Carhenge?

Americans are weird.

That's what I take away from my virtual Route 66 challenge, judging by the attractions I've passed so far on my journey. And, mind you, these are only the attractions that I've found when I've input my distances into The Conqueror app and seen my surrounding environment.

It doesn't include attractions that I pass, unbeknownst to me, while I'm actually moving. I don't see anything between points A and B—where I start at the beginning of the day and where I end up, when all of my exercise is done.

So far, I've seen a giant space alien, an Abe Lincoln in a wagon, a leaning water tower, and several Route 66 museums. I suppose these are far better than the countless stops, where there's nothing around me but highways and flat lands, or the many strip malls, or even the occasional prisons.

Actually, there are plenty of prisons. In all of the virtual challenges I've done so far, I've never seen any prison until I've crossed the United States. I've even passed a one-room jail, which was no bigger than a garden shed, in Oklahoma, near the Texas border.

Also, in Texas, I came across something called the VW Slug Bug Ranch, and I used Google Maps street view to get a closer look. It was no more than a field with a bunch of stripped-down VW Beetles, standing on end, with their front ends buried in the dirt. They were spray-painted with graffiti, and a neighbouring, former garage, looked like it had been trashed.

This was the so-called attraction.

Time to move on.

Just west of Amarillo, Texas (lots of weird things in Texas), I stopped near an attraction called Cadillac Ranch. Having not learned my lesson from the VW ranch, I thought this might be a farm with stables and a coral with plenty of horses. I thought it might be a place where travellers could stop, take in a theme ranch, and perhaps stay for the evening.

Nope.

Like the VW Slug Bug Ranch, this was a barren area of flat, treeless land, with Cadillac automobiles partly buried in the earth, standing on end like pillared rocks at Stonehenge. Without the circles and orientation to the sun.

I would say that these attractions are cheap American versions of the millennia-old one in England's Salisbury area, but I passed a cheap Stonehenge-like attraction in Rolla, Missouri.

Like I said, Americans are weird.

My virtual journey continues.