Chadron, Nebraska

Good morning, my friends. We've moved on to northwest Nebraska now, and we're camped in a nice site at Chadron State Park. 

We were surprised to find ourselves in an ADA Accessible site when we arrived. Certainly I didn't intend to do that when I made the reservation back in May. It's a big wide concrete pad. Looking at it, it appears brand new...as if it has never been used! And that made me suspicious. So I checked the park's website, where there is a picture of the site. Sure enough...the picture on the website shows an asphalt pad that looks similar to the other non-ADA Accessible sites. I'm thinking it became an ADA site after we made our original site-specific reservation. So, quite by accident and pure dumb luck, we ended up with a rather deluxe site. Guilty conscience withdrawn.

Okay, but let's talk about our drive up here from yesterday. Of course, we saw the usual collection of barns.

We crossed back into Mountain time when we reached this spot on the map. I love it when we're travel west and get an extra hour in our day.

We passed by several abandoned homesteads. They're more meaningful and interesting now that we've visited the Homestead National Historic Park.

Aside from barns and abandoned homesteads, the road looked pretty much like this for most of the day.

When we traveled through Nebraska on a previous trip, we noticed the terrain changed the farther west we went. As we traveled up into Nebraska's panhandle yesterday, we noticed the same thing. We went from flat cornfields to rocky buttes.

Looking out my window, I saw this:

From Mike's window, it looked like this:

We were planning to stop off at one roadside attraction, and this was a winner.

This is Carhenge, and what an interesting and amusing place! It was created by Jim Reinders. Intended as a memorial to his father, it was created during a family reunion in the summer of 1987 in a farm field north of Alliance, Nebraska. It's made of cars, 38 of them, rescued from nearby farms and dumps. The size of cars manufactured from the 1950s and '60s nearly equaled the stones at Stonehenge, and he built his monument with a 96-foot diameter to match the proportions of the original.

So, let's take a walk around it, shall we? You can have a seat on this bench if you're not up for walking.

Interestingly and coincidentally, Bill Lishman of Port Perry, Ontario, had the same idea a year earlier. He built a similar "Autohenge." There's no indication that Reinders and Lishman knew of each other. It seems to have been a case of two creative thinkers separately having the same revelation at roughly the same time (Autohenge rusted and was torn down in 2001).

We were amused at the Vega on the left. Mike owned a 1972 Vega when we married. The one here is at least a 1973 or newer. 

It gave us a chuckle because I think everyone who ever owned a Vega loved it until they hated it. It had an innovative aluminum block that didn't stand the test of time. We ended up replacing ours, but then the thing started leaking water, probably due to a defect in the paint job. Mike took good care of his Vega. He saved his money and bought it new when he was around 18, and so it was his prized possession at the time. No way he would have let the body rust, blister, and begin to leak at a spot where the metal met the glass of the windshield, but rust it did. And leak it did. By then, it was my car to drive and every time I felt a drop of water fall on my accelerator foot, I'd mutter to no one in particular, "I hate this car!" Among the happiest days of our lives was the day we sold that car and someone drove it out of our lives for good.

After a couple of summers the Reinders family spray-painted the cars a flat gray to make the monument look more like a Stonehenge. It's carefully maintained so that it doesn't suffer Autohenge's fate.

Carhenge very nearly didn't survive. The residents of Alliance at first wanted to tear it down. Then the Nebraska Department of Highways wanted to label it a "junkyard" and erect a big fence around it. Eventually, the animosity passed, and now signs along the way to Alliance proudly call it "Home of Carhenge." Its fortuitous placement in the path of the 2017 solar eclipse cemented Carhenge's status as a top-tier roadside attraction.

Three foreign cars were originally part of Carhenge, but were subsequently dragged away, ritually buried, and replaced by models from Detroit (The foreigners' grave at the site is marked by another junk car). The "heel stone" is a 1962 Caddy.

Here's a close-up of the message on the "headstone."

In 2006 a visitors center was built at the site. It appears to be permanently closed, but there is a sign indicating souvenirs can be had at two locations in Alliance. It next spawned its own adjacent "Car Art Reserve," a car-art sculpture park.  

Local visionaries contribute works such as "The Fourd Seasons" (a tribute to wheat).

I noticed a large bird sitting on one of the tires.

Walking around to the back, it seems a family of pigeons have taken up residence there.

Also, "The Carnastoga Wagon." 

There is also a 20th Century Time Capsule buried there, scheduled to be disinterred in 2053.

Looking at the surrounding area, you can see that it is located in the middle of nowhere. It is far from the nearest interstate. To see it you have to dedicate time to drive to it, and appreciate your vehicle when you get there.

In August 2013, Alliance voted to become its owner, officially giving its blessing to the monument and guaranteeing its preservation for many years to come.

Here's a little more information about it.

So that was a fun interlude. We spent about half an hour there, and then we were back on the road heading to our final destination. We saw more barns along the way.

Eventually, we came over a ridge and the entire look of Nebraska changed. We'd seen only deciduous trees up to that point. Cresting Pine Ridge, they turned to pine trees.

Here at our campsite, there is no shortage of fall color.

The relative privacy of our site meant Smitty was bold enough to get out for a walk right away. He was on the hunt for some more of that delicious Negrasska.

Nom, nom, nom. This might be the most delicious grass of the trip, but then, he says that about every state's grass.

We're here in Chadron State Park only so that we can drive about a half hour down the road to see Fort Robinson State Park. We'll also stop off today and pick up a few things at a grocery store. There is one more planned stop in South Dakota after today. We'll spend three days there, and then we'll probably be making a beeline for home. It's time. We're both ready.