The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Roadside Attractions

Carhenge, because...why not?

You all probably know that the US is just fun of odd places to visit and mostly just look at. There's more than one within a day's drive of where I live now. I've decided I need to finally just literally go the extra mile and visit a few of them, so here goes.


I don't have a heck of a lot to say about these places. They were made by local men with ideas that became obsessions. I suppose somewhere there are places like these also made by women, but really this does seem to be a guy thing. (Maybe it's all the big tools that are needed. And concrete. Concrete seems to be a guy thing.)

And they work. They are here. They have been here for awhile now. People visit. People write blog and Facebook and Instgram posts about the places. More people come.

So first we have Carhenge in Alliance Nebraska. It's a replica of Stonehenge made out of old cars. What more is there to say? Except that there are several more outdoor sculptures now at the same site.

Big Fish and dinosaurs also at Carhenge. And more.... you will have to visit

And then due north of Alliance for several hours gets you to the town of Lemmon South Dakota, literally on the North and South Dakota border. There is a named place called North Lemmon in North Dakota, but it's not much and was killed off by the different liquor laws in the two states. South Dakota had legal liquor sales at the time while North Dakota was dry. Guess which part was most popular? But I digress.

In Lemmon we have the world's largest petrified wood park or just the  Petrified Wood Park. Another guy just decided one day to build things out of petrified wood that was lying about all over the region.  (I wonder if there is a second largest petrified wood park?)

Sock Monkey at the petrified wood stronghold

So now there is this whole city block right in the middle of town filled up with things like quasi-buildings and cone shaped "trees" and just stuff all made from concrete and petrified rock.

I asked the nice lady in the little museum where all the rock came from, and she said people just find it lying around all over the region. The whole area once was a big sea in prehistoric times, and then things changed you know. That got me thinking that because this whole region was once under the water, including and especially what are now the Badlands, we probably do have petrified wood all over the place just like we have marine and tropical fossils and dinosaurs. But I suppose people don't recognize it was wood at first because, after all, it looks a heck of a lot like rock. Which it is.

What ARE these things? Who knows? I guess you can call it ART.

So, if you find yourself going numb in the mind or the behind  while driving on I-80 through Nebraska or I-94 through North Dakota (most likely your intention is to drive THROUGH either state on your way to, say, Yellowstone or the Rocky Mountains or Utah even), you might consider getting off the highway and seeing some sights. Get out of the car, get a snack, use the facilities, walk around, take some pictures, post of your fave social media site. You have probably never seen anything like this before.

And if you HAVE been to the world's second largest (or the third even) petrified wood park, let me know.