Ripley's odditoriums expand around the globe

Before their recent Orlando visit, Martha and Jared Hammond knew little about the famed 20th-century adventurer, cartoonist and connoisseur of the bizarre, Robert Ripley, and his penchant for collecting the planet's strangest facts and weirdest objects.
 
But then they happened on the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditorium, an International Drive tourist attraction smaller than some new houses but big enough to hold a petrified man, a replica of a vintage Rolls-Royce made of more than a million matchsticks, and an array of other curios.
 
"We had done all the other tourist stuff and were kind of bored, until we spotted this," said Martha Hammond, 24. "We saw the Ripley show on TV, but we never knew about this stuff. It's pretty crazy."