Norge by Norgewest: The Norge ball of Waynesboro, Virginia

I had a Debra Jane Seltzer (the roadside architecture archaeologist/documentarian extraordinaire) moment while on a recent trip through Virginia. In desperate need of a public bathroom (curse you, Diet Coke!), I was headed to the nearest Burger King in Waynesboro, when what did I spot but a "Norge ball," a rare vintage roadside delight. According to Debra, back in the '60s, Norge Village Cleaners was a nationwide chain of laundromats that used brightly polka-dotted globes as signage. She says in 1967 there were 3,400 Norge locations and only 50 of the balls exist today, so spotting one, especially if you weren't expecting to like I was, is especially thrilling. This one was especially nice, in decent shape for its age atop the B-Z Laundromat in a strip mall, and quite striking against a pretty blue sky. The only other Norge ball I've seen was in North Platte, Nebraska, and again it was by surprise.

So the time I used up by having to hunt down a Burger King for the call of caffeinated nature was actually a plus because of the Norge ball photo op. You might say it was a wash.

Udder delight: The Purple Cow of Dooms, Virginia

 If you're driving on Route 340 not far from Waynesboro, Virginia, you'll hit a pleasant little town with the dark and gloomy name of Dooms. That alone would be reason enough for an eccentric roadside attraction fan to get off Interstate 81 in western Virginia, but wait, there's so much more! On the corner of Route 340 and Purple Cow Road is, well, a purple cow. Actually, it's the fiberglass head of a purple cow attached to a pole that the locals have been using as a landmark for nearly fifty years. In 1964, the Simerson family ran a restaurant on the property and purchased an entire cow sculpture from a nearby dairy, colored its head purple and put it on a 20-foot pole to attract attention. A variety of businesses have been on the property since then and today it appears abandoned, but the cow head remains, and there are several homes on Purple Cow Road. Now that's an address I'd love to have. And what about the name Dooms? Turns out the town was started by a family with that name and there are descendants that still live there today. In fact, there might be one living on Purple Cow Road. So here's looking at you, cud. Power to the purple, right on.

Foam Here to Eternity: Natural Bridge, Virginia's Foamhenge

It's styrofoam. Really.

You get a nice view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Sculptor Mark Cline based his statue of Merlin on his late friend Jamie Jordan.

This is me at Foamhenge...

...and me at the real deal. Pretty good resemblance, I'd say.

Foamhenge isn't quite as wacky as Carhenge but it's still pretty awesome.

The town of Natural Bridge, Virginia has a built-in roadside attraction, 20 stories of solid rock carved by the fingers of nature, that is so impressive, they named the town after it. The Bridge is quite impressive and definitely worth seeing, but it pales in comparison to the eccentric man-made wonder just down the road that is Foamhenge. That would be a replica of the famous Druid stones of southern England's Salisbury Plain made out of styrofoam by eccentric wunderkind Mark Cline. As the visionary behind Virginia attractions The House of the Living Dead, The Scare Witch Project, and Professor Cline's Time Machine, he worked out a deal with the town to put up his creation on a Route 11 bluff overlooking the pretty Blue Ridge Mountains in 2004. Great pains were taken to get each stone as exact as possible by consulting English experts. The "stones" are anchored to the ground by pipe and concrete and do require periodic upkeep and replacement, but they really have the feel of the actual place. Cline offers two theories of the real Stonehenge's origin: ancient workers using miraculous ingenuity, or the magic of Merlin, complete with a statue of the sorcerer based on the death mask of a friend. Having been to the real Stonehenge in England and Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska, we can say Foamhenge left a foam-idable impression. Check out these sites for more in-foam-ation: roadsideamerica.com and enchantedcastlestudios.com