>> Some roadside attractions don't need fancy billboards to draw folks in off the highway.

The world's largest ball of paint is one of those attractions.

♪ >> I do not advertise.

It's all word of mouth.

You tell somebody and just on and on and on.

So every year, I get more and more people.

Last year, I had over 3500 people walk through that door, and that's the most in one year, and I'd expect this year to be even more.

♪ ♪ >> For more than 48 years, Mike Carmichael has been adding coats to this behemoth of a ball, layer by layer.

This is number 29,807.

♪ Today, the ball is a monstrosity that weighs more than 11,000 pounds.

>> It's all steel support on top of a concrete floor.

And I've welded supports all around it so it would hold quite a bit -- quite a bit of weight.

>> But the ball wasn't always such a whopper.

♪ It all started when Mike, a house painter by trade, began a simple experiment.

♪ I started this ball in 1977 with my boy, who was 3 years old at the time.

I took a rod like this, and I stuck it through a ball, and we just started painting it, and he put the first coat on there for me.

And then we just continued on that for the next 48 years.

Day after day, with each new layer, the ball grew in circumference.

>> In the earlier days, the only people I could get here was my neighbors and friends and family.

So it worked out -- it still worked out pretty good.

>> But after years and thousands of layers, the ball began to grow in reputation.

♪ That's when the Guinness Book of World Records took note.

>> And Guinness actually turned me down about three or four times because there was no competition.

There was no record to beat.

So they finally sent a guy from Guinness here, and they drilled a hole through the ball, like they do trees, and they pulled out a core sample and they sent it to Guinness' in England.

They put it under a microscope and counted all the layers, and that's how I got my certificate.

That's how it all started.

>> I've got yellow, pink, blue, green.

♪ >> These days, the world's largest ball is a busy roadside attraction.

♪ >> Mike says tourists pop in from all over the country and even the world.

>> About got it, don't you?

>> And each visitor has the chance to make a contribution to this colorful experiment.

>> When you come in the door, I will take your picture while I explain everything to you.

I will give you a roller of your choice of color.

You'll paint it, and after you get done painting it, then you get to write your name in my book, where you're from, and I'll give you a certificate with your name on it, and then you get to write your name on the wall.

And at that time, you will have held the world's record until somebody else paints it.

>> I just researched things online to do with the kids, and, you know, something fun and unique to do, and so I thought this would be the perfect thing for us to do one day.

>> I heard about it a few years ago, and we planned a little day trip to this part of the world.

And I said, hey, while we are out here, we just definitely stop.

>> It was neat to see how it started out just as a baseball and how large it.

It weighs like 11,000 pounds.

That's insane.

>> It's a lot larger than I thought it was.

Pictures don't do it justice.

>> And by the way, that personal world record, free of charge.

Can't beat that.

>> No, I do not charge to walk in the door.

I support myself with T-shirts and donations.

That's it.

>> You hold the world's record until 12:30.

>> Okay.

Okay.

>> I like seeing the expression of seeing something that they've never seen before.

A lot of them come in here and they've never painted before.

And you don't have to be a professional to paint this.

You just roll a little bit on there.

And a family, it only takes a few minutes to paint it.

It's just I like to see the joy of everybody doing it.

♪