Third Tallest Gnome

When my son Gary and I were discussing the plans for our drive down to Savannah to visit family he only had one request, and that was that we had to visit several "world's largest" somethings.  My first thought was, "you're such a weirdo." However, that's exactly what I'm always looking to do on trips, so I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.  On the famous/infamous trip west with Sanford Zale I was the one always pushing to stop in places like Holcomb, Kansas (although that was hardly silly) or the Dental School Museum (which has reached mythic proportions because it was closed that day) or the Creation Museum (which was profoundly silly, but may have taught me more about America than anyplace I've ever visited).  We finally found a use for the Internet by carrying out a Google search for topics such as "New York oddities," which would bring us, invariably, to roadsideamerica.com, a very useful site for tracking down odd things to see along the way.  We were disturbed by the number of states that claimed to have the largest chair in the world, and will have to investigate this further in the future.  Since our route had us on the road for four days, we were hoping to check out an oddity every day.  In the end we only visited three, but made up for it by visiting an appropriately named town, but more on that later.  Our journey, which, truthfully, far exceeded that of Ernest Shackleton in grandeur and danger, began in Kerhonkson, New York with a visit to the third tallest gnome in the world.  We ended up getting far enough off of Interstate 95 that Miss Garmin, who we argued with quite a bit, routed us far out into central Pennsylvania as we headed south.  Still, it was worth it.  I mean, come on, look at it! Most importantly, it made my son happy, and that's all that means anything to me.

I don't think we would have stopped if it was the world's tallest gnome - or even the second tallest gnome - but the fact that it was the third tallest gave it an irresistible charm.