(upbeat music) - [Will] This week on "Wild Travels", we'll enjoy America's oldest celebration of Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama, scan the skies for aliens at Colorado's UFO Watchtower, behold the unusual breed of fainting goats, scale the Cathedral of Junk in Austin, and then attend the National Beard and Mustache Competition, this year featuring The Whiskerinas.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Wild Travels" was made possible in part by Alaska Railroad, providing year-round transportation to many Alaska destinations, traversing nearly 500 miles of wild landscapes between Anchorage, Fairbanks, Denali National Park, and more.

alaskarailroad.com.

By "American Road Magazine."

Get your kicks on Route 66 and everywhere else a two-lane highway can take you.

"American Road Magazine" fuels your road trip dreams.

And by.. - [Announcer] It's a wild world, take care out there, wear a life jacket paddling or boating.

Learn more you otter do to keep you and the planet safe at mthoodterritory.com/otterdo.

(upbeat music) - If you look hard enough, go off the beaten track far enough, you'll find an America teaming with the unusual, the odd, the downright strange.

I'm Will Clinger, and I'm your guide on a package tour we like to call "Wild Travels."

(upbeat music continues) (electricity zapping) (upbeat music) Not many people realized that the American version of Mardi Gras started not in New Orleans, but in Mobile, Alabama, and a masked organization called the Mystics of Time are keeping that proud tradition alive.

(upbeat music) (bubble pops) Here we are at the historic Malaga Inn.

- Correct.

Mobile, Alabama, one of the oldest hotels in Mobile.

Mobile is the home of the oldest Mardi Gras in the United States.

- Is that a little controversial to New Orleans?

People get upset when you say that?

- Well, you know, if you ask anyone in New Orleans of any sophistication, they'll tell you it was founded in Mobile.

If you ask any of the uneducated throng on the street, they'll tell you it was founded in New Orleans.

- 1700s, right?

The early 1700s?

- Mobile was founded in 1702 and the very first carnival celebration of the United States was held in Mobile in 1703.

- You look like a person of authority.

You look mystic in a way.

- I'm very mystical.

- Yeah.

- [James] I'm the President of the Mystics of Time.

- You're wearing a mask, why the masks?

- The Mystic Society began in Mobile as a way to protect the identities of members while they engaged in fun and- - While they raised hell.

- That is correct.

So that you could go to work the next day without any repercussions.

(upbeat music) (audience cheering) (audience cheering) - You're the queen.

Who the heck are you now?

- Father Time.

- Father Time.

I thought you were Father Christmas for a second.

Tell me something.

- Just moments away.

Just a heartbeat away from Mardi Gras.

- [Will] From the Mystics of Time Parade.

- That's correct.

- How many floats are we gonna see out there?

- You'll see 19 floats all owned by the Mystics of Time Society.

We have three dragons.

We have a Father Time.

- [Will] Three dragons, you can never have enough dragons.

- You cannot, there will be 450 maskers parading tonight in the Mystics of Time Parade.

Each one of them spends on average 1,000 to $2,000 in throws.

We will have 17 marching bands in the parade.

We have 36 units in the parade.

- It's almost too much, Mr.

Mystic.

- It's sensory overload.

- When did the drinking start for most of these people?

Probably- - Oh, in November.

Yeah.

(both laughing) (upbeat music continues) - Hey, I noticed you got the rake.

What's that for?

- Oh.

That's so I can rake the beads in when they throw 'em to me.

- Yeah.

- Because if I try to get on the other side of the fence by myself, the police will get me.

(Will laughing) - You're gonna collect stuff with this and put it in the basket?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

What do you hope to get?

They throw beads, but they also throw a lot of stuff, don't they?

- Everything.

Everything.

- [Will] Toys, dolls.

- Food, mostly.

- Food?!

- Cookies, ramen noodles.

- Have you ever been hit in the head and injured by this stuff?

- Many times.

- Really?

- Can I guess twin sisters?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- How long you been coming to the parade?

- Since we were two.

- Two years old.

- Uh-huh.

Yes.

- Wow.

How does it change over the years?

- It gets better every year.

(upbeat rock music) (smoke hissing) - [James] Our theme this year is 1969: The Age of Aquarius.

- [Will] And a lot of songs are represented.

- [James] Every float represents a top, a popular song from 1969.

(upbeat rock music continues) I'll be on number seven, Space Oddity.

- Space Oddity, a David Bowie.

- David Bowie, correct.

(upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (audience cheering) (upbeat rock music continues) - You kind of gotta be careful where you walk, don't you?

- Yeah.

Very careful.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Watch your step up here.

- Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

(upbeat rock music continues) - The tail end of the parade was the street cleaning crew.

Since the very next day there would be another three parades.

(upbeat country music) To faint when you're frightened seems like an odd defense mechanism, but as the goats on this Alabama farm prove, it's effective and highly amusing.

(upbeat country music continues) Hello, you're Sharon.

- Yes, I am.

- Hi, how are you doing?

- Tell us where we are.

- We're at R Fainting Farm in Mobile, Alabama.

- [Will] And these are some of the fainting goats?

- Yes, they are.

These are fainting goats, also known as myotonic goats.

They're also called nervous goats or wooden leg goats.

Some people call 'em stiff leg goats.

What it is, is their muscles lock up when they get an adrenaline rush so if they get scared or they get really excited, their muscles will lock up and a lot of times they'll fall over.

- [Will] You breed them to be fainting goats.

- Yes, we breed them and sell the babies for pets and for breeding stock to other farms in the area.

- You'd think you'd want non-fainting goats.

I gotta tell you, one of the reasons I was hired for this job is that I actually can stay conscious for the whole interview.

- Well, that's good.

(laughing) We wouldn't want you fainting out here.

- What is good about a fainting goat?

- Well, one, they're fun.

They're fun, but with them fainting, they're easy to catch.

It's okay, Buggy.

But she just, you know, she's trying to walk away and she can't 'cause she just gets so stiff.

(upbeat country music continues) But you know, you bump her and she's like trying, oh, oh, oh!

There you go.

(upbeat country music continues) (dog barking) (Sharon yelling) (goat bleating) - Sharon, were in the pen with the male goats, you can tell their male because they have beards, right?

- Well, no, because some of the girls, who are also known as does also have beards, but the males or bucks will have longer beards and have thicker longer horns.

They all faint just as well as the girls.

- Let me try something.

(upbeat country music continues) He's stiffing but he didn't go down.

It's kind of like that nightmare when you see you're being chased and you can't move fast enough.

- Right.

- Are these endangered at all by their own clumsiness?

- They're not endangered.

For a while there they were on the threatened list, but we've brought 'em back down where now they're just on the watch list, to keep a watch on 'em.

- Hey!

Hey!

Ay, ay, ay!

Yeah!

You're just cute!

Gah!

And it doesn't harm them, does it?

- It doesn't hurt them.

I wouldn't want somebody doing it repeatedly, but no, it doesn't hurt them.

- And you don't startle, do you?

- No, I don't startle very well.

- [Will] Sharon Reeves of R Fainting Farms, what's our location?

- We're in the Tillmans corner area of Mobile, Alabama.

- [Will] Uh-oh.

Cameraman down.

(upbeat music) - It started in 1962, a copy of something World War II soldiers saw in Germany in miniature.

They came back and said, "Let's have a fountain of our own."

So they got together with engineers, with programmers, and instead of being in miniature, they built the thing the size of a football field.

Any given night in the summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day we'll have several thousand people for a magical show of light, water, and music, and it's free.

(upbeat music continues) Each song to be choreographed, lighted and synchronized with the water takes 30 to 50 hours of programming.

If you have six songs, you have 300 hours of programming.

We have a playlist of about 65 songs that can be mixed and matched into a night show.

And we are told by some residents that if they ever hear the song, ""Let it Go" again, they're going to burn my house down.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) - When you first lay your eyes on the Cathedral of Junk in Austin, Texas, they're liable to open wide, but be advised that if you wanna get a closer look at this magnificent monstrosity, you'd better call ahead.

(bubble pops) (upbeat music continues) Hey, Vince?

- Yes.

- Vince Hannemann.

- Yes.

How you doing?

- [Will] And this is your Cathedral of Junk.

- That's what they call.

- Yeah.

- I started it in 1989 when I moved here.

- Uh-huh.

- I called it Yard Space 11 to start off with.

My mom was the one that started calling it the Cathedral of Junk, and then that stuck like glue and it kind of got a life of its own.

It wasn't like I had this grand plan to build a cathedral of junk.

- [Will] So you weren't inspired by some religious fervor?

- [Vince] No!

- [Will] Where do you get your junk?

Where does it come from?

- People give me this stuff.

It even comes in the mail.

You know what I call it when it comes in the mail, right?

- What's that?

- Junk mail.

(upbeat music continues) Not everything makes the cut though.

I'm not a hoarder.

- [Will] Do you get some complaints from the neighbors?

- [Vince] I have, but those people have moved on.

You know, those- - You've outlasted them.

- [Vince] Yeah.

- [Will] Did I hear correctly that there's 60 tons of junk in this darn thing?

- When the city made me get a building permit for this in 2010, I had to tear down everything within five feet of the fence 'cause there's a setback.

So I actually hauled 40 tons of metal out of here.

What's actually left here, I can only guesstimate.

I would guess 120 or maybe even 160 tons, easy.

(upbeat music continues) - [Will] Looks like you've already got a few visitors this morning.

- [Vince] Yes.

There's always visitors.

- Where you from?

- I'm from Turkey.

- You've come a long way to see the Cathedral of Junk.

- Yes.

- What do you think?

- It's amazing.

(both laughing) - These are the ones that don't have an appointment and snuck in.

- The Turkish don't have an appointment?

- No, they don't have an appointment.

You don't have an appointment.

You just came in, right?

- Yes.

- I call this the rainbow room.

I don't know if you noticed, but it's color coded.

- I did not notice.

- This is kind of silver and gold and black and white mostly.

This is mostly green transitioning to blue.

- Now I'm noticing.

- Orange and yellow down there.

You want to go upstairs or what?

- [Will] Vince, I see bottles, I see wheels.

Any other motifs I should be looking for?

- [Vince] Tools.

I like the tools, you know?

- [Will] Some of the tools are actually embedded into the cement here.

- Right, exactly.

- There was a point where you actually wanted to tear this thing down, didn't you?

And you tore part of it down.

- Yeah.

That was another whole episode.

That was after my second marriage ended.

I was like the hell with this place and everything and everybody.

- [Will] But then you got second thoughts?

- [Vince] Well, a lot of people came out of the woodwork and they were like, "Oh, you can't do that" and "Save the Cathedral" and all this stuff.

Somebody moved that.

(upbeat music continues) (Vincent laughing) This is the Jeffrey Dahmer memorial refrigerator and freezer.

This is where I keep my body parts.

- [Will] That looks like a prosthetic leg, Vince.

- Yep.

This is an old prosthetic leg.

- Not yours obviously.

- No.

I got this when I was working at the diversion center at the landfill.

Did he get a new leg and he just chucked this one away or did he get buried and not want to be buried with it?

Or you know, was he a runner?

I mean, look, it has a running shoe on it, so.

- [Will] You raise some interesting questions.

- You know, did he ever kick anybody's ass with that leg?

Did he ever go dancing with that leg?

I mean- - You ask too many questions.

- What?

What?

Tell me, leg.

You know?

(both laughing) - [Will] Do you think this Cathedral is what caused the end of your two marriages?

- I wish it was that easy.

That would be great if I could say that, yeah.

They were jealous of my junk.

(upbeat music continues) If you've got the Henry VIII body type, that kind of works better in this chair.

- You fill it pretty well.

- I'm a little on the skinny side for this.

(both laughing) - Must be good to be king.

- It is good to be king.

Let me tell ya.

- Vince, if somebody wants to pay a visit to the Cathedral of Junk, by appointment only- - Right.

- What should they do?

- Look up my number.

It's online on all different kinds of websites and just give me a call.

(upbeat music concludes) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) - One of the most popular segments in "Wild Travel's" very first season was our visit to the World Beard and Mustache Championship in Portland.

So when I was invited to be a judge at the Nationals in Chicago, I jumped at the chance, especially when I found out that this year's competitors would include the fairer, but no less bearded, sex.

(upbeat music continues) (bubble pops) (upbeat music continues) MJ Johnson, we meet again.

- We meet again.

- Last time we saw you, it was in Portland.

You were winning your category, now you're the owner of the darn thing.

- It is totally a dream come true.

I was a competitor winner and then owner and judge at this year's national championship.

- You've talked me into being a judge and I am totally unqualified.

The only beard I've ever grown was a pathetic goatee.

- I think you're gonna do great at it, and what you gotta look for is overall magnificence and I think you can do that.

- [Announcer] Judges, to the side of the stage, please.

Judges, to the side of the stage.

- Any other questions?

- Yes.

What am I doing here?

Can I assume you've been a contestant in the past, right?

- Yes, I have.

- Have you won anything?

- I've won many first places, both international world championships and many local competitions.

- Have you ever entered a man bun competition?

- [Attendee] No, I have not.

- [Will] What are you really looking for?

- Detail.

- Detail.

- [Attendee] Detail.

- Do you feel qualified to judge, having only a mustache, the bearded people?

- So I represent the American Mustache Institute and what we like to do is fight back against predetermined stereotypes like having "only a mustache."

Coming from a bald-faced mortal, I will take that- - As an insult.

- For what it was.

Not even every mustache is worn on the face.

I assume yours is worn on your heart.

You're here, you're part of this culture.

- It's interior.

- Yeah, exactly.

- [Will] Yeah.

- You can have this great big beard, but if you don't have the mustache, you might not necessarily compete.

- You'd be Amish.

- Or a whaler.

- Or a whaler.

- There you go.

Depends on your- - Or Lincoln.

- Or Lincoln.

(flash bulb pops) (upbeat music continues) - This is a very provocative outfit.

- Well, thank you, I'm glad you think so.

- [Will] You're sporting some nice gams.

- They said Chicago is a windy city and this is what happened when I got up this morning.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) What category you in?

- I'm in the Full Beard Freestyle category.

- Your style is very free.

- Yeah.

Well, the freestyle category is all about making it unique and doing something no one else is gonna do.

(flash pops) - Oh, I'm totally scouting out my competition.

I gotta see if I need to Nancy Kerrigan somebody, you know?

(upbeat music continues) - For a second, I thought you were Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.

- Thank you.

- You actually play the guitar?

- Yes, I do.

- Can you play anything now?

- No, I can't.

I didn't wanna bring the portable amp.

(upbeat music continues) - We're here with Snidely Wild Stash.

You were in Portland.

- Yes, indeed I was.

- But a different category.

You had that long drawn out wax thing, now you've gone more natural.

- I even just shaved a beard off that I had last night for a different category.

(chuckles) - You're facially versatile.

- Most definitely.

- [Announcer] Hold your numbers up again, gentlemen.

Hold your numbers up again.

- Yeah, and this guy.

Yeah.

- [Announcer] This year's second place number 324.

That means our winner this year number 322!

(audience cheering) (upbeat music continues) - All right, this guy put in an effort.

Come on.

You gotta- - Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

- [Will] All right.

- This will be the first national championships where The Whiskerinas and Craft Beards will officially be recognized as national champions.

- That's a very striking beard, but none of it is real, can we be honest?

- No, none of it's real.

- What is the category again?

- Whiskerina or women's realistic?

- Bottle caps, right?

- Yes.

Bottle caps.

- And they're from a specific place?

- They're all Wisconsin microbrewery bottle caps.

- [Will] What are those, gummy bears?

What do you got on your face there?

- No, this is fishing bait.

I'm from northern Minnesota, so that makes sense.

- I wasn't sure if it was too creepy for some people, but I had to go with my gut.

- It's a little alarming, frankly, seeing it this close.

Those are real teeth.

- Yes.

(upbeat music continues) - It's my "beerd."

- Oh, it's coming into the beer.

It's like beer foam.

- Correct.

Correct.

- That's reached all the way to your face and taken over your face in a way.

- Absolutely.

Yes.

Absolutely.

- It's my own hair that I'm utilizing.

I pulled it all forward and shaped it to look like a real beard.

- [Will] Have you seen the woman that actually has a beard?

- Yeah, I actually know Rose.

- It's real.

I don't glue this on.

- How is that possible?

- Genetics and good luck.

- Now you're kind of carrying on a long tradition.

Back in the days of vaudeville.

there was a bearded lady, right?

- Yes, it feels good to kind of carry on the tradition.

- There were a multitude of wonderful Whiskerinas, but our show is called "Wild Travels," so we were partial to the amazing suitcase beard.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) Coming soon on "Wild Travels," the two state tug of war across the Mississippi River, an incredible selection of obscure films in Portland, a Jurassic lodging experience in Colorado, (bell dings) and the curious custom of mooning Amtrak.

(upbeat music continues) (spooky music) The UFO Watchtower near Hooper, Colorado seems to be a hotbed of extraterrestrial activity, either due to the vortexes in the front yard or to the delightfully welcoming attitude of its owner.

(spooky music continues) (bubble pops) Hey, you must be Judy.

- Hi.

I am.

- Yeah, and this is the UFO Watchtower.

- It is.

- What is it about the topography here that makes it so conducive to aliens visits?

- Well, they have had documented UFO sightings here since the 1570s.

That's a long time.

- Wow.

The conquistadors wrote in their journals what they had seen.

There's all kinds of ideas of why here.

Some say it's the spirituality of the valley.

The Native Americans considered the valley floor sacred.

Others say that there's an ET base in Mount Blanca over here.

- What about this theory?

It's a large flat piece of land surrounded by mountains, target.

- Uh-huh.

Really.

I came here to raise cattle, but after moving here, I got to meet the locals and they started telling me the UFO stories.

I myself have personally seen 27 sightings.

- 27?

- 27.

There has been, I think it's about 130 sightings from here since I opened.

It doesn't make sense that we're the only living life form in this massive universe.

People come to camp and just to have a good time, and then they see something and it's- - [Will] Something like this.

- [Judy] They see the bizarre orbs.

- It's always orbs or saucers, isn't it?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Why do you think that is?

- But no, one of them, the closest one that we have seen from here was cigar shaped.

It looked more like this one.

(spooky music continues) - This is the tower.

- This is the tower.

How tall is this?

- 10 foot.

- You've had sightings in this sky above us.

Has anything, you know kind of landed here?

- Not here, but down by Villa Grove, there was one about seven years ago.

- Really?

- Yeah.

It was a saucer and these people saw it and they came here and told me about it and I said, "Well, did you go look?"

"Oh my good God.

No.

We put the pedal to the metal and got out of there.

We were scared to death."

Since we opened, over 35 or so psychics have been by, they've all said the same thing, that there's two large vortexes down here.

- What is a vortex?

- They described a vortex as a portal to a parallel universe or an opening.

- Totally plausible.

- They spin and they're full of energy.

- [Will] People have brought gifts to the vortex.

- Yeah, they feel that it's good luck and they want to get their energy here as well so they leave things in the garden.

And I've got trinkets out there from all over the world people have left.

- Have there been any gifts from out of this world, is the question.

- No, no.

But you know, things move around out here.

- Weird.

- It is weird because there's no excuse for it.

- How much of this land is yours, Judy?

- I have 600 acres here.

- Wow.

- So we can pretty much control the light pollution, and that's important.

- We've heard tell of a magic bush.

- Yes.

I'll take you over there, but when you put your hand into the bush, it's like you get an electric fence charge.

- Are you sure there's no snakes in there?

- No.

But you push your hand in there.

Now I'm getting the tingle in my fingers.

You try it.

Are you getting the tingle?

- It's a weird tingle.

- Yeah, it is.

- It's these vortexes that somehow attract the aliens from the space.

- It has to be, has to be.

- Do you think the aliens are friendly?

Are they friendly or are they aggressive?

- Would we be here if they they weren't?

- That's a good point.

(spooky music) How often do you come up here looking for this stuff?

- In the summer, pretty often.

This time of the year, not often.

(laughing) - It's cold.

- 'Cause it's too cold up here.

- Chicken.

- One of the advantages to being out in the middle of nowhere is that you don't have any light pollution like we're providing with our camera crew.

Hell, we may be scaring away the aliens right now.

- I'm very in tune to different energies and- - Judy says she's seen 26 sightings.

How many of you had?

- I had 10.

The most spectacular one was one, and it was five o'clock in the evening in the summer and I looked up and I said, "Oh, that's a big white bird."

And then the brain kicks in and goes, "That's 40 some miles away, that's no bird."

- What she explained, we have a picture down in the shop and the picture was done in 1947 and it was a sighting the Kenneth Arnold, who was a pilot had, and it's the exact same one that she saw and these other people down in Fort Garland saw.

(soft music) - [Will] Where are they coming from to get to here?

- I think they're in a different dimension than we are, and therefore they can pop in and out at will.

And that's why we can only see them for just a short period.

This was done by Mary Munoz, who lives down in New Mexico, and she's a generational abductee.

She has been abducted since the age of three.

She found out that they were full of love and that was the feeling that she had with the abductions.

You know?

- So those stories of people claiming to have been anally probed- - I tell folks to quit watching the horror flicks on TV 'cause, you know?

- That's where that started, right?

- You bet, you bet.

And I don't think that that has happened on a regular basis.

Maybe it happens, but not- - Even once is too many.

Can we just say that?

- That would be too many.

Okay.

(soft music continues) - Judy, if somebody wants to drop in on the UFO Watchtower and perhaps make contact with an alien, what should they do?

- They should come to the San Luis Valley, go on Highway 17 and look for the little green guys on the highway.

- I've actually brought a gift for the Healing Garden.

It's "Wild Travels" mustard.

(soft music concludes) (upbeat country music) (upbeat country music continues) We're always looking for new destinations, the wilder the better, so if you've got an idea for our show, let us know, and thanks for watching.

(upbeat country music concludes) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Wild Travels" was made possible in part by Alaska Railroad, providing year-round transportation to many Alaska destinations, traversing nearly 500 miles of wild landscapes between Anchorage, Fairbanks, Denali National Park and more.

alaskarailroad.com.

By "American Road Magazine", get your kicks on Route 66 and everywhere else a two-lane highway can take you.

"American Road Magazine" fuels your road trip dreams.

And by... - [Announcer] It's a wild world, take care out there, wear a life jacket paddling or boating.

Learn more you otter do to keep you and the planet safe at mthoodterritory.com/otterdo.