L.A. Is My Beat: The Land of Giants

Mary Joe and The Coronade Heights "Paul Bunyan," Tucson, Arizona

Yes, Larry and I are obsessed with roadside signage of a certain era, especially "Muffler Men." We have plenty of these hunky fiber glass guys right here in Southern California (Chicken Boy is our favorite, of course).

Decades ago, Larry drove by a most curious collection of buckets on a flat piece of land just outside of Tucson, Arizona. He drove by again about 15 years ago, but both times he could not stop and explore. Last week, we finally stopped and took photos of the mysterious buckets surrounding this piece of property on the highway.

The Buckets, Eloy, Arizona

The Buckets were moved from Magic Mountain in Valencia, California for a proposed theme park. It never happened. Read about it here.

We saw the Muffler Man above, Mr. Coronado Heights, right in Tucson. I do love his strong jaw!

After our visit to Tucson and seeing the sights, along with many museums and the Kon Tiki Restaurant (awesome), we continued to Las Cruces New Mexico. We were very busy with the Las Cruces Uke Fest and sightseeing in Las Cruces. Upon our departure, Larry took one of the blue highways out of town and we came upon another Muffler Man at an RV dealership in Hatch, New Mexico (home of the famous Hatch chiles).

RV Salesman, Cowboy. Hatch, New Mexico

He's holding a mini-Winnebago. A "mini-Winnie"

Colonel Sanders was sitting on a bench at the back of the lot in the shade of the garage. He was not giant.

Less than one mile down the road, we came upon Sparky's Burgers & BBQ. Sparky's is a veritable smorgasbord of roadside signage and statues. Both sides of the road have some great advertising statues, including Uncle Sam, Yogi Bear, Bob from the Big Boy Restaurant, The A & W family sits atop Sparky's building. There's this huge pig, a dinosaur, Robin Hood and more. Sparky's was quite busy, so only Larry peeked inside. He said there was even more advertising memorabilia inside!