Welcome back, my fellow creatives!

Last week we explored a little writing inspiration with Nina Simone, but this week we will enter the Wisconsin summer, a world of mosquitos and prairie grasses weighted down with heavy, damp air.

For years, Bo and I talked about taking the little B’s to see the Mississippi River. We used the July 4th holiday as a chance to venture westward and ride a riverboat (a pizza cruise, at that) up and down the expansive riverbank.

They were [mostly] interested.

I mean, the boat won over Biff and Bash, watching the paddle and the GIANT rail bridge swing up for us. Blondie was in super-silent-teen mode and tolerated us all.

But that’s not why you’re here. We’re here to talk about after that.

Wisconsin’s home to quite a few quirky roadside attractions. We’ve got wonders like The National Mustard Museum. The World’s Largest Six Pack of Beer. The House on the Rock. The Rock in the House. The Mars Cheese Castle. The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame. The Truck in the Tree.

Yes, those are all real things.

And we didn’t even hit those, because we went weirder!

A favorite read this summer has been Weird Wisconsin, a book that chronicles local tales of werewolves, ghosts, and outright oddities of the state. When I discovered a particular oddity would be near our stop on the Mississippi, I persuaded Bo to leave the highway behind and travel down a couple of broken side roads into the bug-addled woods so we could see….

~A MOLD GRAVEYARD~

If not for the bugs, we could have spent an age here. FAST makes molds for all sorts of fiberglass statues, be they giant cows, Santa Clauses, devil heads, dinosaurs, whale slides, and more. Atlas Obscura has an awesome photo gallery, but I managed to snag a few photos, too.

It felt like walking through relics of discarded idols–and I suppose, in a way, they were. In years past, such stations would have drawn countless folks to amusement parks, pools, gas stations, diners, drive-ins, and more. Now, they are memories lost to the long grasses.

~THE FOREVERTRON~

Technically, it’s a sculpture garden, a place where one man, Tom Every, wanted to have fun with scraps and junk. He’d gather old machines from power plants, lightning rods, Thomas Edison dynamos, and more to build on and on to this unique structure. While building the Forevertron, he also constructed various creatures and statues, transforming this little clearing in the North Woods into an alien landscape. Bash was especially enamored, being our crafter with scraps of cardboard, duct tape, and origami paper.

Please visit the website for a more detailed photo gallery!

Peculiar thing, imagination. It attracts our eyes to that which so many others discard–a necklace, for instance, or sticks, or perhaps a pebble or two. One man saw the wonder among the scraps, and was determined to share them with the other.

And for that, Sir, I thank you. You give us a powerful reminder that inspiration can truly be found in the most unlikely places.

Has a unique oddity ever caught your eye? I’d love to hear about it!

Let’s see…I think a bit of encouragement is in store next week. A time to realize that, like the scraps forged into the Forevertron, we all have hidden potential within us.

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!