April 27, 2015
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Get Your Kitsch on Route 66
When joyouswind and I began our trip to Arkansas last week, I told her I was making a stop in Wilmington, Illinois to visit the Gemini Giant. I've visited the Giant several times, but Krysten had never seen it. The Gemini Giant is a muffler man; a giant fiberglass statue that once held a giant muffler in his hands. An army of muffler men once dotted American roadsides.
The main reason I wanted to stop was to avenge a DNF (Did Not Find) on a supposedly easy geocache hidden just a few feet away. When murisopsis and I went geocaching in Wilmington last year, the area near the Gemini Giant was strung with police tape because of a recent fire and, being the law abiding citizens we are, Val and I did not cross the tape. This time, the tape was gone and Krysten and I made quick work of finding the cache.
Krysten seemed to really enjoy the Gemini Giant, so I decided to stop at a couple more on our way through Illinois. The next one is my favorite; I call him Wienie Guy, but he's properly known as a Paul Bunyan muffler man. He's holding a hotdog instead of a muffler and stands next to a Route 66 souvenir shop in Atlanta, Illinois.
You haven't really lived until you've driven the length of Illinois right after an ice storm and seen Wienie Guy with giant icicles hanging off his wiener. I have a picture of that somewhere.
We skipped the muffler man in Springfield because it would have eaten up too much time to get to it. The last one we visited was near Livingston, Illinois at the Pink Elephant Antique Mall.
You can deduce a couple of things from this photo. This muffler man is smaller than the others we visited. Also, we were enjoying warmer weather 150 miles south of home. There were a few other oddities at this location, including the pink elephant for which the antique mall is named.
There was also a giant surf dude (click the muffler man link above and read through the list of known fiberglass giants to find examples), an ice cream cone shaped ice cream shack, and a flying saucer.
If these photos look familiar, it's because seedsower and I visited these same sites on our Xanga Chicks on Route 66 road trip in 2010. I may have even written a post with the same title as this one back then. But we didn't get a peek inside the flying saucer five years ago. In case you're curious, here's what the inside of a flying saucer looks like:
I don't think this one is going anywhere anytime soon. As an added bonus, there was a geocache near the muffler man at this location. I found it a couple of years ago and was able to tell Krysten the general area in which to look and she found it quickly.
We took a selfie at each stop - the two of us standing between the legs of the muffler men. They all ended up being "crotch shots" and are funny pictures, but I'm not posting them in this post. Maybe not in any post.
Comments (7)
Funny. I don't remember ever seeing any of them, and we've driven across country many times. I ordered the book of your mom's poetry, and it came the other day. I'm really enjoying reading it. You did a great job with it!
I can't see the pic of the 3rd man, the "smaller" one, just before the elephant who looks like he has no ears (I know it's the angle). I wonder why they changed the mufflers out for other things for the men to hold.
Is it time to do the Route 66 trip again with Krysten?
I think I remember you saying something about "you don't realize how big he really is until you are looking up between his legs" I just remember Sparky nearly choking on his coffee as he was trying to drive...
ok, I see the smaller man now. He still is big. Krysten only comes up to his crotch. I like that she is holding his hand.
Looks like you had a lot of fun there!
Those are interesting "guys"... I never heard of them either! Funny pictures and sounds like you saved the funniest ones from being spread all over the internet. What a girl, saving us from ourselves!
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