Road Trip - Road Art - December 2016

It is the last week in December, and I have made one more road trip this year.  Although the weather was worse in many parts of the country, it was only rainy and foggy here.  The temperature varied from 38 degrees Fahrenheit (3.33 C.) to 51 degrees (10.56 C).  The air was warmer higher in the atmosphere, which is why we had rain instead of snow.  As we went up into the mountains, the temperature grew warmer the higher we went.  Usually, it is the other way around. 

This last trip of the year started like our first road trip this year.  We drove in rain and fog.  Fortunately, the rain was fairly light.  I guess some people held off from traveling until the rain cleared.  The traffic up to the mountains was not heavy, although the ride home had a lot of traffic most of the way.  Anyway, the trip afforded some great views of clouds and fog in the mountains.  The fog settles in the low places.  It is fascinating and eerie to watch as a cloud comes over the mountains and travels downwards.

I managed to snap a photo of a tourist attraction along the way.  It is situated on the road in such a way that I had a hard time trying to snap a good picture.  I asked my husband to pull in so I could get out and take some photos but he did not want to do that because there were some people in the parking lot.  Maybe one day I will be able to get some good shots of it.  The attraction is very strange.  I guess the best way to explain it is that some people have beliefs that are not in line with scientific explanations.

One such scenario is located on the roof of the entrance.  The dinosaur head is from a T-Rex and is made from fiberglass.  (I am not sure if the underlying support system is metal or stryofoam.  The dinosaur head tends to travel around.  A few years ago it sat on top of the marquis for the drive-in movie.   The human figure appears to be wearing something of a military uniform from World War II and is fighting the dinosaur with a sword.

The man that made the dinosaurs also made an attraction called Foamhenge.  It was a life size replica of Stonehenge.  The stones were in their astronomically correct position.  Foamhenge is more or less authentic to the original with one exception:  one of the blue stone slabs had a life size Merlin figure on it looking like he was surfing.  A nearby plaque stated that one theory was that Merlin levitated the blue stones into place by magic.  I guess you have to have a sense of humor about these things.  Unfortunately, the day I visited Foamhenge I did not have a camera with me.  The next time I went by the gates were locked.  Now that attraction is being moved to a new location.  It is supposed to open in Fairfax County, Virginia in 2017. 

The guy that made the attractions also made a piece of road art of Raquel Welch riding on a dinosaur.  I posted a photo of that a few years ago in one of my road art blog posts.  Somewhere along the line the female figure came off the dinosaur.  I do not know it it was ripped off during a windstorm or damaged by vandalism.  The dinosaur remains in the same spot but it is now alone.  It is hard to guess what happened.  One time the man's studio was set on fire by people that did not care for some of his ideas. 

The year draws to a close.  I will have one more post before the New Years day.  Check back on Thursday for that post.