Roadside attractions and oddities

On Tuesday, August 12, I just wasn’t in the mood to ride.  I didn’t feel well, my neck ached, my head ached, my stomach ached.  I still racked up more than 400 miles but my heart wasn’t in it.  But even so, there were things to see, and I stopped to take a few photos.  I was hoping my not wanting to ride mood would pass by the next day.  And to help that along I went to bed early.

I found these in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and had to stop because they were beautiful.

Of course, I'm always drawn to horses.

There were probably more about town but these were on my route.  They remind me of our Wild Salmon on Parade that the IBEW sponsored.  Those were awesome.

When I awoke Wednesday, August 13, I felt like myself again, up and at ‘em, ready and wanting to ride.  I had places to go and things to see.  This part of the trip is for roadside attractions.  I’d looked up a few on the Internet and my ride was planned around some of them.

I first rode to Beaver, Oklahoma.  What’s there, you might ask?  It’s the Cow Chip Throwing Capital of the World!!!  And every year the World Championship Cow Chip Throw is held the third weekend in April.  It’s the oldest such competition anywhere, and in 2014 it was the 45^th chip throw.

In 2011, April Jamison, the Cow Chip Throw President who helped gather the chips personally said, “Cow chips are handpicked from the fields from a day when it hasn’t rained.  You don’t want to end up drying them in your oven.”

Need I say more?  I'm sure you have enough information, or too much, on this event!!

The chips are selected for size (they must be at least 6 inches across) and symmetry.  Each hurler can choose two chips and the one who can hurl their chip the farthest establishes their place in the rankings.  At the last check, it cost $20 to participate.  I did not go hunting for cow chips.

King Cow Chip.  How's that for a cow chip?

King Cow Chip reigns over the festivities and during parades, keeping the cow chip competition alive and his fans putting out commemorative gift boxes of cow chips.  How’s this one for a roadside oddity?

And what else did I find in Beaver?  I keep wanting to see a big bull elk, but this isn't exactly what I meant.  I'd like to see one out in the areas I'm traveling through, not in a pen.  Oh well.  That was the best I could do.

My next stop was  north in Liberal, Kansas, where I also spent the night although it was difficult to find a room due to construction and oilfield workers taking up most of the available rooms.  But once again, I was in, although it was not the best of accommodations.  Sometimes you just have to suffer for your work.

I’ve been through Liberal before and been to Dorothy’s House and the Land of Oz (the movie “The Wizard of Oz”).  This time I was seeking something different, a library shaped like an open book.

This is very cool and I wouldn't have known about it except for finding it on the Internet at America's Roadside Attractions.

For years the Liberal Memorial Library used a big concrete book with the entrance door carved through the book’s lower facing pages and spine.  The book was added to the building in 1955 and at the time was the largest open book library entrance in the United States.  In 1988 the library cemented over the door and moved the entrance to one side.  Bummer.  I would have loved to have entered the library through that entrance.  Oh well.  It’s kind of like how reading has gone by the wayside, too.  Except I still love to read books.  And have a library card for our Anchorage library.

I was going to head out of town after seeing the library book, but a friend told me about the Liberal Harley shop and how she’d gotten a shirt with ruby red slippers logo on the back.  I’d been to this shop before and had decided I didn’t need another shirt, but now I had to go get one with ruby red slippers.  Oh well.  What’s another shirt.  Harley-Davidson must love me.

Yes, there is no place like home.

Then I was gone, heading back into Oklahoma seeking a few more attractions.

While I was seeking attractions I’d found on the Internet, there are always other interesting things to photograph along the way.  I often pass up worthy subjects, but sometimes I make that turnaround and go get them.  Today was no exception because I’d decided it was roadside attraction day.

Old, worn-out buildings hold my interest ... and this one was exceptional.

My next true town stop was Boise (to rhyme with voice) City, Oklahoma.  There were several things here that I wanted to see.  Imagine, in this little town. 

One was a bomb … what?  In 1943 Boise City was mistakenly bombed by a training mission from an air base in Texas.  The only thing destroyed was a garage.  How embarrassing was that for the air force since the bombs were aimed at the courthouse.  Whoops.  While most would try to forget being bombed by your own, Boise City did not.  On the 50^th anniversary of the bombing the town built a replica bomb crater out of concrete and placed it in front of its Chamber of Commerce office, an old caboose.

The sign says it all.



One of the bombs that fell juts out of the crater.  The crater is less than 2 feet deep.

My next stop was at the edge of town.  For a small town there was a lot to see.  This time I was at the Cimarron Heritage Center.  Here there was a tin woodsman, a sequoia tree slab and a dinosaur.

In August 1989, a gentleman by the name of John D. “Pete” Morris (deceased) built a 13-foot-tall, 70-pound replica of the well-known tin woodsman character from “The Wizard of Oz” movie to attract customers to his log Cabin Corner Café, south of Laverne, Oklahoma.  The woodsman moved to Colorado in 2006 and in 2011 returned to Oklahoma where it now resides at the museum. 

 

You can see how big the woodsman is because my bike is in the background.

I next wandered over to the sequoia tree slab.   Carl Etling, a local, purchased and brought the 10-foot diameter slice from a California sequoia tree to Boise City in the 1950s for display at county fairs so people could see how magnificent the majestic trees are.

A nearly 10-foot slab of a California sequoia tree graces the lawn at the museum.

Then I saw the main reason I’d come here … the giant dinosaur, a life-size, metal, three-dimensional brontosaurus.  The museum is near the outskirts of town, so the dinosaur is quite the greeting for folks coming in on Highway 287.

 

A gentleman by the name of Joe Barrington, Throckmorton, Texas, is the artist for Cimmy.

The “Cimmy” (Cimarronasaurus) sculpture is made of steel, is 65-feet long and 35-feet tall, a size calculated, according to the sign, from 80 percent of bones that were excavated in western Cimarron County in the 1930s, supposedly making the dinosaur life-sized.

I stop at a lot of memorials that are dedicated to service people.

This one was quite simple.

There were listings of those who died and those who served from various wars.  This listing is the one from the Viet Nam war.  Thank you, Mr. Hobbs for your service.  There was no one named Hobbs on this list.

There was another oddity … a 50-mile stretch of road that is considered the longest straight road in the United States.  It runs east (or west depending on which direction you're coming from) from Boise City to just west of Guymon, Oklahoma (Highway 412).  It actually runs for more than 47 miles in one area and then another 65-plus miles in another area, all in Oklahoma.  I didn’t realize that and was on that road, not quite the entire way but far enough.  BORING!!!  I’d come onto the road just west of Guymon, so I rode most of it.  I should have paid attention to that little oddity when I was looking at them online.  I could have put the bike on auto-pilot if I had it and gone in the back to make a sandwich, if I’d had a tour pack.  Oh well.  Quickest and easiest route to get where I was going.  And where was that now?

Colorado was the next state of choice.  I planned to go to Trinidad where Verlie’s mom was in a nursing home, re-cooperating and rehabilitating from a fall and a resulting broken hip.

Along the way I saw the cow photo I wanted.  I'd been wanting a picture of cows in ponds cooling off. 

There was quite the greeting committee at the fence.

The town council came closer to check me out.  One or two from the back group would come forward and push the others out of the way to get a view of me.  They were quite curious.

I arrived in Trinidad, address in hand that Joe and Verlie had texted me.  How far was I from there?  Slightly more than a mile when I stopped at a Sonic.  I’d decided I wanted to take Verlie’s mom something, and it was going to be a milkshake if I could get it there in the heat without it melting. 

Two milkshakes coming up, banana cream pie and caramel Oreo cookie.  Virginia (Verlie’s mom) surely would like one of them.

My next issue was how to get them to the nursing home.  Easy.  One could go in my cup holder.  Now what? 

Milkshake in a cup holder ... perfect fit.

I put the other one in my saddlebag hoping it wouldn’t spill or fall over and get on my computer, cameras and additional lens.  I propped it up because the tops have holes in them for the straws.  Should be interesting.

A saddlebag milkshake ... no spilling.

I carefully rode down the street, avoiding bumps as best as possible.  I found the right road and rode up, pulling into the parking lot.  There was no number that I could see on the building, so I parked and went in, only to find out it was the wrong building.  Crap.  Those things are going to be totally melted.  I rode to the next parking lot, grabbed the milkshakes, no spilling there (yay), and proceeded inside. 

A nice lady directed me to where Virginia was sitting, in the dining room with her sister and brother-in-law.  I came up from behind her and plopped the milkshakes in front of her.  She turned and looked up at me?  “Who are you,” went through her mind.  I could tell by the look on her face.  I told her, Patti from Alaska, Verlie’s friend.  Then she knew exactly who I was.  But I had surprised her and I wasn’t in the right place that she’d think I should be.

 

Virginia, seated, and her sister Lucille and Lucille's husband, Charles.  I guessed right.  Banana cream pie is
Virginia's favorite so the milkshake was a hit.

We had a great visit, and all too soon it had to end.  I needed to be back on the road to get to Raton, New Mexico, and get in place for my visit to the Angel Fire Viet Nam Veteran’s Memorial the next day.