I woke up last Friday and realized I had not been on any trips to explore anything outside of my local area in four months. I also realized that I have not taken any time off from my day job or from XploreGEO since May when the lighting bold hit me with the idea for XploreGEO. I have been dragging for weeks and trying to just push through it, trying to get to the alpha testing stage of the new XploreGEO app/game. Its funny the sane human has a prefrontal cortex, which responds to situations with good judgment and an awareness of long-term consequences, and yet ignore all good reason and just keep doing something that is bad for them or has long term consequences. In my case I seem to just ignore all signs that I’m no longer being productive and feeling bad, when I should take a break and get away..
A friend of mine was moving from St. Louis to South East Florida last Friday morning and was about to start driving half way across the country alone. I’m sitting at my computer not being productive and all of a sudden I’m pulling up Expedia and a few minutes later i have a ticket to fly into Saint Louis that afternoon. It was 8am and my flight was at 5pm so I had a whole day to be productive and wouldn’t you know it that was the most productive day I have had in weeks.
I stuff a few things in a backpack (leaving the laptop at home), grabbed an Uber and off on my latest very spontaneous adventure.
I spent my flight went from Palm Beach, FL to Dallas, TX arriving at my destination of Saint Louis, MO. During my two hour layover in Dallas I did research of the stops I want to stop at on this trip that will turn an ordinary road trop into an XploreGEO Adventure Quest.
Here are the stops that my friend agreed to as payment for helping drive across the country:
- #24 Trail of the Whispering Giants Indian Statue – Forest Park Saint Louis, MO
- World’s Largest Superman statue – Metropolis, Illinois
- #50 Trail of the Whispering Giants Indian Statue – Bob Noble Park Paducah, KY
- Hard Rock Cafe – Nashville, TN
- #5 Trail of the Whispering Giants Indian Statue – Houston-Love Memorial Library – Dothan, AL
- #4 Trail Of The Whispering Giants Indian Statue – Colquitt Chamber of Commerce – Colquitt, GA
- Southern Philosophy Brewery – Banbridge, GA (unplanned but very surprising dinner stop)
Trail of the Whispering Giants Indian Statue #24
Forest Park, Saint Louis, MO
5595 Grand Dr, St. Louis, MO 63112
Getting a early start we headed off to see our first “Marker” in a great part called Forest Park. I was amazed at how huge and beautiful this park is, I quickly realized we are not going to find our Marker by just driving around this 1300+ acre park. I could not believe everything that was in this park a zoo, planetarium, lakes, boat houses, theaters, cricket fields, soccer fields, tennis courts, museums, so much stuff it would take you weeks to explore it all. We decided to hit the visitor center to find our Marker. After some research the lady at the front desk said the statue was removed due to the fact that it got hit by lighting.
World's Largest Superman Statue
After the disappointment of the first marker being removed due to being hit by lighting, my hopes were high that the worlds largest super man statue would not let me down. And I must say the tow of Metropolis, Illinois and the 50 foot superman status did not let me down. The town was very small and felt like I rolled right back in to the early 1900s. The first thing I saw when I came around the corner in to town square was the very impressive and bright colored larger then life Superman statue. On the day I arrived the town was having a small fall festival and many people where taking part in the event as a chance to cosplay.
As I strolled through the town I happened across a small gathering with a interview style talk was being given, and it turns out that Raushan Hammond who played Thud Butt in the movie Hook, he was one of the lost boys was speaking. Turns out he was very interesting to listen to.
The town has many gift shops all selling Superman collectable, and a couple of restaurants that looked like they would be great home cooking, but with a schedule to keep I decided to keep movin on.
Click a picture in the galley to enlarge.
Trail of the Whispering Giants Indian Statue #50
Bob Noble Park Paducah, KY
2801 Park Ave, Paducah, KY 42001
Just a short 20 minute drive from Metropolis, Ill over the Ohio river to Paducah, KY to get to the next top Bob Noble Park. This will be the 8th Peter Toth Trail of the Whispering Giants Indian statue that I will have seen.
In 1985, sculptor Peter Toth hand chiseled a 56,000 pound red oak into “Wacinton” To Have Understanding—a monument to the Chickasaw Indians who lived and hunted in the area until the Jackson Purchase.
Peter Toth is a Hungarian emigrant whose family escaped from Hungary just before the Communist takeover in 1956. He was 9 years old. In the US, he developed a strong empathy for American Indians, possibly because of his own experience with oppression. In 1968, the 21 year old Toth began a series of sculptures to honor the American Indian. The first, in California, was sculpted from stone. Over the next 21 years, he sculpted 66 more memorials, at least one in every state, all of wood. For his efforts, he has been given the Indian name “Wolf”. His first sculpture in any state was without commission, but I’m told he did accept commissions for subsequent works.
Click a picture in the galley to enlarge.
Hard Rock Cafe, Nashville, TN
Hard Rock Café
100 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37201
I grew up for the first 18 years of my life in East Tennessee just hour side Knoxville. With all those years spent just a few hours drive away I had never been to Nashville. I have always heard it is a pretty cool town, and over the past 5 years I know five of my friends that have moved there. But I had no idea how cool Nashville was till I stop by for an hour to get my Hard Rock pin and mark it off the list of ones I have not been to.
I usually eat at Hard Rock when I gothe food really is pretty good, and the same world wide. It was an amazing fall Saturday night and the wait was 2+ hours to get into hard rock I decided to head out on the street to check out the amazing strip of bar and food. I had no clue it was wall to wall people partying and having a great time. Every bar was packed full of people and a bad playing in everyone.
Broadway is a major thoroughfare in the downtown area in Nashville, Tennessee. It includes Lower Broadway, an entertainment district renowned for honky tonks and live country music.
The street is also home to retail shops, restaurants, dessert spots, tourist attractions, and a few hotels.
Lower Broadway is also called Honky Tonk Highway, located on Lower Broadway, is a row of honky tonks pumping live music into the streets from 10am to 3am.
I have to put Nashville on my list of places to come back to next spring when I head across the counter and spend a week exploring.
Did I just see a Neon Taco Bell sign?
There was so much to see, explore and do on the strip I could not look at it all fast enough, and although I was ready for dinner there was no way to get into any of these places for dinner or even drinks. I had planned for an hour here in Nashville and off to the next stop.
But one thing that I found extremally funny and some what weird is there was a Taco Bell on the strip the sign was neon, and the inside was upscale compared to most taco Bells. There was a very long line to eat there but I had to go check it out since it was so different.
This taco bell had the normal menu but they sold booze and they had a band playing inside like the rest of the bars on the strip.
Hard Rock Nashville, TN
Click a picture in the galley to enlarge.
Honky Tonk Highway
Click a picture in the galley to enlarge.
Trail of the Whispering Giants Indian Statue #5
Houston-Love Memorial Library
Dothan, AL 36303
Visit Dothan Site
Pulled into this cute little town that I would have never stopped at in my entire life if I was not out “Adventure Questing”. I was on a quest to see one of Peter Toth’s Trail of the Whispering Giant’s Indian statues but I found so much more. Other place I know I need to return to and explore more in-depth.
One of the other cool things about Dothan is they are known as the peanut capital, and in that sprit they have these peanut statues all over town, and you know how much I love statues. There are over 50 of these peanut status and each is dresses up different. I’m thinking a peanut quest is in order here.
Dothan is also known for it murals on many of it’s buildings, and a must see is the “worlds smallest street block“.
Dothan, AL
Trail Of The Whispering Giants Indian Statue #4
Colquitt Chamber of Commerce
New Website Coming Soon
302 E College St. Colquitt, GA 39837
Georgia’s First Mural City, so check out all of the beautiful murals around town. You can’t miss the huge tribute to the American Farmer mural, which can be seen from miles away.
Farmer Mural
Trial Of The Whispering Gaints #4
Southern Philosophy Brewery
Southern Philosophy Brewery
114 E Broughton St, Bainbridge, GA 39817
Needed dinner found this cute little town, Banbridge, GA. The Southern Philosophy Brewery had rave reviews about it’s pizza. The reviews where not kidding the pizza was an amazing fire oven pizza, with real slices of sausage instead of crumbs. Did not have any of the beer since I was driving, so I can’t tell you if their brew is good or not.
after the pizza stop the last stop is a seven hour drive home to Worth FL. Of course a trip down I95 past Daytona it is a must to stop at Buc-Ees (2330 Gateway N Dr, Daytona Beach, FL 32117) in Daytona. Made it home after an amazing 2.5 days at 5am and there was much rejoicing.
