Enchanted Highway (Camera Ooops)

Today started off with a mistake, one I didn't realize to too late. While photographing the moon last night I left my camera set with the exposure as low as it goes. So all these photos had to be "fixed" in post-processing.

Here is the trailer at the beginning of the Enchanted Highway!  The highway is a 32 mile detour for no reason other than seeing big metal sculptures along the roadside.

This first one above is probably the least impressive although all along the drive in every 3 feet is a pole with a bird on which is cool.

The others don't have long drives and are just off the highway. They are in general about 50 to 80 feet high and on this windy day are flexing and making noise as well.

They are entirely the work of one guy who is probably kind of a nut job.  He does have donation boxes at each and information.

He's been written up in the papers etc.

This one is called "Fisherman's Paradise" and was probably my favorite. One of the fish totally reminded me of part of a video game called Sam and Max Hit the Road which involved a large roadside fish. (And may other Americana Road Side attractions like the worlds largest Ball of Twine)

I had even switched to my wide-angle lens which tends to be good at taking pictures of really big things.

It can be really hard to use correctly because you have to get really close to the objects

 This was my favorite fish, can you tell this was my favorite of the 7 different sculptures?

We are almost at the end of the highway a town called Regent, which has and gift shop and an ice cream shop. And not much else.

This is the smallest and most underwhelming of the "giants". Except that it is Teddy Roosevelt who's national park we are heading too.

Largest Tin Family! This is the final spot. The artist is supposedly working on one themed for a spider web.

I don't know how he gets the farmers to let them use some of their land, he must pay them off.

Here are a couple of Will's non-messed up pictures.

We got ice cream in Regent as is almost required after a drive down the Enchanted Highway and got back on the road.

Even with the change from Central to Mountain Timezone we got to Dickinson too late to see the Dinosaur Museum there although we walked Maxwell around the grounds which had petrified tree stumps. The museum would have been good, they boasted that 91% of their exhibits are "Real".

After a quick stop in the info center we head off for Medora, ND where the National Park is. We got in at a reasonable time for once.

We drove a total of 308 miles (60 extra miles for the Enchanted Highway included) for a total trip distance of 2305 Miles! Those totals only include the driving with the trailer from place to place. For that total our cumulative MPGs is 11 mpg. We do almost 12 when we drive slower state highways and about 10 when we are on freeways cruising around 60 mph.

Luckily gas has been cheaper lately!