Cabazon, Calif., 2015.

“On this very night, 10 years ago, on this same stretch of road, in the dense fog—just like this—I saw the worst accident I ever seen.”

OK, so when I was there, it was daytime. And there was no fog. In fact, it was somewhere around 90 degrees and sunny. Nothing like the night when Pee-Wee Herman was picked up by mysterious truck driver Large Marge and told a story that he would never forget.

Large Marge (or as we soon find out, her ghost)  dropped Pee-Wee off at the Wheel Inn, a roadside diner in the middle of the desert with not a soul in sight.

Except two life-sized dinosaurs.

The concrete behemoths—dubbed Mr. Rex and Ms. Dinny—are still there, but the area isn’t quite as desolate as when Pee-Wee paid a visit. There’s a Burger King, gas station,  mini-mart and the famed “EAT” sign that also appeared in the film. But now, the Cabazon Dinosaurs are a bona fide tourist attraction, complete with a kiddie rides, gem mining, animatronic creatures, a dino trail and, of course, the opportunity to climb up inside Mr. Rex’s head—just like Pee-Wee did with Simone when they had their little heart-to-heart about Simone’s dream to go to Paris, which included this classic exchange:

The prehistoric pals have been a familiar beacon in the California desert, about a half-hour from Palm Springs, when kitschy roadside attractions were in their prime. Artist and restaurateur Claude Bell built the giants over a period of several years in the ’60s and ’70s to draw attention to his Wheel Inn diner (yes, it was a real place!).

Claude’s original intent was to build a “whole family of giant dinosaurs,” he told a newspaper in 1970s. “I’ve always been a nut on prehistoric animals.” As a child, Claude saw a building shaped like an elephant and it made an impression for life—he vowed he was going to do something cool like that someday, too.

Ms. Dinny the brontosaurus was the first to go up, and visionary Claude had big dreams for her. “At night, the eyes will glow and the dinosaur will spit fire,” he said. “It’s scare the dickens out of a lot of people driving up over the pass.”

Construction started on Ms. Dinny in the late 1964 and took 11 years to complete (legend says that Claude enticed a friend into painting the dino in exchange for a case of Dr. Pepper). Mr. Rex joined the fray in 1981, and again Claude had lofty goals: the original plan called for a slide that ran down Mr. Rex’s back and tail.

Alas, Dinny never became a glowy-eyed flame thrower and Mr. Rex never became a kiddie ride, but they certainly did their jobs attracting customers to the Cabazon exit—and the Wheel Inn.

The dinos became even bigger stars when Tim Burton prominently featured them in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure in 1985:

You may recall from the film that Simone’s angry lumberjack-ish boyfriend Andy overhears the “let’s talk about your big but” conversation and prepares to throttle Pee-Wee with a plaster dinosaur bone. A chase ensues, weaving through Ms. Dinny’s legs, with Pee-Wee eventually escaping by jumping onto a passing train:

As a 10-year-old watching Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure for about the 938th time, I vowed that one day I was going to see those dinosaurs in the concrete flesh. During a visit to Palm Springs, I forced my friend Rich to take a short road trip to see them, nearly deafened Rich with my delighted squeals when they appeared on the horizon and then insisted that we pay the $8 admission to do the dinosaur trail and climb up inside Mr. Rex’s head.

The set-up is super-cute and very kid-friendly, despite playing a little fast and loose with the historical facts. Claude Bell passed away in 1988 at the age of 91 and the attraction changed hands and was eventually taken over by what appears to be a group of Creationists. Although I didn’t notice anything overt when I was there (probably due to an excitement-induced delirium) there were little hints around, suggesting that fossil records aren’t evidence and allusions to man and dinosaurs living in the same time period.

Granted, I didn’t pay very close attention to the history placards because there was way too much cuteness distracting me from all angles.

And check out the bathrooms! And this little sign that made me smile:

So cute, right? Roadside Americana is the best.

The gift shop featured animatronic creatures that turned their heads, roared and flapped wings. Outside, the dino trail had an impressive, varied collection of stegosauri, raptors, brontos, pterodactyls (shout-out to Terry the Pterodactyl from “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse!”) and, of course fierce t-rex-es (sp?):

The trail ends at the pièces de résistance: Ms. Dinny and Mr. Rex! This was it: a life goal about to be fulfilled!

We climbed up, up, up a circular staircase to get inside Mr. Rex’s head. It wasn’t quite as roomy as what we saw in the movie,  and the “mouth” had been covered with plastic to prevent ne’er-do-wells from throwing trash out of Mr. Rex’s gaping maw. But it was still pretty cool to see once and for all.

Rich, who had not been too thrilled at the idea of driving through the blazing hot desert to see a couple of dinosaur statues, was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the trip. I, of course, loved every second of it.

C’mon, what’s not to love? Verdict: it will make you want to do this:

P.S. I totally forgot that Ms. Dinny, Mr. Rex, the Wheel Inn and the EAT sign also had a little cameo in Tears For Fears’ video for “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” Check it out at 1:24: