I went to THE COOLEST PLACE today

We drove out to Hwy 12 and head north of the river. Such beautiful landscape here, carved and molded by ancient glaciers. It's an absolutely stunning part of this beautiful state I live in.

As we get close to our destination, the most obvious feature is on the right side of the highway - a huge old military ammunition plant. It looks completely out of place among the hills and fields here. It's a site of over 7,000 acres and over 1,400 buildings. It was used during WW2, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War to make "propellant". (Oooooo-kaaaaayyyy....) Since 1997, it has been going through a *decommission* process. This isn't what we were headed for though.

Across the highway there is a MUCH more fascinating place: "The Land of Evermor". It's a park of sorts - filled with sculptures made by "Dr. Evermor". As you waander through the park, you feel like it's a Dr. Seuss book come to life. Or something from an H.G. Wells book. Or something Willy Wonka made. Or just a combination of all of those. It's beautiful, it's creative, and it's just amazing. I thought we'd be there an hour or so. We spent the whole afternoon there and the only reason we left is because we were getting hungry.

Dr. Evermor's original career was industrial wrecking. As we sat and chatted with him for awhile today, he tells us he hit a point where he didn't like destroying things anymore, he wanted to build things instead. So he makes sculptures from scrap metal items. Frodo totally loved this place and wants to make some scrap metal sculptures of his own. Only thing is, I don't think they make arc welding equipment for 2nd graders.... ;)

To really believe this place, you just have to see it. So if you're ever in my neck of the woods, I'll take you there! In the meantime, you can just enjoy some websites:

http://www.drevermor.com/index.html

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/WIBARforever.html

http://www.wired.com/news/roadtrip/riverroad/0,2704,65168,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2