Atlas Detoura

We Got No Roots

Our first family trip in 2018 was going to be different, somehow. We thrive on diversity. Sort of. I mean, it wasn't going to be drastically different. We weren't going to jet off to Europe. We haven't won the lottery since our last post. Besides, all of our travels seem follow a similar pattern, anyways. We plan to go somewhere. We go somewhere. We look at some stuff. We are amazed. We bicker. We fight. We see something that astonishes us. Inspires us. Then, the fighting leads to screaming. And then we have epic melt downs in front of important American landmarks. We are the Woodmans, after all (see blog title). No matter where we are or where we go, it's always us. So, that should be all the more reason for us to spice things up this time around. But, how? Our answer came to us when a well-traveled friend introduced us to the website Atlas Obscura. It's basically a guide to the curious and unique places around the world. Places one normally wouldn't know about. Off the beaten path. Quirky. Fun. Different. And with over 13,000 places listed globally, it seemed like a perfect place to start.

Just two hours down the road from St. Louis, sits Casey, Illinois, a quintessential small town in rural middle America. Unassuming at first glance, it appears typical, complete with a charming downtown that hearkens of a time gone by. But there are some big differences in Casey. And by big, I mean world record big. Eight Guinness world records, to be accurate. Casey is the home to 8 of the world's largest things.  
Specifically, the world's largest:

• Mailbox
• Wooden Shoes
• Rocking Chair
• Wind Chime
• Pitchfork
• Knitting Needles
• Crochet Hook
• Golf Tee

In addition, they have other comically oversized items that aren’t quite records. There they sit, near the center of town, as if a giant came through one day and just dropped off some of his stuff. We explored. We climbed. We gawked. We even mailed ourselves a postcard from inside a mailbox that was bigger than our first house. A huge start to our trip.

Our next stop through the weird and wonderful U.S. took us to another small town. This time it was Springfield, Ohio, just west of Columbus. Here, during the Great Depression, a man named Ben Hartman crafted an elaborate art piece in his own backyard.

Using hundreds of thousands of stones, he lovingly and carefully built over fifty different structures. The end result, a unique and entertaining garden, was a labor of love for the unemployed Hartman. Following his death, his wife and then eventually an art preservation society, kept this garden open to the public. Now, 80 years later, it remains a glimpse in to one man's unique vision. The girls loved the tiny details and variety of his pieces. Castles. Cacti. The White House. Noah's Ark. All unique, and weird, and fun.
“I want to build one of those when we get home.” announced Norah.
I'm totally on board with that.

Following that stop, we left the small towns behind, and headed for a larger metropolitan area. In the heart of Columbus, Ohio sits a super cool topiary park. Using the famous painting 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte' as inspiration, a sculptor has shaped the topiary in this urban park to match the work by George Seurat. Dozens of bushes, artfully shaped into people, animals, and even boats dot the scenery here. It's a landscape of a painting of a landscape. All accurately and meticulously fashioned. The extra round curves of a woman. The crouching of a dog. A rowboat crew paddling across the lake. It was playful. Fun. We immersed ourselves into a living piece of art, did some cartwheels, sniffed some dog butts, and hit the road.

Smells like Fine Art

Following an overnight hotel stay, we got back it, and landed in our last stop: Wheeling, West Virginia. A quaint river town nestled in the mountains on the tip of West Virginia was the destination for our next find. But, we were no longer content with just viewing the unique things our country has to offer. Now, we were looking to put some in our bellies.

The lower Ohio Valley is known for its local style of pizza that is different than just about anywhere else. A hot crispy and flaky crust. Baked on delicious red sauce. And then served with mounds of cold provolone on top. That's right. Cold cheese. Mounds of it. This style was developed at DiCarlo's Original Pizza shortly after WWII and the locals swear by it. We were intrigued. And by intrigued, I mean hesitant. 

“What if it's gross?” the kids pleaded.

“Well, then I guess we'll all have a gross lunch” I assured them. 

We arrived right as they opened, and 15 minutes later the place was full. Clearly the pizza is a hit. Our large pie arrived, and we dug in. It was... amazing. Everyone concurred. One of the best and most unique pizza experiences we've ever had. A great final stop on our detour through the weird.

Next up, our final destination.

Washington D.C.

Graffiti Loving Apartment Dwellers

Signs of the Native American culture are abundant throughout the southwestern United States. Everywhere we went, there was evidence of their rich and storied history. Roadside stands selling jewelry. Their influence in the local artwork. Casinos. Their impact could be felt all over the region. While in Arizona, we took several different day trips to check out some of the ancient ruins left by the Native Americans.


The different tribes of the region are collectively called the Ancient Pueblo Indians. A pueblo, as we learned is essentially an ancient apartment building. Made in the adobe mud-style, or with rocks and stones, these large buildings housed many families. Sometimes built into cliffs, and other times up high in the mountains, groups of these structures formed small cities. At one time, there were hundreds of these villages throughout the region.

Montezuma did not live here. Sinaguans did.

Our first stop was the inappropriately named Montezuma Castle. When discovered by Europeans, it reminded them of similar looking Aztec structures, so they named it after their ruler. It was not Aztec, and Montezuma was never even in Arizona. It also wasn't a castle, but a pueblo, built for the Sinaguan tribe to live in. But, as a park ranger told us, Montezuma Castle National Monument sounds a lot cooler than 'Ancient Native American Apartment Building National Monument.' She was right. The Sinaguan people lived peacefully there, along a major trading route, for hundreds of years. Then, for some unexplained reason, they up and vanished. What they left behind, was an awesome example of pueblo construction. Nestled up high in a cliff, they had to climb ladders to reach their homes. This not only protected the residents from invaders, but also protected the structures from Mother Nature. We learned that as recently as the 1950s , people were allowed to climb inside these ruins and explore all over. Once hearing this, that's all the girls wanted to do. I can't blame them. I did too.
















Next up, was the awesomely named Tuzigoot. (too-zee-goot....kinda rolls off the tongue doesn't it?) Located in the Verde Valley, north of Phoenix, this archaeological site was yet another example of pueblo construction. This excavated site was also once home to the Sinaguan people. Sitting high upon a plateau, these buildings once housed over a hundred people at its peak. Here, we were allowed to walk throughout the place, exploring and imagining what it was like to live there. Throughout the valley were once dozens of villages similar to Tuzigoot. This remains the only one to be excavated and open to the public. Tuzigoot!

In addition to leaving cool structures for generations to explore, the Native Americans of the southwest also left behind rock carvings, known as petroglyphs. Specifically in Arizona, the Hohokam tribes made lots and lots of these artifacts. Several different parks and hikes lead us right by some really cool examples of this ancient artwork.


There is still much that we don't know about petroglyphs. Mainly, historians don't really understand what their purpose was. They do know that petroglyphs, unlike hieroglyphics, do not represent certain words or letters. Were they emblematic of different clans? Were they directions to specific locations? Or, were they just graffiti? It remains a mystery. We know they looked cool, though. The girls sat and copied their favorite ones onto paper, and tried to come up with meanings for them. Some were obvious. A human shape. Water. Animals with antlers. Others though, were more abstract. Squiggly lines. Swirls. Scribbles. It was pretty cool to imagine a Native American carving them a thousand years ago, as the girls sat there, in the same exact spot they once did, copying them onto their art pads. Awesome stuff.

Saguaro National Park petroglyphs

Grassroots Art - Lucas, Kansas

American Fork Art

Just south of the geographical center of the United States, smack dab in the middle of Kansas, sits the quirky and eclectic town of Lucas. Dubbed the “Grassroots Art Capital of Kansas”, this small town of just 400 people is  packed with a crazy amount of what is known as outsider art.

Our first stop was the Grassroots Art Center, where we got a private tour from the center's director, and a thorough explanation of this art form. The mission of the center is to exhibit and preserve the self-taught, recycled, and visionary art environments found throughout Kansas. “No formally trained, fine artists here” we were told. Often driven by a vision, most of these artists work for years creating their pieces. Grassroots artists make a statement. No rules intimidate them. No one tells them how it should be done. They create in a particularly uninhibited way. Working primarily to please themselves, they have little concern that their works will find an audience or that others value what they have made. Thanks to the Art Center, though, their work has an audience, and we were glad to have found it.

One particular art form was described as 'yard environments'. Popular throughout, but not unique to Kansas, this style of artistry is displayed, usually in massive numbers, in one's yard. Again, anything goes here. Farm equipment turned into magical creatures. Roadkill bones crafted into unusual sculptures. Recycled items. Barbed wire sculptures. Some were more impressive than others, but all of them had a special and unique charm to them.




There were some artists' works that really stood out to us. Herman Divers spent his whole life working with his hands. Then, in is later years, he started making art out of soda can pull tabs. After a short explanation to our kids of what a pull tab is, they were impressed with his full sized automobile and motorcycle, both crafted from this outdated recycled material.




Another surprisingly cool art piece at first glance appeared to be nothing more than an assortment of junk. After an explanation from the director, we learned it was just that. Junk. But with a twist. It's creator had made this piece all from items he recovered from the bottom of one particular lake. When they dredged the West Park Lake in the 1970s, this man painstakingly recovered all sorts of items from the muck. He cleaned them off, arranged them, and voila.... art. This was just one art composition of the over 70 that he made. Each one of them assembled from treasures lost in the lake.


The girls were also fascinated with the work of Mri Pilar. Using only recycled item, she creates a huge variety of art pieces. Her most abundant works, were what she appropriately calls “Rebarb”. What originally started as Barbie dolls, she turns into something far different from the prim and proper iconic toy. Her work is so plentiful, it filled an entire separate house. This 'Garden of Isis' is a 7 room, foil-lined art gallery jammed with her savvy obsessions. The girls loved it.

I don't think this one's living in the Dream House with Ken.