No Mexico? No Problem! Five (Very Lame) Spring Break Alternatives

The Texas Department of Public Safety has strongly warned Spring Breakers from going to Mexico. whether it's one of the famous tourist cities or the border towns that for years have attracted college students.

What's a person to do with their free time if they can't cross over to a magical land where IDs are not checked and interesting drugs are easily available?

Not to worry. Here are five (maybe not so) terrific Texas ideas on how to spend your Spring Break.

5. Alley Oop Land in Iraan
A comic strip you've never heard of, in a town you've never heard of, in an isolated West Texas town of about 1,200 people: You could easily spend a week here and not run out of things to do!

4. The large dime in Dime Box

​Sure, it looks a little fuzzy through the glass in this picture, but that's because you have to see it live to believe it. It's just like a regular dime, only bigger.

​3. Mary Kay Museum
Nothing says "Spring Break" like "heavily perfumed and ridiculously coiffed middle-aged women selling cosmetics." The Mary Kay Museum in Dallas offers paintings, sculptures and -- according to the floor plan -- an "Information kiosk and 'Keepers of the Dream' song." Allow three days to explore.

2. Old Rip
If a dead horned frog in a glass casket isn't worth a trip to Eastland, we don't know what is. Old Rip was caught by a kid on the day that a hollow cornerstone was being laid for a new courthouse. One of the officials involved in the ceremony thought it would be funny to toss the toad into the time capsule.

Another way of putting that, of course, would be "One of the officials thought it would be funny to bury an animal alive so it could die a slow, tortured death of starvation, lack of water and being cut off from oxygen." The joke was on the official, though -- when the capsule was opened 31 years later in 1928, Old Rip was still alive. He became a momentary celebrity, even visiting the White House.

All of which is kind of funny and interesting, but reading about it really seems to be good enough. We're not sure viewing the frog's body would add much to the experience.

1. The Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum in Beaumont
Everyone who's gone to Mardi Gras from Houston has passed this football-shaped building on I-10. Become the first person to ever stop and visit it!!