Roadside oddities, clockwise from top, Oradell lawn chairs, a rooftop Packard in Boonton, Paramus lawn cows and a pole bunny in Kinnelon.
Posted on 07/25/2010 3:54:40 PM PDT by Coleus
If you drive Route 3 in East Rutherford, you can't miss the giant orange and blue protrusion that pokes up at the sky like a psychedelic ski slope to nowhere. "What IS that?" you ask. The same question arises in Oradell where green and white lawn chairs are rearranged almost daily in some sort of ritual on a big Kinderkamack Road lawn. Thirty miles west, Route 46 motorists pass under a white erector set that occupies nearly as much space as a highway overpass. On Route 287, somebody parked a yellow Packard atop a Boonton factory. Roadside oddities like these can't compete with the Grand Canyon, but they pose thorny questions for road warriors trying to navigate North Jersey thoroughfares: Why are black-and-white cows lounging on a lawn along busy Spring Valley Road in Paramus? Why do bunnies sit atop utility poles on Route 23 in Kinnelon and West Milford? Is that a fortress on the Parsippany mountain overlooking Route 10?
Here are some sights you can search for with your kids:
Xanadu ski slope. Yes, the 800-foot-long protrusion really is a ski slope – and it goes nowhere. Snow Park is part of the stalled, 2-million-square-foot Xanadu entertainment-retail project near the Meadowlands stadium. Like the ski slope to nowhere, Xanadu's outlandish promise exceeded its garish reach — $2 billion and counting. One politician summed it up this way: "Something my 4-year-old granddaughter might build with Legos."
Mystery lawn chairs. Drivers along Kinderkamack Road in Oradell seem mesmerized by the lawn-chair "show" unfolding on the sprawling lawn near the Blauvelt Wildlife Art Museum. "Sometimes they're in a circle, sometimes in a line, sometimes in random groupings," noted Paramus reader Betty Ralph. "What's it mean?" Some think the owner, architect Jeffrey Wells, is channeling the movie "Signs," in which extraterrestrials seem to create strange crop circles. "No, it's just Jeff's way of having fun," chuckled his father, Ray. The Wells family lives in an adjacent mansion that could use more laughs. The building is in foreclosure and attempts to convert it for public use are continuing.
Denville's white monster. A $4.3 million pedestrian bridge now allows walkers to proceed diagonally for 170 feet over Route 46 from a Burger King to a strip of lawn on Savage Road near a park. To reach this span, you must climb up and down two sets of stairs. If you use a bike or wheelchair, the distance is much greater because you must power yourself up and down long, zigzag ramps at each end. Some think the state Department of Transportation should have stretched this erector set an additional 80 feet over Savage Road so it reaches the park. Others call it an eyesore that resembles a fallen crane instead of the Denville symbol it now is. They should stop grumbling.
Even the erector set symbolizing Paris wasn't a hit when it was built in 1889.
Paramus livestock. Actually, the cows on Carol Coache's lawn are life-size replicas that cost $1,400 — just three examples of the self-proclaimed Cow Lady's obsession. Tens of thousands of cow-inspired collectibles adorn her home's interior. "I just like to make people smile," she said. At least two passers-by pose for pictures there each day, a practice she encourages. So, bring a camera and a smile to 310 Spring Valley Road.
Boonton Packard. A rooftop might seem like a bad parking spot, but Fred Kanter insists the resting place for his 1937 Packard was a bargain. Kanter owns the factory at 76 Monroe St. where antique car parts are made. A crane operator once wanted a full day's pay to yank down a smokestack, a job that normally takes only an hour. "So we used up the time by hoisting the car up there," he said.
Fort Parsippany. Drivers new to Route 10 do double takes when they glimpse the 36-acre Powder Mill Heights condominiums embedded atop Watnong Mountain. When they were built in 1994, some locals mistook them for a fortress. A neighborhood newsletter called them a monstrosity. Today, though, the "fortress" at 2000 Gates Court is an established luxury housing landmark with a spectacular view.
Bunny pole mystery. You have to look quickly to see the plastic bunnies atop utility poles on Route 23 south just before the entrance to Kinnelon's Smoke Rise Estates. No one is sure how they got there, although police investigated in 1997. Similar adornments, such as a bowling pin, a mailbox and a cat, sit atop poles in West Milford. "A Tweety Bird, too," said Maywood's Kevin Kaminsky. "Very funny." Others disagree, but police don't consider them a priority. If you see strange-looking bunnies, cows or ski slopes, e-mail The Road Warrior, but first check with your eye doctor or shrink. Click here for more news from: East Rutherford, Oradell, Paramus, Boonton, Denville, Kinnelon, West Milford (including Hewitt and Newfoundland),
Everything in NJ is strange...I was concieved and born there.
Rut roh!
I love the rooftop Packard.
The walkway reminds me of a snake bridge in Tucson.
Ah, 2000 Gates Court. Fun personal fact: I worked for PSEG a few years back installing automated readers on gas meters, and I did the retrofits for this particular apartment complex. The surrounding neighborhood is pretty nice too.
Aren’t those guys from the village people?
“A $4.3 million pedestrian bridge now allows walkers to proceed diagonally for 170 feet over Route 46 from a Burger King to a strip of lawn on Savage Road near a park.”
$4.3 million?
It’s your state! ping ;^)
We also have a chair sitting on the top of a widow’s walk (roof) on Rt 9 down in South Jersey. If you want to see more look at Weird NJ. http://www.weirdnj.com/
"What the Hell is that?"
cool...it’s small world out there..next time i’m in the area i’ll have to look for that condo complex......parsippany is a nice town...I remember when joseph doria wanted to force 10,000 affordable housing units in town to gerrymander it into a democrat town.. I’m glad christie is finally doing something about the coah.
They all sound like things our goobermint would fund with stimulus money.
“Stimulus dollars fund puppet theatre”
http://www.kval.com/home/video/82694262.html?t=a&video=pop
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You cannot pump your own gas.
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You may not slurp your soup.
In Cresskill-All cats must wear three bells to warn birds of their whereabouts.
In Newark It is illegal to sell ice cream after 6pm, unless the customer has a note from his doctor.
In Sea Isle City,There will be no boiling of bones on the property.
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