Not long ago, I was driving down the highway with my kids when one told me that he just saw a really big hot dog on wheels. By the time I looked, it was gone. The claim was naturally questioned by the middle schooler in the back seat! I interrupted the amusing exchange to tell them that he may actually have seen the Wienermobile.
The Wienermobile, I explained, was actually a large hot dog on wheels that traveled around north America, and beyond, essentially advertising Oscar Mayer while also performing charitable work. The last time I had seen it was more than 3,000 miles away and over 3 decades earlier. As I recall, it had come to my hometown in southern California and was passing out colorful whistles shaped like wieners, which I happily waited in line to receive.
We continued on our way and I forgot about it until that evening when I looked it up on the Oscar Mayer website. It turned out, that he had indeed seen the Wienermobile and it was going to be in our area through the next day raising money for sick children. My kids had to see this for themselves, so the next day we were off to take a look…
It was in a supermarket parking lot, not unlike the one it was in when I had seen it last.
The Wienermobile looked pretty much the same too.
Everyone was busy inspecting it and the gullwing door was particularly fascinating to all present.
As you can see, parallel parking and backing-up should probably be avoided when driving it as the result could easily be a damaged dog.
This particular Wienermobile was not as big as you would think up close, but was every bit as cool as you would expect in person!
The inside was bright with large comfortable looking seats.
Surprisingly, it also sported a state-of-the-art sound system and flat screen monitors as well.
The license plate was of course personalized and fully appropriate.
There have been many models of Wienermobile since its inception in 1936, though the overall look has remained surprisingly consistent.
The Wienermobile staff also still hand out small whistles, though these were not brightly colored, though they instead glow in the dark.
As we were walking away my youngest thanked me and said that we always went on the coolest adventures, to which I had to agree. If you ever see a large wiener on wheels, do yourself a favor and check it out!
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