Fine, I’ll Defend the Hollywood Walk of Fame if No One Else Will

You've seen by now that the Walk of Fame in Hollywood ranked last on a list of tourist destinations. While it's true that the area is not all that nice, not without danger of violent crime and full of pushy street performers, it's not THAT bad. I mean, it's a sidewalk. Here's my defense of the HWOF.

1.) It's free. At least it was the last time I checked. Like I said, it's a sidewalk.
2.) You're not trapped. If it's not your bag you can leave whenever you want. Or not go at all. No one cares.
3.) There's other stuff around there. Again, it's a sidewalk. Use it as one and you might walk by some place that catches your interest. There's the touristy crap like the Ripley's Museum and Madam Tussaud's (I don't recommend either) but there's also a really cool second hand store that has a lot of awesome Hollywood junk that you can get at a reasonable price. There's a costume and prop store that I go to every time and always find something just insanely amazing. There's a great guitar shop. There's the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel which you can walk into the lobby and immediately recognize it from about a thousand movies and TV shows. Hell, you can stop into any of a hundred seedy dive bars, get blasted on cheap tequila and then go out and puke on the star of your least favorite celebrity. And nobody will say a word. Try that at the Louvre.
4.) This "list" only had 99 spots so "dead last" is still way ahead of most tourist traps.

We opened the phones to "tourist spots you would either wholeheartedly recommend or that you would advise people to avoid. Here's my YES list:

CARLSBAD CAVERNS: I know, it's a big hole in the ground. Actually, plan an entire day there because you can walk all the way to the bottom and all the way back up, though no one does because it's so huge you just want to take the elevator once you're the equivalent of 2 Burj Khalifas underground. Also, try to go in the summer and go to the bat flight at dusk. Close to half a billion bats exit the cave at one time and it is impressive.

That's it. Everywhere else I've been sucks. Here are some of the ones the sucked hardest.

THE THING: If you're driving through New Mexico or Arizona don't be fooled by the hundreds of billboards telling you "you can't miss...The Thing!". You can and you should.

THE 72 OUNCE BIG TEXAN: If you are driving on I-40 anywhere within 2,000 miles of Amarillo you will see numerous billboards for "The Big Texan Steakhouse". I'm starting to think there's a reverse correlation between "number of billboards" and "quality of attraction". You'd think that a place that promotes their steaks all the way from Knoxville to Barstow would have, you know, a decent steak. They don't. It's not the worst I've ever had but it's far from the best. 150 Billboards over the course of 2 full days has convinced you that there is some special slab of meat awaiting you in Amarillo when the truth is you can drive 2 miles away and get a better ribeye at Hoffbrau's.

BOURBON STREET: I was born in New Orleans so believe me when I say about Bourbon Street, "You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." If you go during a "off" season it smells like a port-a-potty. If you go during Mardi Gras, Halloween or St. Patty's Day it's much, much, much worse. No amount of free boobs would ever justify the odor of every combined human waste fluid mixed with the pungent aroma of, well, the rest of New Orleans.