on our first day of the roadtrip adventure, we stopped at two of virginia’s WEIRDEST attractions - foamhenge and dinosaur kingdom. both spots were located in natural bridge, va.  not surprisingly, they were the creations of the same demented genius. foamhenge is a life-size replica of the original stonehenge, but as the name suggests, made out of foam material.  it sits on a hill and is free to visit.  there’s also a life-size merlin who appears to be casting a spell over the whole place.  it’s completely strange, but a must-see if driving through western virginia. the second stop was dinosaur kingdom.  this was definitely a bit WEIRDER.  dinosaur kingdom imagines an alternate-reality universe in which the union soldiers discover a hidden valley filled with dinosaurs and try to train them to beat the confederacy.  it ends, of course, in utter failure, and a lot of the union soldiers become dino-dinner.  with my love of the civil war, you could imagine this was a must-see spot.  SO WEIRD. with our admission to dinosaur kingdom, we also got to check out the haunted house, which was completely kitschy and scary and operated by one 17-year-old kid who quickly ran through secret passages within the house to push buttons and pull levers to make terrifying things jump out at us.  if i wasn’t busy defending lauren and the 5 other women on our tour group, i would have spent more time admiring the house - which was built by a civil war veteran before it became the haunted house it was today. after seeing virginia’s most kitschy roadside attractions, we carried on and continued our drive.  the drive was perfect.  sporadic thunderstorms passed by us throughout the day, making for some stunning visuals as we drove south.  we arrived at our cabin just in time for dusk, taking in the beautiful sunset as we settled in to our new home for the next week.

on our first day of the roadtrip adventure, we stopped at two of virginia’s WEIRDEST attractions - foamhenge and dinosaur kingdom.

both spots were located in natural bridge, va.  not surprisingly, they were the creations of the same demented genius.

foamhenge is a life-size replica of the original stonehenge, but as the name suggests, made out of foam material.  it sits on a hill and is free to visit.  there’s also a life-size merlin who appears to be casting a spell over the whole place.  it’s completely strange, but a must-see if driving through western virginia.

the second stop was dinosaur kingdom.  this was definitely a bit WEIRDER.  dinosaur kingdom imagines an alternate-reality universe in which the union soldiers discover a hidden valley filled with dinosaurs and try to train them to beat the confederacy.  it ends, of course, in utter failure, and a lot of the union soldiers become dino-dinner.  with my love of the civil war, you could imagine this was a must-see spot.  SO WEIRD.

with our admission to dinosaur kingdom, we also got to check out the haunted house, which was completely kitschy and scary and operated by one 17-year-old kid who quickly ran through secret passages within the house to push buttons and pull levers to make terrifying things jump out at us.  if i wasn’t busy defending lauren and the 5 other women on our tour group, i would have spent more time admiring the house - which was built by a civil war veteran before it became the haunted house it was today.

after seeing virginia’s most kitschy roadside attractions, we carried on and continued our drive.  the drive was perfect.  sporadic thunderstorms passed by us throughout the day, making for some stunning visuals as we drove south.  we arrived at our cabin just in time for dusk, taking in the beautiful sunset as we settled in to our new home for the next week.