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.

Next stop, Roswell: Ogallala, Nebraska's Alien Water Tower

I love gazing and taking pictures of water towers on long road trips. They break up the monotony, especially in the Midwest where the landscape is flat. I've often thought they look like aliens on the horizon, like in "War of the Worlds." Apparently, the folks in Ogallala, Nebraska had this same notion, as they have painted one of their towers to look like a alien spacecraft. Nice to have a bit of whimsy in an otherwise plain landscape. You've really made the grade and the papers want to know whose shirts you wear.

Incredi-Bill: North Platte, Nebraska's Fort Cody Trading Post

Nothing warms the heart of a bored cross-country roadtrip passenger than a good, old-fashioned politically incorrect tourist trap. Such is the case of the Fort Cody Trading Post, just off Interstate 80 in North Platte, Nebraska. North Platte has a genuine claim to fame, as it was the 1880s home of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Not exactly the stay home and collect stamps-type, he got his nickname for killing 4,280 buffalo in an 8-month period during 1867-68. There are lots of good reasons to stop and stretch your legs here: the "fort" is actually a western museum/wild-west-show-in-miniature/kitschy gift shop all housed in a mock stockade (mockade?) complete with soldier mannequins (one with an arrow tastefully stuck in his butt) and a corral out back that is home to a...drumroll, please...Muffler Man Indian! The western museum displays many authentic items, including chaps, guns, boots, spurs, stuffed animals, and some statues of Bill and various Indians. The piece de resistance, though, is a stuffed two-headed calf. The miniature west show is an accurate, if not tiny, diorama of Buffalo Bill's traveling extravaganza from the 1870s. Ernie and Virginia Palmquist carved the 20,000 figures --snake charmers, knife-throwers, fat ladies, cowpunchers, squaws, you name it -- that come to life every half hour in an animated show, free of charge. The gift shop features a glittering array of items to mark the occasion and remember your friends and loved ones by: iron dinner triangles ("Come an' gitit!"), books of western lore, taste-challenged T-shirts, edible bugs, stuffed jackalopes, candy cigarettes and more John Wayne paraphernalia than you can shake a stick at, Pilgrim. And if that's not enough, out back there's a corral with wagons, a tee pee, a buffalo and, yes, the famed 25-foot lantern-jawed brave, girning at you with Native American Muffler Man pride. Muffler Man aficionados will tell you this is a modified classic MM, not the official Indian classification, just so you know. However you categorize him he's awesome, and how.

So don't pass up the chance to see a real kitschy Americana treat the next time you're passing through central Nebraska. And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Sapp-happy: The Sapp Bros. coffee pot water tower of Omaha, Nebraska

A bunch of Sapps, you might say...

They've even got a mobile chapel...Hallelujah!

You don't get much more Nebraskier than this...

Just off Interstate 80 in Omaha, Nebraska stands a proudly caffeinated eccentric roadside icon: The Sapp Bros. Truck Stop coffee pot water tower. At 110 feet, they claim they've got the world's tallest java-themed water turret, and we don't doubt it. It's even engineered to have steam waft from its spout, although this wasn't the case when we were there in 2006 (perhaps they had just put on a fresh pot on to brew). The Sapps run a chain of eponymous truck stops from Pennsylvania to Utah, all a home away from home for weary travelers in need of good grub, a shower, some gas and a decent cup o' joe. And their sign is not only beautiful, but it's practical, as well...furnishing H2O for Nebraska's Sanitary Improvement District 48. So the next time you're near Omaha, don't be a drip and take a break from the grind with the perks offered by this friendly Java the Hut. And do it ASAPP.