Just west of Alexandria, Indiana, the largest ball of paint on earth is still growing. Today, I helped by applying layer #20430. Thirty years ago, Mike Carmichael had his son apply a coat of paint to a baseball and the two of them, plus several thousand others, have been painting the ball ever since. The ball was visited by RoadsideAmerica and made the Guinness Book of Records but only after the book's editors took a core sample from the ball to verify that, except for that tiny baseball, the globe was 100% solid paint. While I was there, the younger Mike, who gave the baseball its first coat, stopped by with his daughter and I got a shot of three generations of painters.

The last picture is of Mike's front yard. The Halloween decorations are for sale but unsold inventory will join many more cutouts (Hand painted, of course.) in lining a couple of miles of roadside for Halloween Day. Mike and a half dozen or so helpers will start putting out decorations about 3:00 AM and will remove them at day's end.

ADDENDUM: Apr 18, 2011 - I made my second visit to the World's Largest Ball of Paint yesterday and applied coat #22702. Mike got before and almost after pictures of me then I got one of Mike & wife Glenda. I'd not met Glenda on my first visit. In an echo of that first visit, Mike's son and granddaughter stopped by just as I was about to leave but I got no pictures of the pair this time. Mike told me they had recently weighed the ball and it was a healthy 3600 pounds. Two tons isn't that far away.

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