Roadside distractions

Countries steeped in ancient history can brag about grand pyramids, the Great Wall and Stonehenge. In America, the bar isn’t quite so high. Behold Carhenge, Foamhenge and Fridgehenge. Confused?

Picture the mystical alignment of Britain’s famous monument. Now instead of boulders, insert junked autos in Alliance, Neb., carved foam blocks in Natural Bridge, Va., and dumped Frigidaires in Santa Fe, N.M.

“These things start to feed each other,” says Doug Kirby, publisher of www.roadsideamerica.com. “It gets out of control.”

That, of course, is part of the fun. He and contributors have cataloged 8,000 of America’s oddest, overlooked or over-the-top attractions, from Amarillo Texas’s Cadillac Ranch (which likely sparked Carhenge) to rattlesnake museums, super-sized shrines and mermaids that have been putting on an underwater show since 1947.

You can design an entire getaway based on, say, goony photos by giant statues. Just try and resist posing friends looking up Ole the Viking’s skirt in Alexandria, Minn., or clustered around the bulbous noggins of bug-eyed aliens in Roswell, N.M.

For the most concentrated collections of quirky culture, head to historic tourist traps, such as Pigeon Forge, Tenn., Wisconsin Dells, Wis., along historic Route 66 or near Orlando, Fla.

If you are headed anywhere at all, just keep your eyes peeled. You can find almost everything in the middle of nowhere.

North Dakota’s Enchanted Highway east of Theodore Roosevelt National Park hooks travelers with a 78-ton, 110-foot-tall “Geese in Flight” sculpture along Interstate-94. Follow the highway’s 32-mile detour south to Regent, and artist Gary Greff’s giant metal grasshoppers, pheasants, fish and Teddy Roosevelt loom up from the lonesome horizon.

Kirby says that while part of the fun can be stumbling upon unexpected oddities, gas prices make it wise to do a little research first, especially with difficult-to-find places or those that are vulnerable to vandals such as Carhenge and Fridgehenge.

Call ahead to check that museums are open, especially if it’s a mom-and-pop operation or site built by a singularly obsessed person. And if you drive through the albino squirrel capital of the world, know that least four other towns fiercely claim the same fame.

–Lisa Meyers McClintick, RED Travel Writer.
–Photo by Lisa Meyers McClintick.