163. Collecting Stickers

Collecting Stickers, When You Can: The first time Amy wrote about our quest for good stickers, we were in Oklahoma about a year and a half ago. I was still reeling from the incredible revelation that not every museum gift store or quirky roadside attraction offers a sticker to commemorate your visit. I’ve gotten used to the idea now and am no longer surprised when a major tourist attraction’s gift store offers a million different kind of magnets, patches, t-shirts and beer cozys and no stickers. Such was the case back in Atlanta, at Coke HQ.

Me: I asked three different clerks and they don’t have a single Coke sticker.
Amy: That’s unbelieveable.
Me: Astonishing.
Amy: You can buy twelve different kinds of shower curtains that say “Coca Cola” but they don’t have a single bumper sticker.
Me: You know, I don’t mind it actually. It makes it that much sweeter when we do find stickers.
Amy: Give me a break. You’re all “sticker Zen” now or something? Please.

But it’s true. I do still feel a pang of disappointment when there’s no sticker to commemorate a good stop, like Hot Springs, Arkansas or the National Civil Rights Museum or Big Daddy Don Garlit’s Center For American Drag Racing. But when we do find one, the celebration is mighty and the ceremony of applying it never gets stale. There may actually be whole days spent debating where on the sticker window a particular sticker should go. Some, like the prominent top spot of the Graceland sticker are no-brainers. Others, like the far left placement of the Sun Records circle are hotly contested. One thing, however, is certain: With less than a month to go and plenty of stops planned for road trip giants like the Grand Canyon, Roswell, and Vegas, we’ve got a fighting chance at filling this window before Portland.

 

  1. servo3000 says:
    March 7, 2008 at 7:59 am

    I recently showed up to run a local road race only to find that the race organizers had run out safety pins. With no way to affix my race number to my shirt, some friends of mine bailed me out by loaning me some pins that read “I visited the Laurel and Harder Museum.” I instantly became the coolest runner there.

    My point: don’t get boxed in by just focusing on awesome stickers. That being said, you need to get a sticker from Roswell and place it directly over the NASA sticker.

  2. servo3000 says:
    March 7, 2008 at 8:00 am

    That should have read “Laurel and Hardy”. Spell check sometimes fails in spectacular ways.

  3. Sloan says:
    March 7, 2008 at 8:09 am

    Hilarity ensues. Also, maybe I’ll take your suggestion a step further, placing our most recent acquisition – a sticker for the Very Large Array, as seen in the movie Contact – on top of the Roswell sticker that’s on top of the NASA sticker. Then perhaps a sticker of Calvin peeing on the whole mess. Too much?

  4. The Chez says:
    March 7, 2008 at 10:56 am

    That bus is now a keeper.
    Don’t plan on any VLA stickers though.

  5. ronnie says:
    March 17, 2008 at 8:23 pm

    go noles.

  6. The Porn Librarian says:
    March 26, 2008 at 4:09 pm

    I have the best sticker if you guys are still collecting. Of course, i’m assuming you love porn…let me know.