Roadtrips
Posted by Siddeley on April 27, 2009
One of the things I enjoy the most about car trips is experiencing all of the neighborhoods and town and watching things subtly change the further I get from my house. I always pick up an “off the beaten path” book and try to plan the drive around a hidden restaurant, specialty shop or unusual sight. The trip may take a little bit longer but the memories seem more complete and if you are in a hurry flying is probably the way to go anyway.Â
There is a great website for picking out things to do and see called Roadside America. Since our drives will take us in all directions I thought I would just point out a few things on the website that I think are cool. They do have an easy search by State or Town or Attraction and it is fun to see what is out there!
Close by my house, or on my way out of town, is Foamhenge - a scaled down replica of Stonehenge made from styrofoam.    It is, the creator points out, the only American Stonehenge that really is an exact replica of the time-worn original. “I went to great pains to shape each ’stone’ to its original shape” The day that we stopped by there was another family visiting and their kids were having a blast running in and out of the “stones”.  Nice way to stretch your legs on a long trip.
I can’t wait to try this one out! The Kansas Underground Salt Museum. A tour here is like a drive inside a parking garage — except that it’s 67 miles long and sealed inside of a 400-foot-thick block of salt. Â
The tour guide explaines that “The biggest fear that people have is coming down here in the first place.” We understand why. The elevator ride down is a pitch-black descent, clanging, banging, and rattling inside a bare metal box that sounds as if it’s being whacked with a sledgehammer. Get that adrenilan going!
Lots more to see and explore, like the actual birth place of the Cabbage Patch Dolls in Cleveland, GA (although even the adults are kind of freaked out about this one) 
You can check out the Bulldozer Building in Turlock, California - People rent and sell bulldozers inside this building shaped like a …. well you guessed it – bulldozer.
This weeks site of the week is Flintstones Bedrock City in Custer, South Dakota – With roots firmly in the cell-animation universe of the 1960s, Bedrock City is perhaps the best place on earth to enjoy 2-D reality. The park is well maintained, with every building painted in bright cartoon colors. Another great leg stretch!
And Last but not least is the always popular World’s Largest Ball of Twine Rolled by one man in Darwin, Minnesota. One runs across more than a few balls on the obsession landscape — balls of stamps, or of barbed wire. But special tribute must be paid to the Mother of all moss gathering pursuits — the giant twine ball.Â
One of my favorite movies “National Lampoon’s Vacation” gives a nice shout out to it:Â Â “Hey, hey, easy kids. Everybody in the car. Boat leaves in two minutes… or perhaps you don’t want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth, which is only four short hours away?”
 Happy Travels!
fheenix33 said,
This is an amazing post! I grew up with parents who always went off the beaten path when taking day trips and on vacations. Growing up this irritated me because I wanted to see all the tourist attractions so I would have some exciting story to tell my friends.
I grew out of that phase and, as an adult, I try to avoid high traffic tourist areas. I do this because I don’t feel that the true beauty of any area is found in some “made up” area to attract tourists. My mission to stay away from tourist areas has guided me to some really amazing places. When on trips I also eat at local places. The best people to ask where to eat locally are the people that live there.
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