And the rest is huskory: Looking out the window at the great state of Nebraska

I've visited 46 of the US states and can honestly say it's been a thrill to see every one. One place in particular, not normally known as a vacation destination, is the great state of Nebraska. If you're traveling by car from the east coast to the west, you know you're a long, long way from home when you get to Nebraska, and you've still got a long, long way to go. We took one of our all-time best detours when we drove a couple hours northwest off of Interstate 80 to the small town of Alliance to see Carhenge, the replica of Stonehenge made out of old cars. Well worth the trip, and the getting there really was fun. Who knew Nebraska was full of such pretty sandhills, plains with those cliche windmilly things and lonesome, melancholy small towns? People from Nebraska, I imagine, but its beauty was quite a revelation to us native New Englanders. Maybe Nebraska should be a vacation destination after all, dad gummit. Here are a few shots of our travels through the Cornhusker State, some shot from the highway, some when we got out to stretch our legs a bit. How can you not love a state whose state beverage is milk, state dance is the square dance, and state song is "Beautiful Nebraska"? Long may your goldenrod bloom, Western meadowlark sing and White-tailed deer roam.

What will it take to put you in this Carhenge tonight?

 You can make out an AMC Gremlin here...

 ...and a Chevy Vega station wagon here. We had one of these back in the 70s and it's of more use here than it was back then.

 Dig that early 60s Valiant!

 "Ford Seasons", for all of you Vivaldi fans

For sale: slightly used 1987-model Carhenge in good condition. $300,000, easy terms.

I would put Carhenge -- Alliance, Nebraska's recreation of Great Britain's Stonehenge made out of old cars -- at the tippy top of our list of the very, very best, most eccentric roadside attractions we've ever had the pleasure to mosey on by. In 1987, as a tribute to his late father, a Mr. Jim Reinders acquired 38 dead cars, spray-painted them gray and assembled them upright and across in a circle 96 feet in diameter (the proportions of its famous doppelganger) on his father's 10-acre plot of farmland. A 1962 Cadillac serves as the heel stone. 80,000 visitors have stopped by each year since its installation and admission is free, with donations kindly accepted in the honor box at the entrance. Additional sculptures have been erected on the property, including a large spawning salmon made of car parts and "Ford Seasons", made up of  four Fords and inspired by both Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" and the Nebraska landscape. The property has been maintained by the Friends of Carhenge, a nonprofit group originally formed to fight the city when they threatened to tear the place down after it was first erected. Trouble is, after all these years they can't afford to expand the site with the kind of development that could bring in more visitors and make it profitable, so last October they put it up for sale in hopes someone with deeper pockets will buy it and put a campground, ice cream stand, gas station and other commercial venues to keep the place going (I vote for a drive-in movie theater, but I'm no Warren Buffet). No word on if they've received any nibbles yet.

I absolutely adore this place. It was a real highlight of our 2006 cross-country trip, and that journey included no-slouch places like Yellowstone, Glacier and Arches National Parks. It really is a work of art, where the middle-of-nowhere landscape is as much a part of the art as the art itself. I couldn't get the Stanley Kubrick "2001" "Also Sprach Zarathustra" movie theme out of my head the whole time we were there. A long, two-hour, I-sure-hope-this-is-worth-it detour off an Interstate (in this case 80) has never been more worth it.


God (or whoever the head-Druid is) bless Carhenge. Let's hope somebody good will buy the place and keep it going. That would be good carma, for sure.