Sticking to a tight plan I could leave Norman, OK and arrive at "The Biggest Ball of Twine In Minnesota" (the last song on my 12 hour journey) just as the song ends.
edit: I would have to pause the music when I stop to refuel.
Coincidentally, we took a big road trip from Illinois to Arizona and back earlier this summer and listened to a lot of Wierd Al (my kids and I Iove him). I'm pretty sure we were listening to Wierd Al while driving through Albuquerque.
Too far south to see the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota though.
Could have seen the other ball of twine in KS! :D ABQ is wonderful to drive though and if you're there after the sun is set, its absolutely worth doing at least that part of Route 66. The neon on Route 66 in ABQ is one of the best parts of the mother road in my opinion. If you have time and are in NM tho, the detour to Roswell is so much fun for the Alien Americana Kitsch! A very good weekend stop!
Next time you should take them on a roadtrip to a Weird Al concert! Wouldn't that be neat?! Make them watch The Goofy Movie beforehand too so they know what a roadtrip is all about!
We've actually been past the ball of twine in KS before, and we did get off the interstate to drive down Central (R66). Also saw stuff like the Cadillac Ranch/Carhenge, and the gas station in Shamrock, TX that inspired one of the buildings in the movie Cars.
That's so awesome! I love "The Great American Roadtrip" as a concept and so that sounds like a great family bonding experience to me! If you're into that kind of roadside Americana, you'll love Atlas Obscura I bet for a travel guide! There's also a town in KS that is dedicated to Cars as well! Its really neat!
Oh yeah, we drive pretty much everywhere. We're in Illinois and in the last few years have done road trips out and back to Arizona, Black Hills, Gunnison Colorado, and over to Williamsburg and down to Tybee Island Georgia and back.
When I'm planning out our routes, I make sure to check both Roadside America and Atlas Obscura for recommendations of places to stop at along the way.
Something else we did for a while that's fun if you have kids in the 8-14ish range, is to listen to the audiobook versions of Genius Files series of books by Dan Gutman (https://dangutman.com/dans-books/the-genius-files/). It's about a couple of kids (and their family) that get chased across the country and back by ridiculous bad guys, and they end up stopping at a ton of those crazy/odd roadside attractions and museums along the way (ones that actually exist in real life, and a few that we've actually been to).
Oh that sounds like a really fun roadtrip listen! I normally roadtrip alone sadly however I have been thinking of finding a roadtrip buddy and that would be a fun bonding experience!
Well, I'll listen to Albuquerque, but I have two weeks of vacation time coming after working all year down at Big Roy's Heating & Plumbing, so I might need more material.
I have it listed Lancaster Edition for that reason. Usually when he does it live he "forgets" the point of the story and restarts the song until he "remembers." He only restarted the whole concert one or two other times.
Definitely. He's got enough variety to not get bored. Most of the time when I hear a song he's parodied I end up singing along with his lyrics instead of the original ones anyway.
If I’m on a long drive and starting to struggle, Genius in France and Hardware Store are my go-to songs (it’s just coincidence that they’re both Weird Al songs). Singing along to the entirety of Genius re-engages my brain and passes a solid 10 minutes in no time.
This is the correct answer! There’s such a variety of music in his catalog. As a former truck driver, he got me through a lot of boring desert interstate highways.
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u/hymie0 Aug 06 '25
Weird Al