Our recent road trip from Chicago to Portland, Ore., involved the usual preparations: map out the route, make motel reservations, rent the truck, pick up some essential goodies and stock the cooler. Daughter Jenny felt it was also important that our trip include a few minor side trips to visit some unique if not downright odd roadside attractions, if for no other reason than to break up the drive and provide conversational (and blog) fodder for the long, dull stretches of the interstate. So she did her research and came up with several candidates, from which we winnowed the choices down to just one or two a day. I wasn’t terribly interested in roaming too far off our westerly route and eating up too many of our daylight driving hours aimlessly meandering unmarked backroads. While certainly there are numerous historical sites, museums and natural wonders all across the country, Jenny sought the advice of RoadsideAmerica.com (“Your Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist Attractions”) to satisfy her desire to check out the more obscure and unsung attractions (and I’m using that term loosely) along our route. Even taking into account that we were traveling midweek before the summer travel season got underway, these places were quite deserted, and we were generally the only visitors in sight. Most were, as my dad likes to say, surrounded by miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. But I would not say I regretted any of our little detours; it was actually nice to get away from  the roar and rush of the interstate and sink into the landscape for a bit. Our first stop came on the first day of our trip as we ventured out of Chicago, across Illinois and into Iowa. We were looking for “The tree in the middle of the road.” Following the directions from the website and some cautionary words about rutted roads, we trekked several miles down gravel county section roads until we came upon our goal. An immense, 100-plus-year-old cottonwood tree rooted at the intersection of two roads loomed up before us. Its deep green leaves rustled and shimmered in a soft breeze against a beautiful deep-blue sky. We just stood and looked up into the web of branches, breathing in the scent of growing things and listening to the songs of meadowlarks and the peaceful calm of an early spring evening. After a hectic day of packing and then maneuvering an unfamiliar, bulky vehicle through traffic, those moments of stillness were a blessed balm to our spirits. Now that was a roadside (or, literally, in-the-road) attraction I could really appreciate. Our second day was a long, soggy slog through a very rainy Nebraska, and we limited our explorations to an authentic (and rather tired-looking) tourist trap (complete with a large metal contraption identified as such hanging from an exterior wall) in North Platte just off I-80. This was Ft. Cody, honoring “Buffalo Bill” Cody, who owned a ranch nearby, purchased from the earnings of his very popular Wild West Show. It is primarily a gift shop with a few historical displays and a corny stockade. You can view the stuffed remains of a two-headed calf and check out some authentic cowboy gear (saddle, chaps, guns and the like) and a few impressively heavy and warm buffalo coats. We enjoyed a few giggles over the more tacky aspects of the place — a nice, bright memory on a gloomy, wet day. The following day found us hundreds of miles away and thousands of feet higher in elevation, standing on a blustery Wyoming plateau at about 6,000 feet gazing up at a 60-foot-tall, pink granite pyramid. The pyramid was built by the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1880s to memorialize the Ames brothers, who figured large in the history of the company — until their shady dealings led to their downfall. A rail line once passed nearby, but now the monument sits alone a few miles south of the interstate and the “town” of Buford (population 1), surrounded by sagebrush, prairie dogs, antelope and fantastical stone outcroppings. Sparse, fluffy white clouds in a chilly blue sky had replaced the previous day’s gloom, and far to the south we could see the bright, snow-covered peaks of the Rockies. Once again we breathed in the quiet and sense of vast space, reluctantly strolling back to the truck as the many miles we had yet to travel pulled us back to the highway. If you should take a road trip this coming summer, give yourself the gift of a few unconventional stops along the way. You may find them to be the highlights of your journey! — Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader