World's Biggest

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While we were driving to lunch yesterday, we started wondering about various "world's biggest" items that we might see on our trip. For example, did you know that the world's biggest ball of twine is in Kansas? You do now. We were more or less looking for roadside kitsch.

As part of our investigation, I asked Julie to look up the world's biggest playground. It felt like something that would be in the US, and I figured maybe we could weave it into our trip. Well, wouldn't you know it, the world's biggest playground is in the great state of Kentucky, where we happened to be: The Lazy Dayz Playground at Smothers Park in Owensboro.

But size isn't everything, so we then followed up with an arguably more important question: What is the best playground in the world? Not subjective at all, right? Ready for it? The Lazy Dayz Playground at Smothers Park in Owensboro! The best playground in the whole wide world was just around the corner (figuratively speaking) from us!

We were scheduled to make our way from Glasgow, KY to Nashville, TN, but we had a whole day to do it, so we thought we'd give the biggest and best playground in the world a shot. After all, we have no plans to be back in Kentucky any time soon. (Or maybe ever. No offense, Kentucky, but your abundant pollen coupled with your utter lack of things that aren't cows left us uninspired. And your grass isn't blue either.)

We parked our house in the parking lot of an out of business HHGregg store in Bowling Green, which made Julie a little nervous. Who's going to steal a house? Spoiler alert: No one. We then loaded into the van for the one hour ride north (and out of the way of our ultimate destination) to Owensboro, on the Kentucky-Indiana border.

So was the playground any good? Yeah, it was pretty neat. But after spending a few hours there, we're all convinced it can't be the biggest playground in the world, despite Google's insistence to the contrary. Don't get me wrong, it's big, but not ostentatiously so. I'm guessing it's about 2 acres worth of densely packed, completely interconnected equipment. So yeah, it's way bigger than your run of the mill playground. But world's biggest? I'm skeptical.

One reason I'm skeptical is because there was a framed news article from the local paper posted on site about the playground that describes it as "one of the biggest in the country." That, I'd believe. If it was the biggest in the world, it feels like they'd skip the artificial modesty and make that fact well known in their marketing.

Oh, and that same article also mentions how it was named best playground in the world in 2015. So that part is true! Or was true, at least. I'm not sure it's held onto its crown. I'm guessing not. It's probably tough to do in the cutthroat world of playground design.

It's hard to capture the biggest and best playground in the world in a single shot, but I attempted to in this panorama; Asher counted 16 ways to get down from equipment (slides and poles) and 52 ways to get up (stairs, ladders, etc.)
Location: Smothers Park, 199 W Veterans Blvd, Owensboro, KY 42303, USA

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