Sam & Max Hit the Road's attractions are real?

[Tanukitsune]

Am I stupid for not knowing this after playing the game to death? I was reading a book when it mentioned the World's Largest Ball of Twine, at first I was shocked and thought "Wait, is this book making a Sam & Max reference?", so I googled it and:

 

-There are several "Largest Balls of Twine in America"

-Gator Golf is real....

-The Mystery Vortex.

-So many Frog Rocks....

-Of course Bumpusville is Graceland

-I didn't manage to find the equivalent of Savage Jungle Inn, but I wouldn't be surprised to see an inn run by a forgotten celebrity, perhaps the actual American people people would know better?

 

Alas, the Mount Rushmore Dinosaur Tarpit and Bungee Jumping National Park and the Celebrity Vegetable Museum don't seem to be real... yet!

 

America seems like a crazy, beautiful and terrifying place. I always thought the game was making fun of roadside attractions and tourist traps, but it seems using real attractions only makes the game more hilarious? 

 

I kinda want to visit America and see these crazy things for myself now...

 

[Jake]

Most of the places in Hit the Road are larger than life versions of roadside tourist traps Purcell and Stemmle would get dragged to as kids on family road trips, or imagined versions of them (the bungee jumping stuff for instance). My friends started planning a Hit the Road road trip at one point, right after high school, but sat on our asses and played video games instead.

[tegan]

Don't forget Snuckey's and their pecan candy barely being a parody.

[Tanukitsune]

Whoa, Snuckey's was kinda real too? Jesus, America is a crazy amazing place! Is it bad that I kinda want to visit them now that I know I can?

[Chris]

I was similarly surprised to learn how lightly-imagined all that stuff from Sam & Max was when I got older. I grew up entirely on the West Coast and East Coast of the US, and had basically no exposure to Midwestern culture of any kind; I've still never really even been to the Midwest. I haven't even spent much time very far outside the major cities of the coasts. I love that a video game made me at least aware of a lot of that stuff I never directly experienced. I feel like if that game came out now, it would be the subject of a lot of really interesting discussion that at the time it probably didn't have as much of a chance to generate in public channels (as opposed to local discussion among friends).

[tabacco]

In the style of the Oregon Vortex, but more convenient to San Francisco if you find yourself out here: http://www.mysteryspot.com/

[syntheticgerbil]

I was once at an estate sale and found an old map for every Stuckey's in the United States and I instantly thought of the in game Sam and Max travel map.

 

Now that I remember that, I am kicking myself for not buying it.

 

I have never been to a Stuckey's though, but I imagine I've seen it all through other rest stops. Texas has its own knock off called "Buc-ee's" with this ugly beaver character.

[Twig]

Hah. I grew up in the midwest and I was STILL surprised (and delighted) to discover that these were semi-real attractions. I always begged my dad to take me to them once I realized that. He never did. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. O:

[Udvarnoky]

My understanding is that Stuckey's were fairly ubiquitous on I-10 when my dad was a kid.  Before there were golden arches at every interstate exit, Stuckey's was basically your pit stop on cross-country trips for gas, food, useless trinkets and of course candy pecan logs.

 

I don't think the few Stuckey's that remain are particular representative of what they were like in the chain's heyday.

[youmeyou]

There are fascinating oddities all over, even in coastal cities! I've been following http://www.atlasobscura.com/ for a few years - they cover a lot of weird events and locations, thought it'd be relevant to the thread.

[Jake]

I went on one family road trip to Colorado and the southwest and my mind was blown when we stopped at a Stuckey's. Man. Pecan chocolates were bought.

[Tanukitsune]

I'm so jealous, we don't have that kind of culture. At best, each county has it's speciality, in Toledo you can buy cool swords, in Astorga you can get "mantecadas" and we have a lot of castles.

 

The "weirdest" things we have in my country that I've experienced is the museum of chocolate and the museum of "Jamón", which is more restaurant than museum.

 

Also, I am so going to dive into that site you linked to, youmeyou, it looks awesome!

[Gormongous]

This thread is the best because it has people talking in hushed tones about the very things that made my life miserable on our biannual family road trips from Texas to Iowa. I don't mean that in a cynical or sarcastic way, it's actually kind of cool that stuff like Stuckey's can thrill people, even if it's like being excited about Cracker Barrel to me. You guys know about Cracker Barrel, right?

[Tanukitsune]

What on Earth is a Cracker Barrel?

 

But I think I get what you mean, as a Spaniard, I don't understand other's fascination with castles that much. They are pretty common here.

[Udvarnoky]

Being from the South, I sure as eggs know what a Cracker Barrel is. I'd probably be in agony walking through one of those gift shops as an adult, but the butterful, eight trillion calorie breakfast waiting beyond would surely motivate me through that endurance test.

[Twig]

Cracker Barrel was the best thing to me when I was a kid.

[tegan]

Cracker Barrel's name is hilarious to me, because only white people like Cracker Barrel.

 

 

(I don't think we have Cracker Barrel here, though there is a potentially unrelated brand of cheese with the same name)

[SecretAsianMan]

  On 6/30/2013 at 4:11 PM, tegan said:

Cracker Barrel's name is hilarious to me, because only white people like Cracker Barrel.

 

But I like Cracker Barrel...

[Tanukitsune]

So... it's Southern American cuisine? Is that gumbo and stuff like that?

[Twig]

No no no.

 

It's shit like Biscuits 'n' Gravy and Hashed Browns for breakfast, or Chicken 'n' Dumplin's and... Hashed Browns for dinner. Really heavy, awful-for-you food. But so delicious. (Also stuff like pancakes, bacon, eggs / there's probably some steak, sandwiches, they MIGHT have some salad but I dunno.)

[tabacco]

  On 6/30/2013 at 7:21 PM, Tanukitsune said:

So... it's Southern American cuisine? Is that gumbo and stuff like that?

 

Gumbo is more specific to Louisiana.

[Ben X]

  On 6/30/2013 at 6:49 PM, SecretAsianMan said:

But I like Cracker Barrel...

 

But SecretAsianMan, I assumed you were white!

[SecretAsianMan]

  On 6/30/2013 at 8:57 PM, Ben X said:

But SecretAsianMan, I assumed you were white!

 

For a while, so did I.

[antikewl]

Many years ago, on a family road trip, I discovered that Stuckey's was a real thing. I obviously demanded that we stop and purchased a souvenir mug, much to the bemusement of my parents.

 

Sadly, I no longer have that mug.

 

[The Killstar]

  On 6/30/2013 at 8:51 AM, Gormongous said:

This thread is the best because it has people talking in hushed tones about the very things that made my life miserable on our biannual family road trips from Texas to Iowa. I don't mean that in a cynical or sarcastic way, it's actually kind of cool that stuff like Stuckey's can thrill people, even if it's like being excited about Cracker Barrel to me. You guys know about Cracker Barrel, right?

 

Man you and I both. Our family trip was to go from Wichita, Kansas to Syracuse, Kansas. Still, besides the bigotry, religious zealotry, and general close-mindedness, I do love the Mid-West.