No can do: The late, great world's tallest used oil can stack of Casselton, North Dakota

I can't say enough good things about roadsideamerica.com, the ultimate guide to eccentric roadside attractions. Most of the kooky places we've been to have been a result of researching what's on their website, and they get the credit for guiding us to one of the all-time greats: the world's biggest stack of used oil cans in Casselton, North Dakota. The Casselton Can Pile, as the locals called it, dated all the way back to 1933, when the owner of a Sinclair gas station began heaping his old oil cans in a pile that grew and grew and eventually became a tourist attraction (which by 1933 standards must have seemed like a regular Disney World). There doesn't seem to be an official measurement recorded: height was in the 25-50 foot range, width at 15-18 feet. It was an easy exit off Interstate 94 and excitement built in 2006 as we spotted the pile in the distance, like a tilting Christmas tree or something out of Dr. Seuss. The Sinclair station was long gone and the pile was sitting on the property of the Loegring Company. The reason I'm reporting this all in the past tense is, once again according to roadsideamerica.com, the can pile is no more. In 2012, the property's new owner didn't want it and the town didn't want to spend the money to move it, so can by can it was disassembled by someone who reportedly wants to try to reassemble it in Minnesota (land of 10,000 lakes and oil cans, apparently). We're so glad we had the chance to see this roadside marvel and carpe'd the diem back in '06. Ahbahdee, ahbahdee, that's oil folks!

Happy birthday James Woods

Hollywood legend and Warwick, Rhode Island native James Woods turns 66 today and we'd like to send him all good wishes. We've previously blogged about an Applebee's restaurant in his hometown that has a mini-shrine in his honor. Check it out here.

Taking the last exit: RIP Pliny the Forester and Old Red

 Pliny the Forester visiting Albert the Bull, Audubon, Iowa, and...

...the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah, and...

 ...the giant arrows in Mancos, Colorado, and...

 ...the crossroads of Montana, and...

 ...Carhenge, Alliance, Nebraska, and...

 ...the Enchanted Highway, near Regent, North Dakota, and...

 ...the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, Texas, and...

 ...the Wigwam Motel of Holbrook, Arizona, and...

 ...the Launching Pad restaurant, Wilmington, Illinois, and...

 ...the Geographic Center of the U.S.A., Lebanon, Kansas.

 Among other faraway places, Old Red took us to Pike's Peak, Colorado, and...

 ...Independence Pass, Colorado, the highest paved crossing of the Continental Divide in the U.S.A., and...

...and on its final road trip outing last fall, it took in the sights of Shinnston, West Virginia.

 Old Red became a canvas of our collection of old-fashion travel decals, placed on the rear side window much the same as my family did on our '65 Ford wagon when I was a kid.

The end is near, my friends.

You can get very attached to a car, especially if you hold on to one for a long time. This is particularly true if you take a lot of road trips, and so it was not without a little bit of sadness that we bid farewell to not one but both of our durable road trip warriors in the same week. We've had our 1998 Subaru Legacy wagon, dubbed Old Red, for 15 years and took our first cross-country trip (to Yellowstone in 2002) in it. It also took us to Nashville, Niagara Falls, northern Maine and lots more. We've gone the most places in our 2004 Subaru Forester, which we dubbed Pliny the Forester, after Pliny the Elder, the early Roman Empire's author, naturalist and philosopher (too obvious?): three 9,000-plus-mile cross country trips to Los Angeles, Montana's Glacier National Park, and San Francisco from our home in Rhode Island, plus lots more shorter trips (Chicago, Atlanta, and Quebec to name a few).

I can say without hesitation I've had the best times of my life in these two cars and they've served us well. But since last December, both cars have been neck and neck in the beloved-old-car-turning-into-a-hopeless-moneypit sweepstakes. We've become close, personal acquaintances with their "check engine" lights and have been stranded on the side of the road in each car. We've poured way too much money into them, enough to buy half a good used car, only to have them back in the shop a couple weeks later for another $500 repair. The end of an era was approaching. We traded them both in for what we considered a handsome sum, considering how old and troublesome they'd grown -- almost enough to recoup our recent repair bills. And, true to form, Old Red's "check engine" light lit up on its final ride to the new car dealership. Now that's closure.

Farewell, old friends. God willing, we'll see you parked outside that big ball of twine in the sky some day.

Eccentric street name of the week

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Lane.

Stop in the name of spud

This just in: Rhode Island still has potatoes. Watch for the mash-up on YouTuber.