Interstates are efficient, but not quirky

Mark Hughes of the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News writes about the 50th anniversary of the interstate highway system.

Despite the success of the interstate, he says, travelers never will get much romanticism from it. Ken Smith, senior editor of RoadsideAmerica.com, explains why tourists are as attracted as ever to the quirky roadside attractions on our nation’s two-lane highways.

“It’s exotic. You work at your job 50 weeks a year, you want to get out and see something new, something different,” Smith said.

“You could go to Disney World, but where’s the sense of accomplishment? If you go out to Nebraska and track down the grave of King Neptune the Pig, that’s something you can brag about back home.”

As an example, Stewart’s Petrified Wood in the Route 66 town of Holbrook, Ariz., is cited. His shop has big, handmade dinosaurs in front, eating female mannequins. The business also includes an ostrich farm.

Stewart explained to the Roadside America folks that he intended to display animals from “close to the beginning of time” up to now, which explains dinosaurs to ostriches to humans.

To him.

And why are the dinos eating women?

“Well, they got to be doin’ something,” Stewart said.

It’s also observed that in an age of billboards being more tightly regulated or frowned upon, the Internet is now one of the main sources of promotion.

The whole article is well-researched and thought-out. Go read it.

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