Seniors Enjoy The Unusual

Goodmorning senior friends.  I have my coffee, do you have your’s?  I found some neat weird sites in the world that draw our attention as senior travelers and a few are right in our own backyard.  A recent copy of Oprah (July 2014) listed five that I want to share with our readers.

We start off with the  Paper House located in Rockport, Massachusetts. Newspapers across the country are losing money. New home construction has yet to recover from the bursting of the housing bubble. Here’s a solution to both problems: Make houses out of newspapers.

It may seem ludicrous, but the idea has a precedent: In 1922, engineer Ellis F. Stenman began to construct a summer home using newspapers as insulation.

Curiosity got the better of him, however, and he began to make the entire house out of paper, holding it together with glue and protecting it from the elements with heavy layers of varnish. Pretty good weather insulation, and cheap I would guess.

 Seniors Who Enjoy Whimsy…

Next, we go to Cottonwood, Idaho and Dog Bark Park. Monica from Yokohama, Japan writes…“I recommend this place not only to dog lovers but to anyone who appreciates whimsy, nature and excellent service.

Sweet Willy is the name of the beagle we stayed in. He was very accommodating and comfortable with a spacious bathroom and lots of doggie themed games and books. The level of craftsmanship was astounding.”

The Leaning Tower of Niles in Niles, Illinois is, naturally, a replica of Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is roughly half-sized, 94 feet vs. the authentic’s 177 feet, and leans about 7’4″ off plum vs. Pisa’s 13 foot tilt.

But that hardly matters when you’re standing across the street taking a picture. America’s Leaning Tower was built in 1934, 600 years after the original, by businessman Bob Ilg, who anchored it in concrete so that its lean would stay consistent.

Peanuts And Foam…

The Jimmy Carter Peanut Statue in Plains, Georgia even looks a little like the ex-president, don’t you think? We’ve been to Plains.

Really isn’t much there to see except a warehouse, some historic storefronts and a locked front gate down  a long, long lane where the Carter’s live.

You can almost see their house from the road. We visited the schoolhouse where Jimmy attended school in his youth.

Lastly is Foamhenge. Yes, Foamhenge. Seniors can well imagine what this is all about. Foamhenge is a full-size replica of Stonehenge made entirely out of styrofoam in Natural Bridge, Virginia.

The structure was created by Mark Cline of Enchanted Castle Studio in 2004, with the pieces in astronomically correct positions. That’s pretty important you know.

Perhaps you have a few that you can add to the list like Cadillac Ranch near Lubbock Texas or the Upside Down House over in Germany. Well, that’s enough weird stuff for today.  Hope you enjoyed the blog and have a great day!  jeb