Muffler Man outside of JD Car Care in Magnolia, NJ. For years he was holding nothing and this year (2024) I spotted him holding a muffler!
The store was closed when we got there but you could still buy peanuts outside for $1 per (very small) bag. Worth every penny! The prairie dogs were so flippin cute! World’s Largest Prairie Dog is worth the stop, too.
A great stop in I-80 for ice cream. You can play mini golf behind the restaurant. If you go around the right side of the building and walk (or drive) up that road there are a lot more dinosaur statues, another sasquatch and one of the dragons from Game of Thrones. The geology museum was closed, presumably for COVID. There’s a brew pub back there, too, though we didn’t go in.
Might be closed (at least temporarily) due to COVID/staffing shortages? We were there on a Thursday at 5pm and it was locked up tight. The Gemini Giant statue is worth a stop for
a few pics, regardless. Quintessential road trip kitsch!
A good stop once you get into Iowa. Definitely has it’s fair share of fun I-80 souvenirs and random dreamcatcher-wolf t-shirts. We decided to eat in the Iowa 80 Kitchen restaurant inside and the fried cutlet sandwich was really tasty.
In the middle of nowhere, but great for photo ops. There is a debate about whether or not this is the WORLD’S largest frying pan, since there are several that claim that title, but regardless it is Iowa’s largest!
As we were driving through backroads and cornfields for 2 hours to find the Grotto, I turned to my sister and said, “This better be worth it.” Oh my god, it was! Beautiful, lovingly cared for and huge! So much beauty to take photos of. Some of the pieces of clear and rose quartz and geodes are enormous. Even if you are not Catholic you can’t help but be impressed. Though we were here after the gift shop closed, and during COVID, the bathrooms were open and clean.