A slight case of blockage: the World's Smallest City Block and the other wonders of Dothan, Alabama

This is a city block?

You bet it is! The Camellia Garden Club and The Guinness Book say so.

Dothan is also the Peanut Capital of the World, or so they say, and they want you to know it with these whimsical characters...

They've also got some awesome murals.

Sometimes less is more when it comes to eccentric roadside attractions. Such is the case with the southeastern Alabama town of Dothan, home of a small, nondescript triangular patch of land at the intersection of North Appletree, Museum and Troy Streets that has been feted by the Guinness Book of World Records as the World's Smallest City Block. There's a yield sign, a stop sign, a street sign and a stone marker declaring its awesomeness, and that's, well, it. That was certainly good enough to get me to detour way out of my way on a 100-degree day last September. But wait, there's more! In addition to some really terrific murals all around town, another quirky attraction looms: whimsically decorated 4-foot tall peanut characters, in honor of Dothan's self-proclaimed title of "Peanut Capital of the World" greet you from different town vantage points. Apparently in this town, eccentric roadside attractions are a dime a Dothan.

On the beaten track: Alabama's Talladega Superspeedway

A deluxe motor coach awaits to give you a tour of the track

That's the starting line...

...and a steep banking...

...I'm sorry, what is this again?

They've got a quilt sewn in honor of the late, great Dale "The Intimidator" Earnhardt

They've also got the late Alan Kulwicki's Hooters-sponsored 1993 Ford Thunderbird...

The Gatorade Circle of Champions

I love when big guys are nicknamed "Tiny"

The phenomenon of NASCAR is a force to be reckoned with and NASCAR wouldn't be NASCAR without Talladega Superspeedway in northeastern Alabama. It holds a few distinctions: it's the longest NASCAR oval track (2.66 miles), has the steepest bankings (33 degrees) and has the highest recorded speed of a stock car racer on an oval track (that would be your Rusty Wallace going 216.309 mph in 2004). Its design also makes for very dramatic (and tragic) upwards-of-20-car crashes, earning it the nickname "The Big One." I stopped by on a sweltering non-racing afternoon to poke around the museum and take a deluxe one-hour motor coach tour of the track (approaching speeds of nearly 30 mph). NASCAR is a national wonder but it feels especially appropriate to be here in the deep south soaking it all in, dadgummit. And for those of you reading this who are Will Ferrell fans, I'm afraid I haven't seen "Talladega Nights" yet, so I've got no clever references. Gentlemen, start your engines!

Wintertime and the living is Easy

Some people spend their whole lives striving for Easy Street. I finally found it in the sleepy little town of Enterprise, Alabama, right near the Boll Weevil monument. Not exactly what I had imagined Easy Street to look like, but not a bad place to park your carcass, either.

Here's looking at me, kid: Bad self-portraits from my last trip

My good friend Denise takes great pictures and has mastered the art of the arm-extended point-and-shoot self-portrait like no other. I took a stab at this genre on my last solo roadtrip through the deep south and found it took me many, many tries to get the "perfect" shot. And then I found that the shots I liked even more than the perfect ones were the truly awful, amateurish shots made on the way to the perfect ones. And so, without further ado and in the spirit of Saturday Night Live's Leonard Pinth-Garnell, I bring you...

A GALLERY OF BAD DEEP SOUTH ROADTRIP SELF-PORTRAITS

A cut-off face blocking a cut-off sign. Awful.

I didn't do too bad shooting the Alabama-Tennessee state line sign in this one, but at least I cut off my face awkwardly, as I did in these next two:

This was shot in Anniston, Alabama at the World's Biggest Office Chair which you can just barely see over my crudely shot shoulder.

Me, blurry and off-kilter, at Mammy's Cupboard, Natchez, Mississippi (and the photo's blurry and off-kilter, too).

The sign in the lower left corner says "Welcome to Louisiana" but you'd never know it in this terrible shot.

This one's so bad, I'm not sure what was supposed to be in the background.

Yep, that's my cheek and sunglasses at Oprah's home site in Koskiusko, Mississippi.

And last but not least: some roadside grass, a stop sign and half of my face. Appalling.

Crappie and proud of it: Centre, Alabama

Everyone is good at something, I like to think, and the good people of Centre, Alabama want you to know they're the crappie capital of the world, crappie being a freshwater fish in the sunfish family. They take their bragging rights because of nearby crappie-tastic Weiss Lake. Seems like there's an Abbott and Costello routine in here somewhere: How's the crappie fishing? Crappy. Yes. What? The fishing? Crappy. I know it is. You know it's what? Crappie!

So here's to you, Centre: keep that crappie attitude going.

Incredi-bull: The Pike County Cattlemen and Cattlewomen's big steel bull of Troy, Alabama

Anatomically correct, don't you know.

It's always a delight to come across an unexpected over-sized roadside bovine sculpture while tooling down the side streets of this great land of ours. I had just such a pleasure while cruising along Highway 231 in southeastern Alabama. Parked proudly on a trailer hitch outside the Pike County Cattlemen Park in the town of Troy was a spectacular steel bull, smiling at all passers-by. He's the apparent mascot of the Pike County Cattlemen's Association, and I hear they put on a heck of a rodeo at their indoor facility, including saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, breakaway roping, and my personal favorite: cowgirl barrel racing. It's the home of the Troy University Rodeo Team, the Trojan Stampede, and host of high school and junior rodeos, too. I couldn't find any information on who the artist of this masterpiece is, or if the mascot has a name. I vote for Roy, if anyone is asking. So if you find yourself in Pike County, do yourself a solid and "steer" your vehicle to Cattlemen's Park. Not to do so would be incomprehensi-bull.

Happy Thanksgiving from Turkeytown

Today is Thanksgiving and I'm thankful to live in a country full of small communities with whimsical names, like Turkeytown, Alabama. I had the pleasure of driving unexpectedly through Turkeytown last fall and had to do a U-turn to snap a picture to document my delight at such a wonderful place. A Google search shows Alabama isn't the only state graced with a Turkeytown: there's a Turkeytown, Pennsylvania, a Turkeytown, Kentucky, and a Turkeytown, Tennessee. North Carolina has a town named Turkey, so that's a Turkey town too. And, of course, Istanbul is a Turkey town, but on a much grander scale. Pass the gravy.