WILD TRAVELS goes off the beaten track to celebrate America's unusual festivals, offbeat museums and eccentric characters. The Emmy award-winning series is intelligent, funny, unexpected and a bit irreverent, spotlighting our country's most colorful, unconventional and quirky people and places.
Mon, Jul 28 | 10:00 A.M. |
Wild Travels
NH Create (11.4)
Host Will Clinger visits McMinnville, Oregon's UFO FEST to witness the extraterrestrial parade & alien pet contest; examines the MUSEUM OF MENTAL HEALTH in Salem where One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was filmed; tries not to crash in a jet simulator at the NAVAL FLIGHT ACADEMY in Pensacola; and then marvels at the huge model ships and animated "rock band" made completely out of. |
Mon, Jul 28 | 5:00 P.M. |
Wild Travels
NH Create (11.4)
Host Will Clinger visits McMinnville, Oregon's UFO FEST to witness the extraterrestrial parade & alien pet contest; examines the MUSEUM OF MENTAL HEALTH in Salem where One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was filmed; tries not to crash in a jet simulator at the NAVAL FLIGHT ACADEMY in Pensacola; and then marvels at the huge model ships and animated "rock band" made completely out of. |
Mon, Aug 4 | 10:00 A.M. |
Wild Travels
NH Create (11.4)
Host Will Clinger journeys hundreds of feet underground to tour the historic QUEEN COPPER MINE in Bisbee, Arizona; spends the night at the nearby bucolic SHADY DELL retro trailer park; goes nowhere but up at a WHITE MOUNTAIN HOT AIR BALLOONFEST and then tries to dodge ferocious flying carp at the annual central Illinois REDNECK FISHING TOURNAMENT (spoiler alert: he fails). |
Mon, Aug 4 | 5:00 P.M. |
Wild Travels
NH Create (11.4)
Host Will Clinger journeys hundreds of feet underground to tour the historic QUEEN COPPER MINE in Bisbee, Arizona; spends the night at the nearby bucolic SHADY DELL retro trailer park; goes nowhere but up at a WHITE MOUNTAIN HOT AIR BALLOONFEST and then tries to dodge ferocious flying carp at the annual central Illinois REDNECK FISHING TOURNAMENT (spoiler alert: he fails). |
Host Will Clinger finds an abundance of lactose-tolerance at Cheese Days in Monroe, Wisconsin; treads very carefully at the world's largest Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater, Texas; investigates America's last remaining Barber Pole Factory in St. Paul; learns the challenges of living on a 727 jetliner in Hillsboro, Oregon; samples some of the more than five thousand condiments at the National Mustard Museum; and visits the ultimate Roadside Attraction: Rock In the House (not to be confused with House on the Rock) in Fountain City, Wisconsin. Cheese Days (Monroe, WI); Rock In The House [Not House On The Rock] (Fountain City, WI); Rattlesnake Roundup (Sweetwater, TX); Marvy Barber Pole Company (St. Paul, MN); World's Largest Six-Pack (Lacrosse, WI); Home In a 727 Jet (Hillsboro, OR); Mustard Museum (Middleton, WI).
In Las Vegas, host Will Clinger pays homage to the iconic signs of yesteryear at the Neon Boneyard, and then witnesses a miracle cure at Hangover Heaven; proceeds to Los Angeles to sample the potions, hexes and voodoo dolls at Farmacia Botanica; browses the rockets and sprockets at Sparta, Wisconsin's Deke Slayton Space & Bicycle Museum, then joins the revved up crowd at America's largest Art Car Parade in Houston. Art Car Party & Parade (Houston, TX); Farmacia Botanica (Los Angeles, CA); Angels Flight Funicular (Los Angeles, CA); Neon Boneyard (Las Vegas); Hangover Doctor (Las Vegas); Deke Slayton Space & Bicycle Museum (Sparta, WI).
Host Will Clinger stares in amazement at the largest airplane ever built - Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose" on display in McMinnville, Oregon; witnesses some strange things indeed at Portland's Peculiarium; marvels at Marv's incredible collection of Farm Toys in Wisconsin; admires the aluminum siding at Houston's Beer Can House and then pulls over for gas station memorabilia at Classical Gas in Embudo, New Mexico. Fill 'er up! Spruce Goose (McMinnville, OR); Peculiarium (Portland, OR); Beer Can House (Houston, TX); Classical Gas Station (Embudo, NM); Marv's Farm Toys & Antiques (Monroe, WI); Evergreen Aviation (McMinnville, OR).
Host Will Clinger returns to Sin City for an explosive tour of the National Atomic Testing Museum, and plays classic machines at Las Vegas' Pinball Hall of Fame; watches a parade that doesn't move an inch in Whalan, Minnesota; goes souvenir hunting at the Los Angeles Coroner's Gift Shop; then follows his nose to Baumgartrner's Cheese Shop in Monroe, Wisconsin for limburger sandwiches and finds out why all that cash is stashed on the ceiling. Stand Still Parade (Whalan, MN); Atomic Testing Museum (Las Vegas); Golden Gate Casino Shrimp Cocktail (Las Vegas); Chicken Boy (Los Angeles); Coroner's Gift Shop (Los Angeles); Baumgartner's Limburger Sandwiches (Monroe, WI); Pinball Hall Of Fame (Las Vegas).
Host Will Clinger offers his condolences at Houston's Museum of Funeral Customs; celebrates the weird and wonderful world of sculptor Dr. Evermor near Baraboo, Wisconsin; craves the collection of half-eaten celebrity sandwiches in the Land of Lincoln; discovers who Ed was and why Wykoff, Minnesota gave him his own museum; and drops in on a Portland, Oregon donut shop to play witness at a VooDoo Wedding. Ed Museum (Wykoff, MN); Ed Paschke Art Gallery (Chicago, IL); Strange Springfield--Donner Party Starting Point, Gen Santa Anna's Prosthetic Leg, Half-Eaten Celebrity Sandwiches, Two-Story Outhouse (Springfield, IL); Funeral Museum (Houston, TX); Dennis Hopper's Grave (Taos, NM); The Amazing World of Dr. Evermor (North Freedom, WI); Voodoo Donuts Wedding (Portland, OR).
Host Will Clinger looks on with envy at the World Beard & Mustache Championship in Portland, then quenches his thirst at nearby Belmont Station beer store boasting some bizarre brews; unearths the Lost Egyptian city from Cecil B. DeMille's classic "Ten Commandments" beneath the sand dunes on the California coast; visits the elephant seals for their siesta in San Simeon, and explores a lively Los Angeles museum devoted solely to Death. Beard & Mustache World Championship Preliminaries (Portland, OR); Salt & Straw Ice Cream (Portland, OR); Museum Of Death (Los Angeles); Elephant Seal Siesta (San Simeon, CA); Buried Egyptian Movie Set from 1923 "The Ten Commandments" (Guadalupe, CA); Beard & Mustache World Championship Finals (Portland, OR).
Host Will Clinger finds himself in the middle of an ice cream-related catastrophe at the Ben & Jerry's Factory in Waterbury, Vermont; mingles with the mermaids at the underwater show in Weeki Wachee, Florida; achieves speeds of up to 5 miles per hour on the world's first cog wheel train to the summit of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire; and then marvels at the Bug Art portraits made entirely from thousands of insects at a museum in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.
Host Will Clinger tries and fails to ride an alligator at Orlando's Gatorland; drops in on the only used car dealership with a priceless collection of Muhammad Ali memorabilia in New Hampshire; dabbles in the paranormal at the abandoned and haunted West Virginia State Penitentiary; and then meets an outrageous artist who is creating a psychedelic city block in Pittsburgh known as "Randyland."
Host Will Clinger learns the hazards and rewards of professional Golf Ball Diving in Kissimmee; considers defecting to a foreign country at a library that sits smack dab on the U.S. - Canadian border; discovers a Hari Krishna commune with an incredible "Palace of Gold" in the hills of West Virginia; and then catches his breath in Donora, Pennsylvania at the world's only "Smog Museum."
Host Will Clinger gets righteously hammered at a Pittsburgh church converted into a microbrewery; solves forensic puzzles while observing the Nutshell Dioramas of Unexplained Death in Baltimore; samples the "Kitty Piddle," "Monster Mucus," and "Bacon" flavors from among the 700 carbonated beverages at Pops 66 Soda Ranch near Oklahoma City; and then covers his ears as the engines roar at Orlando Speedway's Test 'n Tune Night.
Host Will Clinger prays that his car won't stall at the Drive-in Church in Daytona Beach; smokes a stogie that's just been rolled at Tampa's Tabanero Cigar Factory; keeps his clothes on for a tour of the Cypress Cove Nudist Colony* in Orlando; and joins the proud townsfolk in Fruita, Colorado as they celebrate an historic barnyard accident at the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival.
Host Will Clinger tries on the "Shoe Panties" and admires the "Flip 'N Flush" and other wacky inventions at a trade show in Pittsburgh; avoids becoming tiger food at the Big Cat Sanctuary in Tampa; ventures to Vermont to see art created and captured from Spider Webs; and then stumbles upon the Museum of Everyday Life in Glover, Vermont and its special exhibit on...dust!
Host Will Clinger meets Mr. Pierogi, Ms. Pasczki and the polka-loving Pierorgettes at Pierogi Fest in Whiting, Indiana; ducks for cover at Lambert's Cafe "Home of the Throwed Rolls" in Alabama; discovers where the bullets are buried in Tombstone Arizona's Bird Cage theater; is shocked by the products made from endangered animals confiscated by the National Wildlife Repository near Denver; cheers on the daring (and possibly deranged) participants at a Unicycle Football game in San Marcos, Texas.
Host Will Clinger witnesses one of the first Beard and Moustache Competitions where women have their own category (the Whiskerinas); enjoys America's oldest Mardi Gras celebration in Mobile; takes on a 150 ton tower of debris at the Cathedral of Junk in Austin; then watches the unusual and amusing breed of fainting goats topple over at a farm in Alabama.
Host Will Clinger surveys the cinematic oddities including movie props, costumes and some of the trashiest films ever made at Movie Madness Videos in Portland; checks in to the Dino Hotel in Colorado so he can check out their impressive collection of dinosaur fossils; drops in on Tug Fest, the incredible tug-of-war between two towns on opposite sides of the Mississippi River; discovers some of the surprising array of amenities at the World's Largest Truckstop in Iowa; and sneaks a peek at a California bar's annual tradition of mooning passing Amtrak trains.
Host Will Clinger watches the competitors hollow out and race gigantic, thousand pound gourds at the annual Pumpkin Regatta on Tualatin Lake, Oregon; tracks down the infamous "Unipiper", a bagpipe-playing, flame throwing, unicyclist on the streets of Portland; judges a 10- pound sundae eating contest at MacAlpine's Diner and Soda Fountain in Phoenix; visits a museum dedicated to Action Figures in Oklahoma; and revels in the cheesy art and relentless puns at Solomon's Castle in the swamps of Florida.
Host Will Clinger enjoys the view from the highest bridge in America - 1,000 feet above the Royal Gorge; shivers near the frozen masterpieces created at the U.S. Snow Sculpting Competition in Wisconsin; wanders the halls of the world's only spear hunting museum in Alabama; and searches for the elusive Yeti with the Bigfoot believers of the Sasquatch Outpost in the mountains of Colorado.
An entire episode devoted to the strangest festival WILD TRAVELS has ever attended: Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland, Colorado! The annual festivals honors a deceased Norwegian who resides in a shed on a hill above town under 1,200 pounds of dry ice (long story), and features Team Coffin Races, a Polar Plunge, a Parade of Hearses and a Frozen T-shirt Contest!
Host Will Clinger visits Hot Springs, Arkansas for the annual RUNNING OF THE TUBS-to watch costumed teams race bathtubs filled with water through the downtown; he stops in for an historic scrub down & steam at the BUCKSTAFF BATH HOUSE; takes in an astounding collection of 3D advertising art at the POLLACK MUSEUM in AZ; and then attempts to pick the right square at CHICKEN POOP BINGO in Austin, TX.
Host Will Clinger drives the Illinois leg of historic ROUTE 66 to find: the birthplace of the COZY DOG in Springfield; a city hall with a phone booth on its roof in LINCOLN; the land-yacht of itinerant Route 66 artist Bob Waldmire in PONTIAC; a roadside attraction called HENRY'S RABBIT RANCH; and then rides along at the annual bike race/eating contest known as the TOUR DE DONUT in Staunton.
In Chicago, host Will Clinger attends the parody of the IDITAROD - the CHI-DITAROD, where the sled is a shopping cart pulled by people instead of dogs; checks in to the Watergate Hotel's SCANDAL ROOM in DC; visits the studio of surrealist MICHAEL P PRICE in Arizona; squeezes himself into a DWARF CAR for a drive in Maricopa; and then marvels at an art exhibit made entirely out of PEEPS in Wisconsin.
Host Will Clinger visits McMinnville, Oregon's UFO FEST to witness the extraterrestrial parade & alien pet contest; examines the MUSEUM OF MENTAL HEALTH in Salem where One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was filmed; tries not to crash in a jet simulator at the NAVAL FLIGHT ACADEMY in Pensacola; and then marvels at the huge model ships and animated "rock band" made completely out of...TOOTHPICKS!
Host Will Clinger journeys hundreds of feet underground to tour the historic QUEEN COPPER MINE in Bisbee, Arizona; spends the night at the nearby bucolic SHADY DELL retro trailer park; goes nowhere but up at a WHITE MOUNTAIN HOT AIR BALLOONFEST and then tries to dodge ferocious flying carp at the annual central Illinois REDNECK FISHING TOURNAMENT (spoiler alert: he fails).
Host Will Clinger delves into the paranormal legends surrounding EDGAR ALLAN POE as well as the historic and haunted USS CONSTELLATION in Baltimore; reaches for his wallet at America's only PURSE MUSEUM in Little Rock; wanders among hundreds of critters at the MIDWEST FUR FEST in Chicago; and then tees off with Sister Cindy at an event called (no kidding) BEAT THE NUN.
Host Will Clinger feels right at home in a roomful of dummies at the VENTRILOQUISTS' CONVENTION near Cincinnati; finds all things feline at the LUCKY CAT MUSEUM; drives out to CARHENGE - Nebraska's answer to Stonehenge; and then sees where the bodies are not buried but frozen (in liquid nitrogen) at ALCOR CRYOGENICS in Scottsdale - Open To The Public!
Host Will Clinger spends an entire episode chronicling the annual, KINETIC SCULPTURE RACE in Baltimore - an outrageously challenging competition among two dozen humanpowered, amphibious, all-terrain mobile works of art slogging through a 15 mile course of city streets, mud, sand and Baltimore's inner harbor. All entries are vying for the coveted GRAND MEDIOCRE CHAMPION award.
WENH-TV Ch. 11 Durham
WLED-TV Ch. 48 Littleton
WEKW-TV Ch. 18 Keene
W50DP-D Ch. 50 Hanover
W34DQ-D Ch. 34 Pittsburg