Pier - a major tourist attraction a mile away.


Popeye - Crystal City, TX This fine country of ours actually hosts four different Popeye statues. This one here was erected in the small Texas town that claims to be the Spinach capital of the world. I think what makes this statue extra special is the fact that it sits smack dab in front of City Hall. There's another Popeye statue in Chester, Il - the home of Popeye creator E.C. Segar. There are two more in Arkansas. But Crystal City IS the spinach capital of the world and to prove it they hold an annual Spinach Festival...which just happens to be this weekend! Get your airline tickets!


World's Largest Catsup Bottle - Collinsville, Il Another score for the great state of Illinois. The problem with any "World's Largest" is that it's not really what ever it's supposed to be the "world's largest" of...I mean, that's not a real catsup bottle - it's a water tower. Which I guess also makes it not a statue...but a water tower, so why did I even bring it up? Either way, that's a 100,000 gallon water tower which I assume means it could also hold 100,000 gallons of catsup. The way my kids use catsup on everything, we'd need one of these giant bottles of the red stuff to get us through a month! The World's Largest Catsup Bottle even has it's own website!



Superman - Metropolis, Il Clark Kent's hometown might be Smallville, but Superman belongs to Metropolis. The current version of this super structure is 15 feet tall and weighs two tons! There was an earlier version of this tribute, but everyone wanted to see if he really was the Man of Steel and destroyed the statue by throwing stuff at it. Now Superman stands tall in Metropolis' town square which they call Superman Square. The town is home to a Superman Museum, a Harrah's casino, a Huddle House (good eats!) and of course the Annual Superman Celebration.

No comments:

Post a Comment