Eccentric America
Weird, Wacky, and Outrageously
Fun Things
to See and Do in the USA
ECCENTRIC CALIFORNIA September, 2005
Judged "Best Guidebook, 2005-2006" by the Society of American Travel Writers, Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Bronze Award
|
"Eccentric America is more than a travel guidebook. It is a celebration of America's more eccentric places, happenings and people, as you travel the U.S.A. That it takes 314 jam packed pages to chronicle, is reflective of an author who takes her fun seriously, and of a culture that celebrates the unusual and the wacky."
Read the entire Travel Sleuths article here. |
|
As
seen in USA Today.
Read the article
here.
|
As
featured in the
Wall Street Journal - click
here.
|
Read
the article in the
San Franciso Chronicle - click
here.
|
With more than 1000 entries, there's never a dull moment-eccentrically
speaking, that is--in America. Offering a provocative
look at the quirky people and places on the fringes
of mainstream tourism, Eccentric America guides
you to some of the country's most unforgettable experiences.
Celebrate events like Moon
Amtrak, SPAMarama™,
and the Redneck
Games. Find out why people collect such things as
umbrella
covers, squished pennies, and bad art-- or why someone
would sell everything but chickens in a chicken store.
Gawk at the Alien
Museum and the Insectarium.
Laugh at competitions such as the wife-carrying championships,
mashed potato wrestling, and cardboard boat racing.
Sleep in a treehouse or in a cave. See a real-life Mother
Goose and her diaper-wearing ducks. Meet a pizza clerk
with his own memorial
restroom and a man who's built a mountain out of
hay, putty, and old paint.
Featuring 330 all-new eccentricities,
the second edition of this award-winning guide also
includes Cross-Country Quirks, regional calendars of
wacky festivals and events, and an intriguing "Heights
of Eccentricity" map of the United States. An entertaining
and funny read, it's also a comprehensive guide to a
side of American culture you won't want to miss.
About the Map
|
(Click on the map for a larger version)
|
THE HEIGHTS OF ECCENTRICITY
You've probably heard the expression, "All Americans
are weird." Now you can see just how weird they
really are!
America varies considerably when it comes to
the eccentric landscape and not all weirdness
is created equal. Based on the number of entries
per state, you can see the heights to which some
rise on the quirkiness scale and the depths to
which some states sink when it comes to providing
a culture that encourages colorful behavior.
|
|
Sure, you'd expect to see California and Florida
at the top of any eccentric pyramid, but you may
be surprised to see Washington and Wisconsin ranking
right up there among the oddest. Size, population,
and regional differences alone can't explain the
wide variations, eccentrically speaking, among
the 48 states. What do Illinois and Pennsylvania
offer that the surrounding states don't? Why is
Oregon so mundane, nestled as it is between two
such extreme neighbors? What is it about Florida
that spawns so many eccentricities compared to
the states around it?
What stands for quintessentially quirky in Nebraska
might not even register on the eccentric scale
in California, a quality this map can't measure.
It also can't measure the relative expressiveness
of a region's quirkiness quotient. In San Francisco,
for example, they take their eccentricity very
seriously, unlike Los Angeles WHICH behaves more
like a wriggling puppy dog, anxious for you to
rub its touristic tummy.
If you thought you could just drive across America,
hopping from state to state in search of eccentric
sites, you might prefer an airplane instead of
a car. Jumping from California to Texas to Florida
in search of the quirkiest spots in America means
driving across some states where there's barely
an eccentric blip on the plains of conformity.
On the other hand, quantity doesn't always mean
quality, as a read through Eccentric America will
clearly show. When it comes to weirdness, some
American somewhere will always measure up.
|
Jan
was live on Frommer's Budget Travel at MSNBC.com.
Read the transcript of her on-line chat
here.
|
Listen
to author and speaker Jan Friedman talking about
ECCENTRIC AMERICA on National
Public Radio's "All Things Considered".
Traveling or looking for a day out? On this site,
you can check out upcoming
eccentric festivals in each of the six regions
of the United States. Tell Jan
about your favorite eccentric destination, and
you could win a free
copy of her book! Or, sign
up to receive the latest news about eccentric
sites and personalities.
|
First Edition:
Voted "Best
Guidebook 2002" - Society of American
Travel Writers
Voted "Best
Travel Book of 2001" -
North American Travel Journalists Association
|
|
"Author
Jan Friedman brings a wicked sense of
the absurd to listings for places as strange
as the Future Birthplace of Capt. Kirk
in Iowa, the office building shaped like
a giant picnic basket in Ohio, and the
B&B in a cave in New Mexico."
- Chicago Tribune, IL
|
|
|
|
Eccentric California
Just Published!
Look Inside
_____________________
2004 edition features 300 NEW eccentricities, Cross-Country Quirks, regional calendars of wacky festivals and events, and the famous "Heights of Eccentricity" map of the United States.
|
|
;)
