The first vacation Tom and I took together was during Dead Week at Yale, one of the two weeks between the end of finals and graduation. On this particular week nothing happens around campus, hence the colorful moniker. The second week, more tamely called Senior Week, is filled with picnics, dances, parties, and other bizarre rites of passage. (This is a place after all where we get clay pipes at graduation.) During Dead Week, most seniors head south from Connecticut to warmer, beachier locales. Most of our friends went to South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach. Tom and I headed down by way of Pennsylvania (don’t ask…let’s just say I’ve learned not fall asleep when Tom is navigating through parts unknown to him) and Durham, North Carolina where we stopped to join my original college roommate from Duke, Jennifer Stimpson nee Massalon, for her graduation. We had a great time during our week at the beach, especially since there was a Harley Davidson rally going on at the same time. One of the highlights for Tom, however, was getting to see Pedro’s South of the Border, the roadside tourist mecca at the North Carolina/South Carolina border that lures motorists with hundreds of enticing neon billboards. One of our favorite photos of all time is that of our good friend Michael “Otis” Roberts, our traveling companion for the drive home, standing with a giant Pedro. (If I were home, I’d scan it in and post it—check back next August.)
So as it turns out, Australians also have a fascination bordering on an obsession with giant roadside objects d’art. The subject of many of an Aussie road trip, these structures have figured prominently on our rather limited drives through Queensland and New South Wales. As huge fans of Arrested Development, which boasted its own giant Banana Stand, we were excited to see The Big Banana in Coff’s Harbor. (Hint: if you love us, you can send us the third season DVDs, which came out in the US two days after we left.) It is reputedly the first and certainly one of the finest of Australia’s Big Things.
Just hours after leaving the banana behind, we found The Big Prawn in Read the rest of this entry »
