odd

The Great American Oddities…

~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 11 Comments

One day, I am going to buy a big piece of land running along the road. Any road will do.

Why you ask?

So I can put up some big silly statues that make no sense along it to keep drivers entertained.

Check these out.

This one isn’t too odd. I have seen variations of the giant man statue. The amusement park that I grew up near had one so I’m fond of them.  They were mostly made in the 1960’s. The first ones held mufflers, then they starting popping up holding all sorts of implements. This one is in excellent shape and holds a mining pick and has a Harley belt buckle in honor of the Sturgis Rally.. Nice.

This miner was on the porch of the Big Thunder Mine in Keystone.I’m not sure if that’s a support or if he’s supposed to have trodden in gum. He’s a pretty gruff looking guy so I didn’t ask. If he needs help that doll with the supercilious grin looks ready to jump in.

These bulls are outside of one of the billion or so gold/jewelery stores in Rapid City. It’s not every day that you get to see flowery bison penned outside a jewelry store. It’s a good thing there is a pen because a stampede of flowery bison would for sure panic the masses.

And of course to go with the flowery bison, way out in the Badlands, at the ranch store (where you can see prairie dogs in a pen “Free!” as opposed to all over the fields) there is a six tonne prairie dog. A pink and yellow six tonne prairie dog at that.

I bet that thing could dig a heck of a hole.

Then there are these wooden statues also in Keystone. Wouldn’t you like to see that in your front yard while going to fetch your paper every morning?

Mini Mount Rushmore? These are sitting in a random field. Not sure what that’s all about but thanks.

This here is the yard of the King of Silly Statues. There’s a 25 tonne bull’s head being guarded by alien skeletons while red robed freaky beings overshadowed by a gigantic hammer look on. There’s also a large flower-pot with metal flowers, some dinosaurs and odd bugs, a few dancing robots and I believe that is a two-headed bison.

I want this yard.

But this is my favorite…absolute genius.

It’s nice to know in a day and age when so many people walk down the street (or drive) with their eyes glued to small screens that are still people in this world who have the balls to be a little different, to be a little silly, to be creative and amusing and entertaining and eccentric and charming.

It makes me happy.

The billboards…the drive continued..

~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 8 Comments

I love billboards.  Fortunately South Dakota has many of them.

And I say fortunately because the majority of South Dakota is prairie grasslands. Sure it’s lovely for the first couple of hundred miles but after awhile the Eastern part of me starts to wondering. Where are the trees? I like trees. They’re pretty, they provide shade and if an uncivil UFO bent on world domination came down or Godzilla woke up and wanted to graze in the grasslands or even worse an  uncivil UFO bent on world domination carrying a grass grazing Godzilla came down, then you can hide behind a tree.

Unless you’re in the prairies.

Then you are out of luck.

Sure there’s a few trees here and there and you could technically hide behind one but it would be a bit obvious. Because all your neighbors would be hiding behind the tree too.

The head alien would say to his lieutenant “Where are all the people?”

And the lieutenant would reply “Behind that tree, sir.”

And the head alien would ask “Is that a tree or a bush?”

And Godzilla would say “Grrrr.”

So I like billboards because they distract me from thinking about being eaten alive in the prairies.

(By the way I took all of these photos while in a 75 mph zone. So please excuse any fuzziness. I would have slowed down but the prairies kind of freak me out.)

So get comfy, pull up a chair, pour yourself a glass of Red Ass wine and I’ll share them with you.

Vet’s Whoa n’ Go! I love the colors, the silliness of the name and the little guy riding a runaway donkey. I don’t know why there’s a runaway donkey. But it’s cute.

The Reptile Gardens, had dozens of billboards. These are a few of my favorites.

Old styling font, great colors against a beautiful scene. What’s not to like.

I like the outright threatening message on this one..

Especially since the next one is this cutesy train. Talk about mixed messages.

The cows don’t seem to mind a train carrying various reptiles and a goose for some reason (I’m thinking it must have been bring your own lunch) being driven by a turtle running through their pasture. Odd. You would think cows would mind that sort of thing.

Not fond of reptiles? You could go to the Taxidermy Exhibit.

Yes, you too can see dead stuffed animals “in action”.

Speaking of dead animals. Are you wearing any fur?

Why not?!?!?!!!

Hungry yet? How about an appealing little hotdog named “Senor Wiener”..

C’mon you know you want him..

No? How about a walleye burger? or a buffalo burger? Anyone?

Or you could get a pop for 10 cents. Though truth be told after all that prairie I was more excited about seeing a river. I am an excellent swimmer. I could hide from UFO’s and/or Godzilla in a river.

Or we could just stop at the “Busted Nut” and have a beer…

Not too many though, that sign is fuzzy enough..

If we can’t drive we could always get a “toe”

Might need one since I refused to be bullied into buying gas..

Ahh, that’s better. Short and to the point.

Too bad the sign is pointing an at an dilapidated barn and there’s nothing else in sight. Including an exit.

We can always walk.

Oh nevermind…

We could stop for the night…

This hotel sounds good, especially if you’re a mass murderer and your victims scream a lot.

(Note to my single friends, do NOT date anyone who makes reservations at this place.)

Not tired? Well let’s shop then.

How about we go buy some rocks. No not the diamond kind, just regular old rocks..

in a ghost town. A ghost town with a rock shop. And a gas station. And a grocery store. And people…

And yes I did buy a rock! For a $1.75.

Because I always enjoy a good con. Well done people, well done.

Now here’s another con I enjoyed thoroughly.

Especially since it was free.

Yes! You too can see prairie dogs for free!! Free!  On the prairies. At this store.

Oh look! Here it is!

“Urd”

No? Oh that’s right,we’re going to Deadwood.

Wow, that’s a little harsh.

Alright I’m done for the time being.

Don’t worry I have Wall Drug signs too.  But that is a whole different post.

And I mean different.

The drive out…

~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 2 Comments

It was a dark and stormy morning…..

Well it wasn’t that dark, since we didn’t leave until 9:30 as we hadn’t any water. Our well was being cleaned..we had forgot all about the maintenance schedule…

*sigh*

So we took our dirty selves to the store and bought bottled water to have quickie baths in and then smelling pretty we left…

As we drove over the Mississippi River into Iowa, the wild sunflowers were glowing in the sun. At this time of year the wild grasses have a silvery feathery top on them. It is so lovely. We decided to drive north through Iowa to Minnesota then over west to South Dakota.

We drove past the world’s largest truck stop. As you can see the sky was starting to darken. We hit hard rain several times, hard enough to have to pull over. We saw several cars in ditches but thankfully everyone was fine.

The skies cleared as we reached South Dakota.  We realized fairly quickly that people in South Dakota really like signs. I mean they really like signs.

We started to see a few signs here and there. But then we saw one we couldn’t ignore..

Hmmmm. A Corn Palace? The world’s only Corn Palace?

We tried to resist but then we saw this one…

A Corn Palace and a ban pun and Free!…I like corn, I like bad puns..and free is always good…we needed to stop for the night but Dummy would not let us forget that we were so near the home of the Corn Palace…

At the hotel he nagged and nagged and hogged the remote until we agreed to go over to the Corn Palace the next morning…

The little so and so….

The next morning dawned bright and crisp and clear. A perfect September day. A day made for seeing corn palaces…

And there was a corn palace..and it was free.

These people like corn. A lot.

Even the street posts..well you can see for yourself. They like corn.

And then we saw the Corn Palace in all it’s glory. I had envisioned a sort of Lincoln Log type of model built with corn but oh no this was much bigger. In fact these people took a perfectly good building (albeit one with Russianesque onion domes and medieval turrets painted in glaring greens and yellows) and glued 300000 pieces of corn and various grasses all over it. It is pretty impressive. I can’t even get two sheets of paper to stay glued together. If I was the one who glued all that stuff on, people would be getting boinked in the head from falling cobs..so kudos to them.

Apparently they’ve been doing this every year for a good long time. Every year has a theme. This year’s theme was American Pride and Transportation. Cause you know we are just not a patriotic enough country..and lord knows none of us drive enough.

A closeup of the corn.

 Why did they do it?  And how do they stop the lights from setting the dry grass on fire?

I don’t know.

Sometimes it’s best not to ask.

We made a quick stop at Cabela’s to look at dead animals and an iron sculpture..

Smile..

Dummy lost his manners and ignored the signs telling people not to climb on the sculpture.

So he had to go in the glove box for a while.

And we continued on..