Alvin Straight Couldn’t Drive To See His Ailing Brother, So He Took A Road Trip On A Lawn Mower (Cool Weird Awesome 1269)
Today in 1994, the start of a very unusual road trip: Alvin Straight drove 240 miles by lawn mower.
The First Road Trip Across The Continental US Won A Guy Fifty Bucks (Cool Weird Awesome 1056)
Today in 1903 the conclusion of the first-ever car trip from one coast of the continental United States to the other. And this story starts, like so many other good stories have, with a bet.
“Smart Work Zones” Can Keep Workers Safe On Roads And Highways (Cool Weird Awesome 781)
When there's road work to be done, crews put up cones, barrels and fences to keep workers safe. Now a "smart work" zone system being tested in Virginia could make those spaces even safer.
AI Can Detect Sarcasm Now, Isn’t That Just So Great (Cool Weird Awesome 546)
DARPA’s Information Innovation Office and researchers at the University of Central Florida taught a deep learning algorithm to spot sarcasm by feeding it back articles of The Onion and snarky threads from Twitter and Reddit. I'm so excited.
If You’re On Vacation, Eat Something Large And Weird (Cool Weird Awesome 117)
The roadside diner is a staple of American travel. And some restaurants make the food a kind of roadside attraction, often by creating meals that are too big to be believed, and often too big to be consumed in one sitting.
The Giant Potato Airbnb And Other Wild Places To Stay (Cool Weird Awesome 116)
There are hotels, motels, friends with fold-out couches, house rentals, B&Bs and, in Idaho, a giant potato you can rent.
The Train Station With No Entrances Or Exits (Cool Weird Awesome 115)
There's an unusual train station in southwest Japan to which you can take a train, but you can’t enter the platform from outside; nor can you leave.
How To See The Lower 48 States In One Road Trip (Cool Weird Awesome 114)
Randal S. Olson developed a computer algorithm to find the shortest, most efficient way to drive through all 48 contiguous United States - 13,699 miles and around 224 hours of driving. Plus: the Race Across America is a more than 3,000 mile road race from Los Angeles to New York on bicycles.
A Bike Trip Around The World With A Cat (Cool Weird Awesome 113)
Dean Nicholson left his job and started a bike trip across the world. While riding through Bosnia, he heard a “desperate meow." So, instead of riding solo, he decided the cat would come along.