3Birds Template is here to inform you that these 10 roadside attractions really exist. Really.

The World's Largest Balls of Twine: Darwin, Minnesota and Cawker City, Kansas. Due to the difficulty of unraveling a gigantic ball of twine and measuring it, the largest ball of twine title is shared by two cities. Francis Johnson devoted 29 years of his life to create the one in Darwin, Minnesota. The Cawker City, Kansas ball of twine is more of an "ongoing community project."

The World's Largest Thermometer: Baker, California. Anyone who's driven from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on I-15 in the summer can attest to ridiculously hot temperatures. Those wanting to quantify how ridiculously hot can do so as they pass Baker's 134-foot thermometer.

The Blue Whale: Catoosa, Oklahoma. Nothing quite captures the essence of Oklahoma like Route 66 and a giant blue whale. This 80-foot (fake) grinning leviathan was an anniversary gift from a husband to his wife. Apparently, there weren't any florists open on his way home from work.

Cabazon Dinosaurs: Cabazon, California. Mirages are common in the deserts of California. Those dinosaurs you saw while traveling south on I-10 toward Palm Springs, however, are not mirages. They happen to be part of the “World's Biggest Dinosaur Museum.”

The Jimmy Carter Peanut Statue: Plains, Georgia. Monuments to past presidents abound. A 13-foot tall peanut statue made from mesh and plaster that pays tribute to former president Jimmy Carter remains unique. In 2000, a driver (perhaps an angry Republican) crashed into the statue. It was restored and moved a little farther away from the edge of Route 45.

General Sherman Tree: Sequoia National Park, California. It takes a special tree to stand out in a forest containing the world's largest trees. The General Sherman Tree does just that. Reports that neighboring trees fled the General for fear of being burnt to the ground have been proven false.

Gorilla Holding a VW Bug: Leicester, Vermont. Even if you don't want to buy a car at Pioneer Auto Sales just south of Leicester, Vermont, you can sit in the hand of a giant (fake) gorilla and check out a Volkswagen sitting in the gorilla's other hand.

London Bridge: Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Londoners built a bridge across the Thames River in 1831. By the mid-1900s it could no longer handle London traffic, so an Arizona entrepreneur named Robert P. McCulloch did the logical thing. He bought the bridge for nearly $2.5 million and spent an additional small fortune to have it taken apart, shipped to Arizona, and reconstructed at Lake Havasu.

Shoe Trees: Various communities, including Salem, Michigan; Norman, Idaho; Milltown, Indiana; and more. Shoe trees are ongoing community projects that take on a life of their own. One of the most famous stood near Middlegate, Nevada for years before being cut down by vandals on New Year’s Eve 2010.

Longaberger Basket Headquarters: Newark, Ohio. Between 1995-1997, the Ohio based Longaberger Basket Company built a home office shaped like one of its baskets. The headquarters are 160 times larger than one of its medium-sized baskets. Now that's a picnic!