5 Roadside Oddities You Can Only Find in Idaho
According to a new survey, most of us will spend at least 23 hours on road trips before the first bell of the school year rings. Between all the potty breaks and telling your passengers "no, we're not there yet" keep your eyes opened for this wonderfully bizarre roadside attractions you can only find in Idaho!
It's awesome that there's still a handful of drive-in movie theaters in the Gem State and the Spud Drive-In in Driggs has to be the most unique. The single screen drive-in has gained fame from parking "Old Murphy" on the property. The trailer truck hauling a giant potato is a perfect photo-op for travelers to pull over and snap a photo documenting their trip to Idaho. The 50s style drive-on serves up everything from burgers and shakes to potato necessities like french fries, spud buds and seasoned fries. If you'd like to make an weekend out of it, they even offer five adorable Air BnB properties like vintage campers and cozy cabins for guests to spend the night at the drive in!
If you're cruising down US-95 near Cottonwood and eye a giant beagle, you just have to pull over to check it out, right? According to Roadside America, the first of the two large beagle buildings on the property opened as a studio for chainsaw-carvers Frances Conklin and Dennis Sullivan in the 1990s. It stood 12' tall. While discussing their studio's popularity, they had an idea to create an even bigger 30' tall beagle home that could be used as a place for weary travelers to rest their heads. You can book a stay inside "Sweet Willy" for $132 a nigh, double occupancy from April-October. The home is large enough to sleep four.
Don Aslett Museum of Clean
I'm sure my husband will make jokes about how this is one roadside oddity I'd never pull over to visit because well...I'm a slob. Located in Pocatello, the museum was the brain child of Don Aslett who got his start in the cleaning industry by starting his own business at 18. After seeing a pre-electric sweeper from the 1800s at a museum near Detroit, he started collecting them and displaying them near his Cleaning Center store. People started donating vintage cleaners, tools and art pieces to Aslett's display so he decided to expand it into its own building. It opened inside a 1916 solid brick building in 2012.
Mountain Home's Penny Wall
We haven't been to Mountain Home in a few months, so you guys will have to give us a status update on this one. According to a post on Roadside America, there was a man scraping pennies off the wall in late June and told tipster, Linda S. that the town is planning a new mural for that section of wall. The original penny wall mural was designed and create by a local artist over the course of two years. It took a lot of work to get more than 430 coins to stick to the wall, but Randy Miller finally completed his masterpiece in 2012. The public was welcome to add their own coins to a "Wishing Wall" beneath the mural if they could manage to make the coins stick.
This is one that we showed you just as it was nearing completion! After traveling 148,000 miles and visiting 7,200 cities, the original spud from the Famous Idaho Potato truck was retired and given to one of the original members of the Tater Team. Kristie Wolfe has made quite the name for herself making wickedly creative tiny home Air BnBs and knew that the beloved potato could be her next masterpiece. Located at 31581 S Orchard Access Rd in Boise, you can rent it for can rent it for $200 a night...but most dates are sold out until October!