MARK MY WORD: FAMILY SEES HAND-WASHING MACHINE AS TOURIST ATTRACTION

Forget Six Flags, those Branson shows or the Gateway Arch. The automatic hand-washing machine at the Fruitland, Mo., rest stop is the real attraction for my kids.

Becca and Bailey love to stop there on our Interstate 55 journeys to and from St. Louis. They talk about it more than their final destination.

What was once just a rest stop is now a great attraction to them.

We recently visited the Science Center in St. Louis. Of course, we had to make a stop at the Fruitland rest-stop bathrooms on our way up. On the way back we stopped again just so I could do some journalistic research and get a firm grip on today's technology.

I must admit it's a great invention. You stick your hands into a recessed opening in the wall and instantly soap and water pour down on them, followed by another blast of water to rinse them off. Then the air dryer kicks in. You leave with clean, dry hands and a smile on your face.

Our kids view this as a marvelous invention. It rates right up there with car washes, video games and the Cartoon Network.

And the best thing about it is that it's free.

The Missouri Department of Transportation installed the hand-washing devices when it fixed up the Fruitland rest stop along with a number of others in Southeast Missouri within the last year.

The devices also can be found at many of the state's other interstate rest stops, highway officials tell me.

MoDOT expends a lot of time and effort telling us about all the road improvements they are making, but the agency seldom says anything about these hand-washing devices.

I'm convinced the state is sitting on a giant opportunity to promote tourism. It needs to get off its rocker and start building more rest stops and installing more hand-washing machines.

Families would flock to such places. The kids would enjoy it every bit as much as much as a trip to the zoo, and parents wouldn't be saddled with costly souvenirs.

That will come later when state officials realize those hand-washing machines are big attractions and fast-food joints open up at the rest stops.

Lining up public support for a new baseball park in St. Louis might be easier if the Cardinals management promises to install automatic hand-washing machines throughout the stadium.

Some people would like to see the city of Cape Girardeau build a water park, but installing hand-washing machines all over the place would be a lot cheaper and still provide plenty of safe, water fun for the kids.

At the same time, it would go a long way toward addressing the sticky hands of youth.

Not since the invention of the toilet has there been this much excitement about the restroom.

A St. Louis company installed the device at the rest stop, creating Fruitland's first legitimate tourist attraction. The company's Web site promotes the device as "simple yet sophisticated" and "economically and environmentally smart." That's the kind of attraction to which all Americans can relate. We're all for saving the environment and lowering our water bill, particularly if we can have fun doing it.

Personally, I think every parent would like to have one of these things. It would certainly guard against the typical sink-top flooding that occurs when children wash their hands.

I'd like to have one of these devices in the bathtub. That way, the kids could wash their hair without spraying water everywhere and turning bath time into a tidal wave.

Just think of it. Missouri could be more than just a state "where the rivers run," as the Division of Tourism likes to say. It could be a place that's all washed up and proud of it.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.