Recently I interviewed Doug Kirby of Roadside America, the website responsible for a database of roadside attractions around the country. It opened my eyes a bit more than I expected and made me more curious.

I’ve always known about these things, I’ve seen them first hand, I’ve touched them, I’ve even taken long lost pictures (they’re on this hard drive somewhere). But, these things, always non-present in the back of my mind, our minds. Many of these relics date back before I could even operate a vehicle let alone a motorcycle and some, are transplants from other locations and plopped down to draw attention to a new business. The worst cases are those repainted to suit a business moved into the old location. Case in point, there is a large fiberglass Dinosaur not to far from me that was put there for a Phillips 66 gas station decades ago. Bud, the Bayville Dinosaur (used to be called Dino the Dinosaur) is still there, but now a paint store assumes the location and the Dinosaur has been repainted several times to create an abomination of itself. Oddly enough, less than a mile away is a 2-Story concrete Champagne bottle that used to have the markings of its calling. Stripped of its colors, it is now painted white in front of a relatively new business.

But it’s the Muffler Men that seem to get all the attention. As quirky as they are, they still evoke the feelings of a time when we believed anything was possible and we dared to do anything. We craved quirky, we were one with the quirky, everyone loved the quirky. Now, we wonder if quirky is within code or meets some sort of safety or EPA regulations. Quirky can no longer be classified as fun, Quirky has become a subject of number number dot number semi-colon letter code. Politicians and whiners take the fun out of everything.

However you define it, I like Quirky.

Quirky is good. Embrace the quirky. With this mindset, when the bike is back on the road, which is another story unto itself, I will set out to capture all the quirky I can. You see, here in New Jersey, quirky is everywhere and not just in the state house.

Go find your quirky.