Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don’t ask why…
People travel for all kinds of reasons. Not least of which, is to see and experience new things. With the year wrapping up, we are taking a long trip to Sri Lanka, and are desperately looking for content. Hence, we are counting down the 17 strangest things we saw in 2017.
1) Dogs Surfing
So yeah, dog surfing is a thing. I don’t think it’s going to be the next Olympic sport but it’s entertaining as heck. I mean dogs, surfboards, wipeouts, AND fashion. Here Derby the surf dog is looking cool with his matching mohawk and sunglasses. You don’t want your dog looking droopy and surfing goofy.
2) Grandparents on the Ropes Course
Don’t get me wrong. This is awesome. I want to be this guy when I grow up. Still balling and taking names. What makes him more gangsta? This is their 30th wedding anniversary celebration. Just picture yourself saying your wife to a ropes course for any wedding anniversary, let alone the big 3-0. #MadRespect.
3) Ruby Falls Waterfall
Deep inside Lookout Mountain (Tennessee / Georgia) is Ruby Falls. Here, Leo Lambert proved why he totally rocks. No pun intended. Ok… A little pun intended. You see, he loved visiting Lookout Mountain Cave as a kid, but the man (re: railroad company) build a tunnel through and sealed it off. Not to be dissuaded, he built a company to dig an elevator shaft to the cave. He busted through and the cave was all messed up from train soot but the story didn’t end there.
On the way down, 260’ under the surface he busted into a small side passage. Being a badass, he immediately set out in the wet, 18” high passage and explored for 10 hours. The next day, he came back with his wife Ruby to show her the falls that bear her name today. Not only was he a badass, he had a great woman. I wonder what they did for their 30th anniversary?
4) Ricardo Breceda Sculptures
As soon as we saw the statue gardens outside of Borrego Springs, we knew we had to make the pilgrimage of strange. They were awesome. 50’ dragons, giant insects locked in mortal combat, and mystical dinosaur creatures dotted the desert for reasons that all boiled down to just looking cool. That alone would have made this list, but there is actually a storefront off California highway 79 that you can pick up one of these bad boys for yourself. Perhaps they would make a good anniversary gift.
5) Salvation Mountain
In 1956, a displaced band of wanderers and vagabonds came upon the ruins of Camp Dunlap in California Desert. They knew that enough psychedelic drugs could take the edge of off 120 degree heat so they made this place their home. This monument was created by Leonard Knight who came to Slab City / Niland Arizona in 1984, but the story doesn’t start there.
Leonard saw a balloon flying over his home in Burlington Vermont in 1970. Adorning the balloon was the Lord’s Prayer. Being a deeply religious man, he thought this was the perfect way to spread the word of God and his love of God. He spent the next 14 years trying (and failing to) build a balloon. Defeated, he decided to stay for one more week in Slab City.
That week turned into months, and then years. Day after day, he drug dirt and rubbish out of the dump and constructed the first Salvation Mountain. Turns out he wasn’t that good at building mountains either because it collapsed in 1988.
What Leonard lacked in balloon and mountain building skills, he made up for in moxie and inspiration. He learned from his mistakes and built that second Inspiration Mountain even bigger and grander than before. He also built a network of supports to carry on his dream. They donated over 100,000 gallons of paint to decorate and upkeep the massive work. They also donate their time to keep building and preserving Salvation Mountain.
6) International Banana Museum
Staying on the shores of the Salton Sea, we come to this banana bastion of bafflement. Who would make an International Banana Museum and better yet, who would visit? I am still not convinced this is any more than an old timey roadside attraction like the World’s Largest Ball of Earwax but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stop. They do have some pretty good milkshakes. I would recommend the banana.
However, words fail to describe what’s going on inside here so I’ll just show some pictures. I added captions but feel free to suggest more in the comments.
“Banana Kitten is Pleased”
“Garfield looks a little too happy”
“I don’t care if it rains or freezes, as long as I got banana Jesus…”
“Hey, where are you putting that banana?”
7) Teepees in DC
As you remember, early in 2017, the Standing Rock Sioux Nation took exception to the Army Corps of Engineers routing a pipeline beside their land and through the water supply without an environmental impact study. It’s hard to spin this with any levity but isn’t it fascinating to see this kind of protest in DC and lucky that we were able to get the shot.
8) Princess Cave Thailand
OK, enough stories about dicks without good punchlines. Here is a dick story you can really enjoy. The legend of Princess Cave goes as follows. A long time ago, there was a wedding party that went south fast. They probably heard about the plan to go to a ropes course on the honeymoon or something. Anyway, the entire wedding party gets to bickering so the gods turn them into various mountains and islands in the area. The princess gets turned into this cave, where to local fishermen insert their phallus to bring good luck and great fishing. I am not really sure about the symbolism here but… It’s a dick cave.
Full Story: Exploring the Andaman Sea: Phuket, Phi Phi, and Railay
9) Workout Parks in Thailand
During our visit to Thailand, we kept seeing these workout parks. Finally, we asked our guide what the scoop was. It turns out the king wanted his citizens to be healthy, so he ordered one of every piece of gym equipment. Then he asked his engineers to make them on a mass scale and put them in public parks so everybody can work out. It’s a great idea, but the functionality just isn’t there.
Full Story: Exploring the Andaman Sea: Phuket, Phi Phi, and Railay
10:) Toon Bodyslam
Now don’t go Googling this (or the DC Picture) and telling me that we’ve dipped into 2016. I just don’t care. I need 17 things or I’ll have to re-write the post title. It’s easier to just re-write history. Toon Bodyslam made an epic run across Thailand for charity. He raised millions of dollars that went to hospitals across the country. He rocks.
Now what makes this strange is that his run exactly coincided with our bike tour down the coast. Every night, we would see his fans gathering and our guides were excited to follow his progress. He was always staying at a hotel just down the street from us. Finally on the last night, he went running by us as we were having breakfast.
We can bike faster than he can run, so we caught up by the time he reached the finish line. We passed by rows and rows of Thai people cheering at the finish. So we just waved as we passed. I wonder if somebody in Thailand has a picture of us on their Instagram with a question “who are these white people?”
11) Doug Aitken’s Underwater Pavilions
The City of Avalon on Catalina Island has a mighty fine dive park. Famous artist, Doug Aitkens built a series of three underwater domes to be installed in the park. They are artwork meant to be experienced. They are suspended from the seafloor and you can navigate through the shapes, surrounded by mirrors. It was pretty dang cool but I don’t think it’s around anymore.
Full Story: Taking the Plunge – Our First Solo Dive at Catalina Island
12) Diving at Aquarium of the Pacific
If you are a well qualified diver, you can dive at Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach California. This gentleman decided to do his dive dressed like a pirate – hook and all. I could almost hear him gurgling “Ahoy Matey” through his regulator.
13) Mexican Water Parks
Don’t I look cool here? Sailing through the air with an intent look on my face… Down in Tijuana, they have a really fun water park called El Vergel. It has great food, cheap drinks, and slides that just couldn’t exist in America. My first thought when I saw the massive Slip and Fly was that it didn’t look safe. You climb like 100’ in the air and then slide down the hill on a slip and slide. A ramp on the bottom launches you into the air and you get a good bit of airtime. Then I saw the ambulance parked under the ramp and two lifeguards on duty and surmised it must be perfectly safe.
You can see from the movie, it wasn’t that safe and I wasn’t that cool.
14) Lucha Libre
Staying in Tijuana, we come to a night of Lucha Libre. If you ever get a chance to go, jump on it. This was good, clean fun. Actually, it was kind of messy with copious amounts of drinking but still fun and probably safer than the Slip and Fly.
Things got really messy when a Luchadore broke out his signature move of hitting people with fluorescent light bulbs. But they did give me this bitchin’ mask and let me play in the ring after the match so they make list list at #14.
15) Dia de Los Muertos
OK, there is a theme here. If you want to find a little strange, go to Tijuana. No wait… That didn’t come out right…
Moving on, Day of the Dead is pretty dang cool in Mexico. Here we are on a tour where we were serenaded at the Gil Family Crypt. The young Gil daughter wanted to marry her lover but her father forbade it. She perished from grief and she is remembered on Dia de Los Muertos by young lovers and romantics throughout the city. In Mexico, the dead aren’t scary. This is a holiday to remember, visit, and gain favors from those who have passed on.
16) Catavina Gas Stations
Mexico Highway 1, the Baja Highway, is one of the most notorious roads in the world. In the days, the heat case rise above 100 degrees. At night, cows come to sleep on the warmth of the road. There are spots where rivers flow across the pavement and others where potholes appear that seem large enough to eat a car. One 400 km stretch is known for having no services. The only town is Catavina, where enterprising locals sell gasoline much like kids selling lemonade.
17) Weirdly Awesome Comic-Con
It turns out that bringing hundreds of thousands of comic book nerds to San Diego is a hotbed for weirdness. That was almost too easy. I didn’t want to take that shot but I was running out of material. Comic Con is wierdly awesome in every way imaginable. It’s hard to get tickets, but even wandering around the outside is an all day adventure that could anchor a trip to San Diego.
Wrapping up the Strange 17
This exercise was harder than I expected. I had to go back nearly 18 months to get 17 Strange Things. I always felt like I was a purvey of weirdness, but perhaps I have been caught up chasing the beautiful and exciting and not just enjoying the exceptions.
I will need to remember to keep the spirit of the strange with me. To let new experiences, any new experiences resonate with me. It’s on these fringes that inspiration and motivation might be hiding.
okay, you’ve got me on the dog surfing… that is totally cool and i wanna see it by my own eyes! 😀
ps. you can also find some workout parks in some cities in turkey. good stuff!
I really want to go to Turkey. It seems like every time I see something that makes me go WOW it’s in Turkey. The last thing was the sculptures on Antiochus but there are too many things to mention.
I want visit the banana museum. I also love the idea dogs surfing as well. xx
It’s a really cute roadside attraction. At first we weren’t going to stop but it was so worth it.
Ruby Falls looks AMAZING! I would love to visit that one day. We want to take our kids on a trip around the U.S. to see a lot of National Parks and other natural must see points.
There are a lot more National Parks in the western states. In the East, there are more state parks and attractions. Sounds like you are going to have a busy trip with the kids but very educational.
Gotta give you credit you truly found some really strange things. It’s amazing what you can find in the world when you really look. The Grandparents climbing the ropes made me laugh out loud.
They were the cutest couple too. They had a lot of fun that day end truly enjoyed each other.
What a year you had! Some of these things are indeed crazy. I love the story about the painted rock in the desert. If I can see right in the picture, they even glued the word “God” to the top so that it sticks out? About the open-air gyms in Thailand, I can add that here in Spain where I live at the moment you find a lots of these too, in parks and along the beaches. They are indeed not in very good shape but combined with a run they can help with stretching or some lifting. People do indeed make use of them (provided they are not broken). Great list, fun to read 🙂
It seems like there are a lot of these open air gyms around. Makes me wonder if I heard the story right.
Salvation Mountain is entirely built up from scrap material and adobe. There are so many colors and textures on the mountain and not s straight edge anywhere.
What an amazing list of things to see and experience. I can’t tell you which is really my favorite.
All of these look like things I want to see. I need to add them to my bucket list and start planning trips with the family. I really want to see the celebration of Dia de los Muertos and also go see dogs surfing. I need to start planning soon for sure.
Dog surfing doesn’t happen everyday. Look for dog surfing competitions to see a lot of puppy action. The good news is that they usually occur in late summer when it’s super nice to be in California.
What made Ruby Falls exceptional to me was the backstory. My wife Jenn was re-showing the water park video to the in-laws tonight and they were all having a good laugh. Sometimes, you have to laugh at yourself.
San Diego rocks and some of the dogs really love to surf and others weren’t that into it. You could tell by the way that the puppies road the board if they were into it. (also, if the dogs bolted when the board hit the beach it was a sign). We are going to miss a lot about this city.
Batshit Mental… I think that will be the name of my new band.
My pleasure. This was a fun post to write too.
Do weird things. That should be my mantra every morning. I got tired of the old mantra of try to act normal and hope people don’t notice.
Chattanooga was a legit cool town. You should make a long weekend of it and go exploring.
Yeah…that’s some strange stuff alright! Banana museum? Surfing dogs (LOL, tho!)? Too funny. Some of the other stuff, like Dia De Los Muertos, looks like it would be very intersting to see and photograph.
Dia De Los Muertes is so photogenic. I would love to go deep into southern Mexico where they launch candle lit butterfly boats across the lake at night. That is very high on my photo bucket list.
We have the exercise parks in Hong Kong as well. I walk past one every morning and it is always filled with senior citizens getting their exercise.
The way senior citizens exercise in Hong Kong is inspirational. I would love to see a huge group of elderly people doing chi exercises in America.
These are strange but interesting indeed. It’s a good read! We’re going to Thailand in January and we’re researching for places that tourists don’t often visit. Princess Cave and Workout Parks might not be in our list but these are definitely worth asking for locals about.
You should check out Kaoh Sok. It’s on of the newest national parks in Thailand that gets very little traffic. There are waterfalls and dramatic karst towers. We did a tour with Elephant Hills were we had a very ethical elephant encounter and an overnight camping on floating platforms in the lake. It was amazing and off beet. We are actually having a promotional give away for the experience that’s on our main page right now. You should enter for sure.
You went to some pretty amazing places! Dog surfing must be so fun to watch. I want to go scuba diving with you next time!!
You should come to Florida, we’ll take you diving. Or get us an in for Mexico and we’ll meet you there 🙂
Salvation Mountain and the Banana museum definitely look weird to me. This world is fill with so many weird places I’m sure there are more to explore.
Hahah this is awesome. I always like end of the year reflection posts, but this one is much more unique and fun. And the strange things are what sticks with you, right?
Indeed, the strangeness of the world should be celebrated and enjoyed. Glad you had fun with this.
If you surf and have a dog, it just kind of makes sense…. If you really want to check out the statues, the best installation is around Borrego Springs in the desert east of San Diego. There are hundreds of statues set up around the tiny desert town.
Thank you. Salvation Mountain (and East Jesus too) are fascinating places. Have you seen them on Into The Wild?
The one thing the Banana Museum has is almost no competition. There just aren’t a lot of places in the desert to stop at.
Slip and fly unsafe??? No way. They have an ambulance parked under the slide so that means it’s perfectly safe… yah.
We so want to go to Iceland. There are a lot of cool things there (no pun intended). Apparently some weird things as well. When I heard penis museum, I was thinking Japan, but I missed.
Ruby Falls is neat with a great backstory but not all the way to mind blowing. They do a great job with what they have and you should definitely stop if you’re in the neighborhood.
They were the cutest couple ever. I really hope we are rocking like that when we are their age.
Not only seen Lucha Libre, that is a picture of me in the ring. Goofing around and not wrestling but still living la vida loca.
We had bananas in our neighborhood in San Diego. I don’t think it’s a commercial production but people grow them. I think the banana museum was one too many gifts from relatives that they didn’t know to do with. You know, when somebody decides you like frogs or something so everybody gets you a frog themed gift for the next twenty years. Something like that.
We had three days in Chattanooga and ended up going to Ruby Falls on a Saturday when they were having a BBQ competition. The place was packet. We kept rolling to Cloudland Canyon and came back on Monday morning. No lines at all and we cruised right in.
We just moved out of San Diego last week. Sitting in Sri Lanka right now but heading to Orlando soon enough.
I think all of the dogs appreciated the adventure. On little guy was getting trained so he kept getting put back on the board while it was in the water. He would ride it and then run every time. The dogs seemed to have a good day in all.
There are some dogs who like riding and some who don’t. I had a springer spaniel mix that loved riding in canoes and sledding. She would jump on me every time I went down the hill. My chow mix would have nothing to do with riding anything. Her first thought was getting off. It helps to start them young too.
Is what? Don’t leave me hanging like that…
LOVE your post, you two! Bananas are my favorite fruit, so it’s hilarious that there is a whole museum dedicated to them. Then again, I’m the kind of person who would totally go see that, haha. The workout parks are such a good idea — wish we had them here in New York!
So you bananas for bananas? I bet you’re nuts for nuts too. I don’t know how far I would travel for the banana museum but I’m going to stop every time I pass it from now on.
As we traveled around Thailand in the last year, we’ve often wondered why there’s so much “exercise equipment” in the parks. It makes more sense knowing that they were ordered by the king. We’ve never figured out how to get a proper workout with them though.
We never could figure out how they are supposed to give you a workout either. They were missing any kind of resistance.
The Ruby Falls waterfall looks incredible! And I’ve been meaning to make it down to Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico. Seems like you two have had quite the year!
It was a fun 2017. Here to more adventures in 2018. If you’re going to Mexico for Day of the Dead make sure you head far south. Oaxaca or some other southern state takes it very seriously.
I love to stumble upon strange sights. I think the dog surfing and the Jesus mountain were the most bizarre to me. It just goes to show that you never know what you’ll see if you keep your eyes open and wander.
The world is a wonderful place if you just wander and wonder.