Places anjohnst Wants to Go

An easy-to-miss plaque marks the building that first held this 19th-century telephone innovation.

The final resting place of the great escape artist, where some still gather to wait for his escape from death.

An eight-foot-long pine cone made out of 140 recycled steel shovels is an homage to Maine's state flower.

This is the sewer drain that was the inspiration for the opening scene of Stephen King’s classic novel “IT”.

This unassuming retro burger joint was billed as “diner of the future” at the 1939 World's Fair.

The house's confection-like decorations are the result of one man's painstaking work over decades.

The second-largest cave chamber in the world was discovered in 1898 by a 16-year-old and a friend known as "Pothead."

This cheery fruit farmer welcomes visitors to a classic roadside emporium.

Explore the largest pure gypsum deposit in the world, and go dune sledding while you're at it.

This is one really big nut.

This 47-foot chile pepper sculpture welcomes Scoville heat unit obsessed tourists to the Big Chile Inn.

The state bird of New Mexico, constructed entirely out of garbage.

One of El Paso's oldest dives may have inspired the classic Marty Robbins song.

Edison's cast-in-place concrete houses were a failure, but way ahead of their time.

A trompe-l'oeil statue honoring the first guide dog in North America.

An old saloon in the West filled with history, and according to some, a few dozen ghosts.

A wild west cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona, provides a window into the Old West.

This constitutionally sound Muffler Man harkens back to the days these attractions were a must-see.

These half-buried combine harvesters just off Route 66 are an homage to the Cadillac Ranch.

A pair of giant legs paying homage to a poem, a king, and it would seem, socks.

A sculpture made of 10 Cadillacs as a monument to the “Golden Age” of the American automobile.

This striking church was built from a Frank Lloyd Wright design more than a decade after the master architect's death.

This trippy wonderland is the result of one man's obsessive, decades long passion project.

Founded by members of the Tohono O’odham Nation, this one-room joint's James Beard–winning fry bread is light as a cloud.