Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Parenting: Part 3 - dinosaurs & detours

     Interstate super highways do get you rapidly between points but you miss seeing America. I am an absolute sucker for roadside attractions of yore. For our drive through Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia we chose to take the old major highways and discovered two gems.

    (Use the 'slideshow' option after clicking "view larger" for best picture viewing.) 

     Long before Jurassic Park brought dinosaurs to life, "Dinosaurland" opened in 1966 near Winchester, VA. At $5 admission I found it a steal, and the block long gift shop was to die for. Relics of Americana (and the Confederacy) share the shelves with dinosaurs, aisles of colored glass, and even “still” supplies for home brewing. <grin> I believe the only thing I could not find was a plastic dashboard Jesus.

       Anyone remember the horror film the “Blair Witch Project”, with the spooky ads “that three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near  Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. … A year later their footage was found.” 

     Well, while driving we were surprised to find ourselves approaching an exit for Burkittsville, MD! We made the 4 mile detour to the town and the nearby park woods where the terrifying events occurred. We even checked out the town cemetery to see if an abnormal amount of graves were for children.

     Of course, it was only a movie but you notice we didn’t take any pictures. Why take chances? <grin> After all you wouldn’t want to wait a year for this journal entry to be discovered. <grin>

                             

5 comments:

  1. thanks for telling me to view the pictures via the slideshow; they were cute that way and almost told a story. I'm like you; I like to explore side roads and weird things; highway memorials; things like that. I used to say when we retired it would be fun to get an RV and take a trip on the backroads of towns to see all those hidden treasures.

    Yep, I remember the Blair Witch Project. I would have taken pictures, LOL, but then I take pictures of everything.

    great pictures; I enjoyed sharing your mini trip with you and Megan :)

    betty

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  2. Dinosaurland sounds like a great stop-over!!!  I love stuff like that...  And yes, I remember the 'Blair Witch Project'  I think I have it somewhere in my video collection... I prefer NOT to watch it!!  LOL
    Jackie

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  3. ...I read all of these entries backwards...but wow is still the the best for all the  awesome pictures and travel log..

    ...my daughter and I took a trip several years ago and she asked if we could stop at some of the side of the freeway tourist lures.....we did because her dad never would! We only had to stop at one and that was enough for her but we enjoyed the looking.


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  4. They're huge, not something I'd like to meet on a dark night.  We have a prehistoric park that I took my son to..........why is it parents love to place their kids in front of these mamoth sculptures to take a pic lolol...I have one too :)  Education and fun I think.  You've had some great days out, pity Patti misses a few, but good nevertheless.  Thank you for showing them. Rache

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  5. Clever that you ordered these entries in reverse to get them to follow each other... good planning, Patrick! Cool photos of you two having fun amongst the dinosaurs and King Kong... great  I wouldn't have thought to visit the Burkittsville place. But I do like going on trips and making unplanned surprise side tours along the way. Bea

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