This episode is brought to you by the Mazda CX-50. Move and be moved.

Hey there, it's me again, Kelly McEvers, co-host of the Atlas Obscura podcast. We are on day nine of our 12 days of wonder, countdown to the holidays.

So every year for the holidays, my family takes a road trip. We pack everything we own into a van,

and we decide that we should go winter camping as we trapes around the west from ski town to

ski town, looking for hot springs and fun campsites along the way. And today I want to share an

episode about exactly the kind of place my family and I would want to

visit on a road trip. It's another country that you can drive in and out of within just a few minutes.

Here's the episode.

If you start driving east from San Diego out towards the Salton Sea, the picturesque beach town quickly turns into pine-dotted

mountains, and as you keep driving down Highway 78, eventually it all turns to desert, this cactus-strewn

washed-out landscape. It looks like nothing could survive out here. And after miles of this nothingness,

right before you hit the brackish

waters of the Salton Sea, you suddenly pass one of those green highway signs that welcomes you

to the Republic of Slow Jamestan. You wonder, is this a mirage of the desert?

Am I hallucinating?

The sign bears the official crest of the Republic, a raccoon carrying a battle axe.

There's even an official national anthem. This is Okama's time.

So, Jalandthuris, and this is where I'm from.

They set my home.

I'm Dulan Thuris, and this is Atlas of Skira, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

Today, we get out our passports, and we visit the Republic of Slojammistan, a nation built on good vibes, good music, and the dream of eliminating one very

popular type of footwear. So Jamestan is time.

...