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Today’s journey included a visit to Rosenblatt, listening to Springsteen, and Carhenge. Without traveling to England I saw a life sized Stonehenge made of cars. Seriously, a life sized Stonehenge and it was made completely from cars! As #SpinalTap as that may sound, it’s all true. Go to my #Instagram page (click here) to see it in all of it’s glory. You can also check out the Wikipedia page on the interwebs here.

Rosenblatt

Let’s take a step or two back before I sound like a raving lunatic! We began Day 2 of the #BowTieRoadTrip on the west side of Omaha. Some quick web searches rendered the information that I needed. Rosenblatt Stadium was indeed gone, but I did find that there was a tribute to the former home of Titan glory. They left the foul poles in place and built a small wiffleball park where the infield once lay. The tribute was made complete with the inclusion of original seats and bleachers, plus a couple of plaques. The crowning touch was the old arched Rosenblatt sign. It has been moved and now sits atop the wall of the small field. For baseball enthusiasts, especially college baseball enthusiasts, this is a must see.

Springsteen

Our next stop was in Lincoln. Being a fan of Bruce Springsteen, my mind began playing the Nebraska album long before we even crossed the state line. The second verse of the first song (also called Nebraska) begins “From the town of Lincoln Nebraska…” (find the rest of the lyrics here) I’m just goofy enough that I play the songs that places demand, from El Paso when I enter El Paso, to Leaving Las Vegas when I drive out of Vegas, I always play songs and music that seem relevant to the trip.

When we got to Lincoln I originally planned on simply grabbing some Starbucks and moving on. As it turned out, the Starbucks we chose was just 3 short miles from the campus of the University of Nebraska. You have already seen over the first two days of the Road Trip that I am a stadium geek. I decided that I just had to go see Memorial Stadium. The place is rife with history and tradition. If it’s good enough to make people just start husking corn, I needed to see it for myself! By the time we were leaving the city of Lincoln we were already over four hours into our day. The loose itinerary called for Lincoln to be done and dusted within the first 90 minutes. Long day coming again!

Carhenge

We saw quite a few other things on the trip including an absolutely stunning sunset, but this day was destined for glory a few months ago. We were at my oldest daughter’s house playing Jack Box on her AppleTV. One of the questions in Fibbage had to do with a replica of the famous Stonehenge monument, only this one was made from old automobiles. It is called Carhenge. This is a perfectly apt name, although I suggested Carmageddon. My grandsons thought that this was a fantastic thing, especially since their dad is a Nebraska native and Carhenge lies on the west side of the state. As with most of the things I read and hear on Jack Box, I filed this neatly away into my memory and proceeded to not think about it again. Enter Kristen…

She is fantastic at finding odd and bizarre things to do and see. She reminded me of this fabulous feat of engineering. I was sad to see that it is closed on Sunday. Even though that was the case, we opted to give it a shot. I was hoping that the fences would be close enough that we could at least see it from a distance. We raced the setting sun and arrived in the town of Alliance with about 30 minutes to spare. The gps lead me right to the location on the far side of town and to my delight we were able to park very close. Certainly close enough for some fun pictures. They wouldn’t necessarily give a perspective on size, but knowing how big a car tends to be, I knew they would be adequate.

Keep reading, it gets better. The online resources all told us that Carhenge was closed on Sundays. What they failed to reveal was that there is no gate to the facility and the fence is simply a chain between concrete posts. Oh Glory! We were going to be able to walk around among the hulking cars! It was everything that I wanted it to be. I have heard accounts from people about the real Stonehenge. It always seems to be smaller that people expect. Of course there’s always the Spinal Tap version that swaps feet for inches resulting in a miniature version on stage! Carhenge was magnificently odd and totally worth the extra driving it took to see it.

Well, that’s the gist of Day 2: Rosenblatt, Springsteen, and Carhenge! Be sure to check out the photos, videos, and other bits and bobs from the day over on Instagram. Also, share the site with everyone you know; it’s always more fun to write when someone is reading! Don’t forget to subscribe below so that you can get email notices of each post.