Roadside Attractions

I love roadside attractions. I took a solo three-week road trip last summer as far as Colorado, Utah, Wyoming. I saw wonderful things I'd never seen before...Colorado National Monument, Arches National Monument, the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore. Yes, I am patriotic.

Along the way, I laid out routes to check out American roadside attractions. I drove out of my way to find a shoe tree in Greeley, Colorado which no longer exists. I did find a shoe fence along a lonely stretch of road in western Nebraska and left a pair of white canvas soccer mom sneakers there as an offering to the shoe fence gods, lovingly placed among the cowboy boots. I visited the Black Madonna Shrine in eastern Missouri, all the work of one monk, intricate, huge and lovely. I saw muffler men and Sinclair dinosaurs and the world's largest hand-dug well.

I never did make it to the world's largest ball of string, which I really wanted to see but it was too far out of the way in northern Nebraska on the return trip. I did see the amazing button collection of Mrs. Warther and picked up a very nice set of knives at the same place, and the world's largest picnic basket, which is the headquarters of the Longaberger corporation in Ohio.

Got an interest in these things? Then you'll love RoadsideAmerica.com, the source of most of my information for the trip.

On my brief surf last night I found, through Bitch | Lab, if I remember correctly, the Enchanted Highway in North Dakota. I never made it to ND, though I now wish I had. This retired teacher and school principal is sculpting giant figures out of metal and placing them along a 32-mile stretch of roadside in the heartland. His goal is to increase tourist interest in his state. As far as I'm concerned, I think he will. The sculptures are amazing. If I have no other reason to ever visit North Dakota, and I don't think I have since I don't like Black Hills gold, this stretch of highway might just be enough.

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