The Things I Find

Quite a few folks that see my varied posts and ride pics remark that I find the oddest stuff. It’s true, I do.

But odd in a good way, I think.

Some are appalled by the creepiness of some of my pics. Like this one…

 

 

And this one…

 

Others are weirded out by my photobomb-like selfies.

 

But I’ve never found clowns to be creepy. Or elves. I just think they’re fun. Same goes for photo-bombing my own pics. LOL.

Some people don’t understand why I bother to capture these oddities. A moto-blogger pal, Darlene (aka Princess Scooterpie), who lives on Vancouver Island in Bristish Columbia, Canada, captured it well in a recent post on her blog:

“I love it when I am out riding and spot something that catches my attention and makes me pull a u-turn and go back and look, I am more apt to do this on the bike  than when I am in the car.  I think blogging has a lot to do with this, we bloggers are always looking for the eclectic, interesting and appealing blog subjects.”

It’s true. Imagine how dull my blog posts would be if I just said something like, “I did about 150 miles, ate breakfast, and saw this cool collection of parade stuff.”

Really.

“Oh the things you can find if you don’t stay behind!”
— Dr. Seuss

My recent visit to American Celebration on Parade. To me, anyway. I’ve known vaguely of the place’s existence for years. So I didn’t do much research before going beyond finding the address. Which somehow made it even better. Because I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I was imagining a bunch of sorta tacky, old, parade floats crammed into an empty lot behind the caverns. Like an afterthought. Something you’d see on American Pickers perhaps.

Boy, was I ever wrong. The collection is housed in a huge, nicely landscaped modern building. The clown is one of only a few statues on the outside. The Statue of Liberty is another.

 

 

And when you go inside, this is what you see, seated atop the ticket booth.

 

The $10 admission fee was a small price to pay for the delight I felt while visiting this place. Of course, if I were traveling with a group, that could add up. But I was alone, and I literally had the place to myself. Other than the staffers, I was the only person there.

As I entered the exhibit hall, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. I felt like I’d stepped into Wonka land.

 

There are signs like this one by all of the floats.

That genie is 30 feet tall and 47 feet wide!

I didn’t care as much about the history or the stats/dimensions. I was just enjoying the sheer creativity of the pieces. The saturation of color. The variety and amount of fun stuff squeezed into this building.

Really. How can you not smile seeing all these treasured bits of Americana lovingly housed and maintained under one roof for people like me to admire?

Some of you won’t get it. But that’s okay. I do.

Rather than overwhelm you with words, I’m just going to share some pics.

Okay, maybe a lot of pics. But I couldn’t help myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What tickled me even more than all of the complete floats were the miscellaneous items tucked into nooks and crannies. Like any collector, this guy has pieces you just know he loves so much that they have to be displayed somewhere. Anywhere.

 

The guy must really like frogs. 🙂

 

 

This last one reminded me first of the Josie West doll I had as a kid. Second, I swear it’s my cousin, Shannon, immortalized as a parade participant.

 

So there you have it. Wasn’t that fun?

Remember the giant frog? He’s at a completely separate building, The Yellow Barn, which I’ll share pics from in my next post.