Weird Museums!

It's travel season for many families, and also for my family.  I am always looking for ideas of interesting places to visit, near and far, and so I've collected many, many travel books and guides.

I'd like to report on one interesting book I ordered, Offbeat Museums, and perhaps give you some ideas of wondrous and exotic things to see on your travels.

The book professes to be "a guided tour of America's weirdest and wackiest museums."  Even reading the book was good entertainment, and if I am ever on a route that would take me right by one of these museums, I could be tempted to stop and visit.

Here are just a few of the 50 wacky museums featured in the book.  You can easily find more information on the internet about each of them.

1.  The Cockroach Hall of Fame (Plano, Texas) - Live and deceased examples of cockroach breeds are on display.

2.  The Barney Smith Toilet Seat Art Museum (San Antonio, Texas) - Smith has created 375 artworks mounted on toilet seats or lids.  Students on field trips show up at his door, and he has had exhibits in local museums, churches, and at festivals.

3.  Marvin Johnson's Gourd Museum (Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina) - Go there if you want an overload of fancy gourds and gourd art.

4.  The Shoe Museum (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) - You can see many shoes there, from an ancient Sultan's slipper to an enormous size 18D oxford worn by a tall circus man in the 1930's.

5.  The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices (Minneapolis, Minnesota) - Robert McCoy's collection of more than 400 medical contraptions documenting a century of bogus science.

6.  The Kansas Barbed Wire Museum (La Crosse, Kansas) - All types of barbed wire and the tools used to make it are on display.  

7.  The Museum of Menstruation (Hyattsville, Maryland) - Harry Finley has a showcase of female period-related items, some more than 100 years old.  

Dress made of menstrual cups

8.  The Mutter Museum (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) - A treasure trove of medical history and a display of hundreds  of unusual medical specimens, including the brain of Albert Einstein.

Well there you have it folks - proof that there's a lot of weird stuff out there to be seen and enjoyed.

If you have been to any of these places, or if you do go, please write and let us know what you saw.  Happy travels!

P.S.   Remember to submit your entry for the "You know you're a geezer when________" contest.  See yesterday's post for details.