Category: Roadside Stuff

Fuzzygalore - KTM 690 Enduro
Motorcycles Can Help With Unanswered Questions

Motorcycles Can Help With Unanswered Questions

By | | Comments 4 comments

Serendipity to the rescue. Again.

Sometimes the planets align just right and deliver an answer to a question that you may have long since forgotten to keep asking. I love it when that happens.

While scrolling through Instagram the other day, I saw this photo set posted by @Mototourers:

As soon as I saw the location it was posted from, the wheels started turning: Bethel, New York? That’s day ride range. Maybe I should go check that out.

Ahaaaaaaaaa!

After looking through the photos and reading the caption, I landed on the ZacMax website. There I found the answer to a question I’ve had since 2016 – who or what was this:

Fuzzygalore ZacMax Statue

In the summer of 2016, we were on our way home from a weekend of riding in Hancock, NY. We’d stopped in a gas station in the town of Liberty. This guy just happened to be lurking in the bushes.

From this brief encounter, I never found out whether this was a mascot, a known character, or a funky piece of art from a local. That is… until this week.

And sure, maybe knowing the answer to something like this is trivial. But even so, that feeling of not knowing something was quelled. That’s a relief.

Fuzzygalore Riding KTM 690 Enduro Dirt Road - Hancock, NY

I’d like to believe that if I just keep riding around, the answers to all of my unanswered questions will make themselves known. Nothin’ to do but just keep trying to figure it all out.

Keep riding, exploring, asking questions, discovering answers.

Hopefully, I’ll get to the bottom of those pancakes one day.
Mother Goose in Hazard, Kentucky

Mother Goose in Hazard, Kentucky

By | | Comments 2 comments

Sometimes people ask me how I find funky stuff while out on the road. One of my favorite ways is by chance. While satisfying an itch by navigating to something has its own reward, seeing something unexpectedly adds to it the delicious element of surprise.

In October of 2018, I rode through Hazard, Kentucky after stopping in Dwarf. Hazard was one of those town names I’d often seen on a map and thought, I should pass through there. No doubt this inclination was fueled by my childhood crush on John Schneider as Bo Duke on the Dukes of Hazzard. (Don’t judge me!)

After having a look-see around the town, I continued east towards I have no idea where. Suddenly I found myself looking at a giant Goose building on the side of the road. Yeeeehaw!

Keep exploring, my friends.

Mother Goose House
2906 N Main St
Hazard, KY 41701
Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park – Wilson, NC

Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park – Wilson, NC

By | | Comments 2 comments

After visiting the White’s Tire Muffler Man on Hines Street in Wilson, North Carolina, I navigated my over to visit Vollis Simpson’s Whirligig Park.

As I turned the corner the park came into view. It was a riotous explosion of color and motion set against the backdrop of old buildings and a gorgeous blue sky. I kid you not, I said “oh my god,” out loud as everything came in to view. It was like being a kid and catching a glimpse of a carnival that came to town.

I must preface these photos by saying that they in no way deliver anything close to the experience of seeing these whirligigs in person. Really, I found them hard to photograph at all. There was too much going on that I had no idea how to do them justice.

Being there was a full sensory experience of sight, sound, and motion. The scale of these works creates a presence that is captivating. As you move around them your eyes pass over each piece picking out the details of castaway items turned in to something greater than themselves. All the while your ears pick up a symphony of whirring, clangs, clicks, and squeaks.

If you are anywhere near Wilson, North Carolina, do yourself a favor and visit. You’ll be glad you did.

Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park
301 Goldsboro St S,
Wilson, NC 27893
GMaps
The Rapture of a North Carolina Muffler Man

The Rapture of a North Carolina Muffler Man

By | | Comments 1 comment

Much like the Spanish Inquisition, no one expects a religious experience.  It’s just one of those things that sneak up you when you aren’t lookin’. If not the sight of Saint Pete at the gates or Archangel Michael eating tacos, what could you attribute the expression on this guy’s face to?

Point of note: One of Saint Peter’s patronages is Horology. Horology and Whoreology? These homonyms are two entirely different things and will guide you down two very different internet rabbit holes.

Maybe this muff looks so in awe to me because I keep thinking that his lips are an open mouth – My God, It’s full of stars.

But upon closer inspection, he does seems to have bags under his eyes. Perhaps his look is less rapture, more why did I wake up behind a dumpster in a winter coat, with no pants and one shoe on. I mean, who doesn’t know THAT feeling?

Wait, what? No… one… else..?

Well, would you look at the time. Lunch hour is over, best be running along.

If you’d like to visit this muffler man, you’ll find him in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Stumblin’ Upon Some Backroad Petroliana

Stumblin’ Upon Some Backroad Petroliana

By | | Comments 3 comments

In October of 2018, I spent some time bumming around on the Bonneville. My meandering route took me down through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky before I started making my way back east to New York through West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Not having a set route or a plan is my usual road trip vibe. I leave home with a general sense of where I want to go or things I might want to visit. But, other than that I try to leave myself wiggle room to add and subtract along the way. After all, it is a big gorgeous world out there. You never know what wonderful thing is waiting for you around the next corner.

Not long after visiting the husk of the Underwood & Petty Service Station in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, I had to slam on the brakes and pull a quick U-y to get a good look at this building:

I can’t say for sure whether this was an actual business or just the trappings of a collector-type. Looking at the details on the building and the “fire door” sign through the window, maybe it did operate as a store of some type. Whatever the case may be, it was nice to stumble across it.

Sadly, I have no stinkin’ idea where it is. I’d be only too glad to share the location. For now, it’ll have to remain a mystery.

Social

Subscribe via Email

privacy
%d bloggers like this: