(male announcer) Production funding for Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations has been provided by: (female announcer) YRC Worldwide and public TV are natural partners.

We share the very important goal of connecting people, places, and information.

In this big world, that's a big job.

YRC Worldwide and public TV can handle it.

YRC Worldwide: honored to support the communities we serve.

(male announcer) The DeBruce Companies, proud to serve agricultural communities throughout the Midwest with high-speed grain-handling facilities, fertilizer, and feed ingredient distribution terminals.

(male announcer) And by Fred & Lou Hartwig, generous supporters of KCPT and public television, urging you to become a member today.

(man) ♪ Welcome to a show about things you can see ♪ ♪ without going far, and a lot of them are free.

♪ ♪ If you thought there was nothing ♪ ♪ in the old heartland, ♪ ♪ you ought to hit the blacktop ♪ ♪ with these fools in a van.

♪ ♪ Look out; they're driving hard, ♪ ♪ checking out art in their own backyard.

♪ ♪ Randy does the steering so he won't hurl.

♪ ♪ Mike's got the map, such a man of the world.

♪ ♪ That's Don with the camera, ♪ ♪ kind of heavy on his shoulder.

♪ ♪ And that giant ball of tape, it's a world record holder.

♪ ♪ Look out; they're driving hard, ♪ ♪ checking out art in their own backyard.

♪ ♪ Look out; they're driving hard, ♪ ♪ checking out the world in their own backyard, ♪ ♪ checking out the world ♪ ♪ in their own backyard.

♪ Oh, my God, whose bag is this?

You got some of the hotel sheets in there?

Some of those soaps.

(Don) Dear TV Mailbag, did Kuralt ever do this?

Hi, Don the camera guy here, watching two TV weasels load up for another day of driving the back roads in search of the odd and amazing.

(Mike) Co me on, Don, ge t in the van.

Let's go make some TV.

(Don) We're out in the desert, not far from Joshua Tree, and art's on our mind, art by a man named Noah; Purifoy, to be precise.

Noah moved out from L.A. late in the '80s to build sculptures from the stuff that others throw out.

Wow.

Guys, I guess it's another amazing place.

(Mike) Look at that.

I can not believe it.

(Randy) And we're here.

(Mike) And it's like someone swept it or something.

It's so tidy and neat.

(Don) Sweepers indeed, a pair of personable retirees named Pat and Roger.

They signed on for a three-month stint more than three years ago.

Noah passed away in 2005, but these two have continued to stay.

(Pat) We came out and talked to him, and he says, "Whatever you're doing now, forget it."

He says, "I want you."

So we did; we came out and started helping him the best we knew how.

Because we were new at this, you know?

We didn't do any art.

(Roger) He said, you know, "You have to learn the hard way."

I said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "I put it up.

You can tear it down and repair it."

That's it; he said, "I don't do maintenance."

(Pat) This piece back here he called The Oakland Bridge.

We got the miner's shack right there that be built.

(Randy) Commissary.

(Pat) Uh-huh, he calls that The Commissary, yes.

And I don't know what he calls this.

"It's just one of easy pieces," he says.

He named this The Carousel.

And inside, you'll be amazed at what is-- it's not a carousel.

It's computers.

[laughs] (Mike) Did he come out here for days on end to work?

(Pat) Well, he lived out here.

The first--when he first came out, he was in that trailer back there.

And then, well, he said he was gonna retire.

He didn't want to do it anymore.

But they talked him into coming back about four years ago.

The early days when he was out here, we had more tables and things, and that's where he did his workshops.

This is one of his pieces.

Everybody talks about this, and I don't know, you know?

And then you go inside, and he has things, you know, in here.

And see, he folded old newspapers.

(Randy) Actually, it really makes a nice wall treatment.

Martha Stewart might've... (Mike) Yeah, Martha Stewart could've been here first.

See, this--this is called The Earth Piece.

(Mike) Does it go down into the ground?

(Pat) Yeah, you can walk all the way around it and come out the other way.

(Randy) How many acres?

(Pat) 7 1/2 acres.

(Randy) Tell him how many acres again.

7 1/2 acres that he's got, but it--but all the 7 1/2 acres is not filled up.

(Mike) Oh, good.

(Pat) Th at's the trays.

(Mike) Très bien.

[Noah chuckling] (Pat) Well, that's been out here for years, you know, and the sun and the weather and everything takes a toll on it.

The wind; boy, do we have problems with wind.

(Mike) I can tell it.

Our viewers ca n hear that probably.

(Pat) That's a version of The Little People.

I took on myself and went to the thrift stores and picked up jeans and redid them.

And this over here is called The Voting Booth.

(Mike) Uh-huh.

(Pat) And you got to walk around on the other side.

[all laughing] (Randy) That's pretty good.

Some of them are playful.

Some of them are really pretty serious.

Was that like he was?

(Pat) Yes, I'd say he was, yeah.

Now shall we go to the famous theater?

I'll tell you.

(Randy) Why is it famous?

(Pat) Because I helped build it.

[laughing] You know, he wanted ramps.

And he'd get on his scooter, and he could fly through there, and he'd come around.

And we'd be waiting down here to catch him before he would fall.

Now, this man was 86 years old, you know, and had arthritis, and he didn't walk much anymore and blind in one eye.

And to do things like that, you know?

This is what they call the gallery.

I love these doors.

These are great doors.

(Pat) I can feel, you know, his presence out here, especially when I walk into the house every morning and open up, you know, and I feel him in there.

He was quite a gentleman.

He really was.

We all loved him.

(Mike) Are you pretty proud to be associated?

(Roger) Oh, yes.

I wouldn't trade nothing for it.

We enjoy and love it.

And the people that come here, just like you three gentlemen, we enjoy you people coming out here, except for him.

He's got me in a spot, and I can't move.

[Don laughing] (Don) Sorry, Roger, but those chollas get me jumpy, not to mention the ants and those dark clouds rolling in.

So we're rolling out past the park where Gram Parsons flamed into musical history and into some different scenery altogether.

The wind's a very big deal out here, and so are the Cabazon creatures that Claude Bell built.

Pee-wee put him in his movie, and the least we can do is get some gas and say we saw him.

(Mike) Didn't come all the way to California not to see some big things.

[Randy groaning] This dinosaur comes with a balcony and air conditioning.

(Don) Okay, now we've seen him.

We've got ice, and the back seat beckons once again.

Our route through the mountains is lovely, and then we're in Lake Elsinore, the sign-waggingest town we've ever seen.

(Mike) He's got the he.

(Don) However, there's no sign of sign waggers here at G&R Muffler.

In fact, Gary and the gang are gone for the weekend, leaving us at the mercy of our meager research.

(Randy) He's a muffler guy, you know?

He knows how to bend your pipes, gets your car running the way it's supposed to, and while he has the chance, sometimes he just makes stuff.

(Mike) He 's not just a muffler guy.

He's the Flowmaster.

It says so right there.

(Randy) Hey, pipe down.

And always with the family.

As I understand it, the family kind of changes.

They, you know, they take on different poses.

They do different things over the years.

They've shown up in different ways.

Looks like recreation's the theme back here.

(Mike) Yeah.

(Don) You're craning your neck.

You could have Gary straighten your neck out if you hurt it.

A producer in pain; now, that's a scary sight.

And so is this.

Navigation may get tricky.

At least the sky is amazing.

Wish us luck.

Well, as you can see, we did find the ocean, a lovely sight that calls for all hands on deck and, in its own semi-clever way, sets the scene for our self-taught artist du jour, who lives just a few mile inland, John Taylor, a landscape architect by trade and ship builder by choice, building replicas of the real thing unlike anything we've ever seen before.

(John) It's an English passenger steamer--1900, 1910.

I like usually the period a little bit between sort of steam and sail, you know, where you have these kind of collision of two periods, two time periods.

This is the inside of a keyboard, you know, like, computer keyboards.

So if we, you know, looked at this piece here on the inside, it's probably, you know, it's got the letter K or L. I think this-- for a long time, my boys had like a baseball backstop, and that was really good for smokestacks.

It was just the right size.

(Randy) Mike was guessing... what?

(John) Oh, yeah.

(Mike) That those are curtain rods.

(John) Yeah, those are curtain rods, yeah.

I don't like, you know, finished qualities in things.

There's a--there's a kind of a lack of life to them, you know, not been used.

It's overly perfect.

And I like things that, you know, are really obviously imperfect.

I did this for maybe a year, year and a half before I really, you know, began making anything of it.

My youngest two boys are twins.

And they'd be out in the driveway there a lot with the basketball going and everything.

And I'd be in the garage working on these things.

And their friends would come in and look at what I was doing.

And they would come in and say, "Ooh, that's awesome," you know, or "Ooh, that's cool."

And that actually became the, you know, kind of most important feedback.

This one is called the New York.

It was an immigrant ship at the turn of the century.

I don't normally get into any social, you know, related things, but I--I thought it would be interesting to go back and, you know, look at those ships.

You know, inside a lot of these PCs, there are different metal brackets that hold all these different things together, and so like all these things that are kind of quasi-lights, they were spools inside a CD player.

And I do get out to a lot of constructions sites.

So these are, you know, what you call redheads.

I'm always kind of looking, you know, have my eyes open for things and pull stuff off the ground, and so on job sites, I'll do that a lot.

You wave around a set of blueprints or something like that, and everybody leaves you alone.

(Mike) Are you a sailor?

(John) No, I'm not.

[laughing] I'm not the--you know, when I was really little, I was kind of fascinated by the idea of joining the navy or something like that.

And then on one of those school trips that you go to, we went to Mystic Seaport.

You know, and the first time I got a good look at that much water, I compl-- I said, "Oh, I would never do that."

So, you know, I don't actually-- I don't sail.

I don't really have a desire to be out-- you know, to take a cruise anywhere.

So I'm not trying to beat a kind of historical drum of, "Well, you now, everyone should become "a maritime expert and study our sailing history from the 1920s," or anything.

But I'm just trying to kind of put back into people's field of vision these things.

You know, have you ever in your life actually seen a lightship, you know?

It's a--I've never seen one.

Once people find out I do this-- I mean, sometimes I'll open the garage door in the morning and there'll be stuff in my driveway that some neighbor or other has brought by because they all know I'm out there doing these things.

It's not a pristine white walls studio where only certain things can go on in it.

They used to play a lot more hockey in the driveway, and the hockey pucks would come in here.

I mean, like this is broken because, I think, a hockey puck hit it, you know?

But-- There are no accidents.

And it's kind of my philosophy is there--that nothing-- I can't do anything wrong.

So whatever I do to this-- you know if I, you know, take this and, you know, start doing that, it's fine.

You know, it will be right no matter what it is.

(Don) We do like that no mistakes idea.

And make no mistake, we like what John's up to out here.

We'd love to bring home a boat, but the van's too packed, and we've got birds on the brain, the kind that flock every year to this old mission, kind of like spring training.

Tricky logistics for full-scale catch, so how about a little twilight two-ball?

Make that very little.

Looks like we've made a donation to the church league fund.

This day is officially done.

[bell dinging] [drill whirring] [horse snorting] Well, it appears that today at least sunny southern California isn't.

Delay of game?

Perhaps, but in the meantime, here's my backseat report from charming Encinitas.

Mozy's does have some fine vegetarian fare, but the topiary Cadillac that used to be here is, as they say, no más.

Elvis has definitely left the 7-Eleven.

(Don) At least the town's stellar example of off-beat architecture is still standing proud on 3rd Street, just a few blocks from the ocean that inspired it.

And this time, homework appears to be done.

(Randy) You know, Miles Minor Kellogg built these.

(Mike) Who was that?

(Randy) He was a prominent local businessman.

He had a hotel, and he loved working with unusual materials, scraps and stuff like that.

(Don) So for like 80 years old, they look pretty shipshape.

You know, it's not really the best design for land, but I guess if that tsunami comes, these guys are ready.

(Randy) Well, Miles Minor Kellogg, did I mention that he was, you know, kind of ahead of his time?

He liked making strange stuff.

And sometimes he got flack for it, and he didn't care.

He kept making more.

You know, not to be confused with the Kelloggs of Battle Creek.

(Don) These wouldn't fit in Battle Creek.

I say a snappy salute to Mr.

Miles Kellogg.

(Dan) And I say how about walking the plank, which ought to be the penalty for producers still using half a map.

Good thing we're just a few blocks away from Richard Margolin's Rock and Roll House, a passionately purple tribute to his musical heroes, and yes, it is a rental.

A landlord let me do it.

I mean, how many landlords-- he--so... (Randy) Di d he know yo u were doing it?

(Richard) He watched me do it.

Okay.

It was a white, sterile bachelor apartment, 53-year-old guy renting it in an alley, never done art in his life, and something exploded.

(Mike) Yeah, apparently.

(Richard) See, it started out as a fun, cute thing, and then it had a bigger life than all of us.

It became a serious piece of art, you dig?

Nice bike.

This is the Tina Turner bike.

And then I showed you Ike going in and out of her subconscious.

(Mike) That's Ike going in and... (Richard) Lurking.

This is called the kick wheel.

You got to die to get on here.

You got to be a rock great and die.

So all these guys have kicked.

Too bad it's not windy because there's-- the kinetics are part of the place.

This is the water meter, and that's the telephone pole.

I've taken over-- and this is the-- I've taken over all the utilities.

Here's the greatest singing duo in my opinion, is Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.

And you're stepping on one of the Rolling Stones.

Don't step on-- no, I'm teasing.

These are the Rolling Stones on the steps.

This used to be nice, but things-- this was a surreal thing of the Temptations.

Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Otis-- they're all geniuses, man.

Where does Rod McCuen fall in that lineup?

Rod McCuen... That's my favorite album and my favorite cover.

(Randy) I don't much see the Beatles.

(Richard) There's John Lennon.

Here's Ringo.

You won't see Paul McCartney, though.

Paul McCartney's not one of my favorites.

There's Donovan.

Now, who is that with the cigarette above him?

(Randy) Of course that's Lenny Bruce.

(Richard) There you go.

We--it's not all music here.

(Mike) Any of these guys ever come here, ever show up?

(Richard) You know what, I always wanted one of them to come because I think they would've really appreciated the history I laid down and the feeling.

But you know, to be candid with you, between being almost 60, and I run a business, I didn't have any time to promote it, you know?

It's like nervous breakdown time.

(Randy) How about chick magnet?

(Richard) Glad you brought that up because it's really-- mainly women are the only ones can feel it like I laid it down because they feel-- they just--they have-- excuse my French.

They have this, like, mental orgasm, and it's really women who really can feel it.

It is a real heart-felt tribute; it really is.

But I've often said-- I go, "There's enough soul and feeling on that door to move mountains."

This here-- and I got to fill that in-- it's the most articulate description of rock and roll I've ever read-- from the movie The Last Waltz.

And Scorsese was interviewing Levon Helm from The Band.

The bottom there should say rock and roll, but we accidentally erased it.

(Don) Not to worry; we've got a Sharpie, and we're happy to share.

That's more like it.

There you go.

(Don) Our world record holder is sitting on Little Richard, and surely rock and roll will never die.

But real estate deals may soon bring Richard's house down.

Glad we got here while the kick wheel was still kicking.

[water dripping] Now there are those-- and they know who they are-- who say this show is all grottos and muffler men.

So here you go, a first-class example of Fiberglassus gigantico still doing his original job.

(Mike) It's the only one I think we've ever seen that has a muffler in it.

(Don) Kudos to the folks at Joor for keeping their Latin lover in such fine form.

But Escondido's on the agenda for something that's truly jaw-dropping here at the back of Kit Carson Park.

I'm talking about Queen Califia's magic circle, the last major mosaic work by, and pardon my French, Niki de Saint Phalle.

(Susan) This is Queen Califia on top of her throne, which is a giant eagle.

There's an old Spanish legend that she was an Amazon queen who ruled over this island called California.

And it was where there was all kinds of treasures.

And Niki was just fascinated by the story.

She had no art training whatsoever.

She never went to an art school.

She got involved in work-- in doing her art and lived for the most part in Europe.

She came back to California to permanently live here in '94.

So she wanted to do a sculpture garden in the United States as a thank-you for this kind of rebirth, renewal of her own artwork.

And she looked all around the country.

Her business manager lives in Escondido, jogs along this path, saw this area, and called her up and said, "Niki, I found your place."

She started talking with us in 1999.

And she died in 2002.

Niki had a sense that she might not be here to see the end, so it was the most explicit and highly defined model and plan of all of her projects.

She didn't want a place that was right in your face.

She wanted people to walk in the park and just come upon it by surprise.

She wanted to create a sculpture garden where you could come with your grandchildren and your children and look at all these images here and see how they connected with your own family.

And she wanted to honor and celebrate all the different cultures that helped settle California.

And every single part of this was done by hand.

She was a diva in the sense of the magneticness that she had but not a diva in the sense that she was a prima donna-- very down-to-earth, caring, generous woman.

And everybody who worked for her loved her.

She'd never give us the model and say, "Just follow it," no.

"Okay, we're gonna go, do-- "How the mother looks?

"Okay, let me see what you've got; this?

Okay, we're gonna go with this."

(Susan) Lech had no art background, knew nothing about art, had never done anything like this, but she sensed something in him, and she brought all of this out.

(Lech) She never give up.

Italy, she break her hand, I believe.

She couldn't barely move it after she came here.

She did exercise every day, and at the end, she was fairly showing, "That's what I can do."

She was maybe skinny but big inside.

(Susan) What she wanted people to do is to come here and make up their own stories.

So I know that Queen was an important figure to her because it was a woman, and like her nana, she wanted to show just the power of a woman and how she can rule.

(Mike) That's a nana?

(Susan) Yes, that's a nana.

(Mike) So this was a recurring image for her?

(Susan) Oh, yes.

And it's probably often what she is most commonly associated with.

(Randy) This one really intrigues me because it-- Laughing Man totem?

Yeah, I was gonna say, it's just almost--it's funny.

(Susan) She wanted people to have fun here.

She wanted it-- for them to laugh and play, and this was to be something that wasn't to be behind a velvet rope like in a museum.

It is a museum, but it's a museum that you interact with.

The only thing that we do have is that we don't want you to climb on the snake walls not because you're gonna damage them.

It's just that you can fall and hurt yourself.

(Don) If I don't say it, someone else will.

You kids, get off of those snakes.

From a place where bad pictures are hard to take, this is Don the camera guy signing off.

(female announcer) To learn more about the sights on this show and how to find them, visit us on the web at: DVDs, tapes, and a companion book to this series are available by calling: Captioning byCaptionMax www.captionmax.com [laughing] (Randy) This'll be a good dumb shot.

Hey, do you have your boarding pass?

You can't just go by here wi thout your boarding pass.

[woman laughing] (Mike) Who did your hair this morning?

[laughing] The white cowl.

(Mike) Yeah, we're right there, more or less.

(Randy) You know what I say?

(Don) What do you say?

Let's get some coffee.

That sounds good.

(male announcer) Production funding for Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations has been provided by: (female announcer) YRC Worldwide and public TV are natural partners.

We share the very important goal of connecting people, places, and information.

In this big world, that's a big job.

YRC Worldwide and public TV can handle it.

YRC Worldwide: honored to support the communities we serve.

(male announcer) The DeBruce Companies, with facilities providing customers with market information and marketing opportunities for domestic and international grain, fertilizer, and feed ingredient businesses.

(male announcer) And by Fred & Lou Hartwig, generous supporters of KCPT and public television, urging you to become a member today.