{"id":16532,"date":"2017-09-15T19:11:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T23:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=16532"},"modified":"2017-09-15T19:11:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-15T23:11:26","slug":"americana-carhenge-dreams-of-alliance-and-sterling-respectively","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=16532","title":{"rendered":"Americana – Carhenge Dreams of Alliance and Sterling Respectively"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the long drive from Chadron, NE, to Sterling, CO, I went straight through Alliance, NE.\u00a0 Now, I\u2019ve been to Alliance before\u2026 but unlike a few other spots along the way of this Center of the Nation tour, I was there previously on my own.\u00a0 So I didn\u2019t mean doing a revisit Hanna Solo.<\/p>\n

Alliance is home to the world famous Carhenge.\u00a0 It was most recently in the spotlight during the Solar Eclipse as various druish and non-druish aficionados descended upon the \u201cStonehenge Made from Cars\u201d crazed dream\/inspired lunacy that is this truly special Roadside America attraction.<\/p>\n

Upon my arrival, there were only two or three other cars in the lot and I could very easily wander the site with little to no human interaction.\u00a0 Which is as I like it when visiting such a place.\u00a0 You want to be able to stage a photo like you\u2019re the only one there\u2026 and that\u2019s A LOT easier when ostensibly you ARE the only one there.<\/p>\n

Ladies and Gentlemen \u2013 start your engines!\u00a0 Or I guess since the engines have long since been removed from the cars \u2013 start your gawking! \u00a0I give you: CARHENGE!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a> \"\"\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

As for Sterling, CO, it took A LOT longer for me to get there than I had anticipated\u2026 maybe only 45 minutes longer and that was mainly due to the Alliance detour and lunch.\u00a0 But it seemed like I\u2019ve been driving FOREVER.\u00a0 And this wasn\u2019t even remotely the longest segment of my Center of the Nation car touring.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s the mileage AND the time previously spent in this crappy Kia Soul.\u00a0 Things weren\u2019t helped by my Orbitz booking being all messed up and rebooked to another hotel\u2026 DESPITE no record of that showing up on my web account or in the Orbitz app.\u00a0 So that all took another hour or so to figure out with various front desks calling their contact people and me trying to get through to a CSR (as is typical of Orbitz, after speaking to a rep and being told I needed to speak to a supervisor, 15 minutes of hold music culminated in my being disconnected.\u00a0 Was it my spotty Sprint cell phone coverage here in Colorado or something more\u2026 intentional?\u00a0 Or maybe sinister on Orbitz\u2019s part?).<\/p>\n

Long story short, I was in a foul mood due to the fouled up hotel nonsense.\u00a0 But I rallied to check out two important Sterling statues.<\/p>\n

The first is the Popcorn Man, a tribute to Clarence Mentgen.\u00a0 He sold popcorn from a little shack on the county courthouse street corner for almost 40 years, from 1939 to 1977.\u00a0 In 2008, the town wanted to honor him, a beloved figure throughout time.\u00a0 This seemed like a worthy stop…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mainly because the next one was so freakin’ weird.\u00a0 In Prairie Park there lives a… mystical space age sea monkey BFG (bronze friendly geek)?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the Dream Redeemer.\u00a0 And the plaque says it all… or maybe it says nothing at all.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m not entirely sure how to read this thing.\u00a0 And I have a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (and yes, that’s a real major… or it was in the late 1990s).<\/p>\n

Ah, America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the long drive from Chadron, NE, to Sterling, CO, I went straight through Alliance, NE.\u00a0 Now, I\u2019ve been to Alliance before\u2026 but unlike a few other spots along the way of this Center of the Nation tour, I was there previously on my own.\u00a0 So I didn\u2019t mean doing a revisit Hanna Solo. Alliance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}