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fresh in mind by the time drivers on

I-65 reach Chilton County, center of

the Alabama peach-growing region,

it’s hard not to see a connection be-

tween Birmingham’s famous land-

mark and Chilton County’s water

tower, which was built in the shape of

an authentically cleft peach.

Ten miles down the road, as if

to punish such thoughts, there’s a

billboard directing motorists to “GO

TO CHURCH or the Devil Will Get You!”

that graced the interstate near Pratt-

ville for many decades before a storm

knocked it down in 2016. In 2017,

heavy rains kept the surrounding soil

too wet for the necessary repairs. “The

devil is trying to knock it all down, but

we’re going to get it back up,” the son

of the Montgomery man who first

erected the billboard told a reporter.

Satan apparently lost the battle last

year: The sign is now back in place, the

original red-tailed devil intact. And the

monstrous red scythe the devil is hold-

ing could surely take even the Elkton

chicken’s carving knife in a fight.

Nearby Montgomery boasts the

World’s Largest Brick Made of Bricks.

We didn’t stop to see it, but we did

stop for five more giant chickens—

some metal, some concrete—that

were standing in front of various

small-town establishments off the

interstate.

These are some of the roadside

highlights along one stretch of one

highway, mind you. The peach-

shaped water tower in Chilton County

is half the size of the Peachoid in

Gaffney, South Carolina. The giant

chicken outside Elkton has noth-

ing on the World’s Largest Prairie

The abandoned Igloo City in Cantwell, Alaska; dinosaurs roaming in Cabazon, California;

the end of the United States in Key West, Florida; a basket of apples in Frazeysburg, Ohio

The Great American Road Trip is the

theme for this year’s Reader’s Digest

photo contest. If you’ve taken a funny or

amazingly beautiful shot along America’s

byways, send it to us at rd.com/

photocontest. It just might be featured in

the magazine—and win you a cash prize.

photo contest

rd.com 103

Travel

from left: chris burton/solentnews/shutterstock. breanna peterson/offset. chris labasco/shutterstock. courtesy library of congress