Drawn the Road Again

Category: Weirdo

  • Fossil fuel

    Fossil fuel

    It’s very common to find giant fiberglass statues and other roadside attractions plonked down in front of gas stations. After all, where are you more likely to stop along the way? Gas stations that are roadside attractions in and of themselves? Well, now, that’s more of a rare bird.

  • Short and stout

    Short and stout

    I am pleased to tell you that Washington is the proud owner of not one, but two teapot-shaped buildings. (Well, one is a teapot and the other is a coffee pot, but since the designs—and even the colors—are nearly identical, I think that’s close enough.) The first might just be, as advertised, world-famous. Tacoma’s very…

  • Moose missive

    Moose missive

    If you’re looking to do a Canadian Stereotypes tour of the Trans-Canada Highway, you’ll be happy to learn there’s no shortage of moose statues, Tim Horton’s or poutine shacks along the way. Shocker, I know.

  • Big Bessie

    Big Bessie

    You might remember Salem Sue—she was the first sketch I ever posted on this blog. I have a deep fondness for just about any roadside attraction, but I might just love Sue best of all. It’s not just that she’s freakishly realistic (just out of frame of this sketch: the big scary veins on her…

  • Landshark

    Landshark

    Normally this would be the part where I tell you all about the souvenir shop with the giant shark’s head I found on the Washington coast—but I think I’ll just let the pictures do their job. Instead, I wanted to let you know that Sharky here has joined 29 more of his roadside brethren on…

  • Animal, Vegetable, Polymer

    Animal, Vegetable, Polymer

    Continuing on the whole fake farm theme, the ones that make me giggle the most are those that don’t try very hard in the ambience department. When my friend Elizabeth and I went to PEI together, our whole trip was centered around our childhood (and adult!) love of Anne of Green Gables. But even we…

  • Faux farm

    Faux farm

    You know I have a real thing for farms—as evidenced by all the sketches that have cropped up here (no pun intended) so far. But I also have a fascination with fake farms—you know, the odd sort of agricultural replica that you sometimes see at museums, tourist traps, or—as in the case above—private property. I…

  • Corn-fed

    Corn-fed

    Here’s what you do: you go to the Minnesota State Fair with at least four or five people in your party. Then everybody chooses one or two things to eat and shares with the group—that way, you get a small sample of a lot of different things. (Added bonus of sharing small bites: not suffering…

  • A Bushel and a Peck

    A Bushel and a Peck

    Every year that I lived in Minneapolis I told myself I’d do a piece of crop art someday and enter it into the State Fair. Well, I never got around to the real thing, but I did draft an idea in my sketchbook! It really doesn’t matter, though—I’m just glad I got to spend so…

  • Fair weather

    Fair weather

    Even though it’s been years since I lived in the Twin Cities, and the Great Minnesota Get-Together was a part of my summer tradition, I can’t bring myself to switch allegiance. No matter how much time goes by, to me there is no other state fair than the Minnesota State Fair. This year’s Fair is…