Jan 30 2008
Cold Fury and the Cross
Road, field, and sky through windshield at 4 p.m. CT Tuesday.
Note: That IS NOT a hillside back there behind the tree line. That’s black sky.
(click any image to enlarge)
It didn’t seem to matter that the western hemisphere’s tallest cross sits just a few miles from here.
Frozen hell blew into town late Tuesday afternoon and quickly caught the area in its icy grip. Winds gusted to 50 mph and weather forecasters issued tornado watches. Between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., the temperature dropped from 51 degrees to 28 degrees Fahrenheit. When a customer and I climbed into his truck to head back to another location, he whipped out a telescoping ice scraper that would have made Tim Allen proud. Against the wind, his truck never relaxed enough to settle into overdrive.
By 6:15, the mercury dipped to 18 while thunder clapped and sleet bounced off the truck. The wind still blew.
In short, it sucked.
My co-worker and I retreated to a booth at a local family eatery, where we stuffed ourselves silly from salad to steak. The French Silk pie was, in a word, inadvisable. But it was delicious.
What did I do the next night when it was 18 degrees out? Grabbed the car keys from my co-worker and headed out the door to find the area’s only landmark. It’s amazing how getting behind the camera can block my perception of reality. My fingers and ears, unprotected during my shivery photo shoot, still burn a little as I type this.
I captured this idolater’s behemoth to the best of my traveling camera’s limited wide-angle ability. It’s 198ft tall — almost 20 stories high — and the flat surrounding landscape allows clear views from several places around town. So, please forgive any dead space I had to include to accommodate the whole of its unholiness.
I held the camera for a vertical shot that incorporated a reflection off the car’s roof, and then set it on a brochure dispenser for a self-timer shot including me for scale. I’m about half way between the cross and the camera, and I’m 5′11″, so judge the size as you will.
I imagine if Jesus lived in today’s world, he would turn to the trucker behind the wheel (yes, Jesus totally would be a hitchhiker) and say, “Whoa. Look at the size of that cross. Somebody’s going to Heaven!”
Now, if only someone would photochop Christ of the Ozarks on this thing, we’d have something funny on our hands.
Wow… that IS a huge cross!
We have one town over from us that’s on a hill overlooking the town.. that’s starting to need rebuilding. Don’t know if it’s that tall though..
Have fun on your trip, come home safe bud.
That is pretty large!
And Jesus would totally have been a hitchiker! That is so funny. I wonder what He would think of a thing like that cross. Something to think about.
Stay warm!
What we do in His name never ceases to amaze and horrify me. What this world needs is more iconoclasts!
Sounds like the weather really sucked for you guys (assuaged as it was by the French silk pie). It’s always the wind that makes it worse, eh? A fella can deal with just about any sort of inclement weather, but as soon as the wind kicks up to any significant degree it just makes it about a hundred times more miserable. Maybe only fifty, but still…
Looking at that second pictures again - Damn! that is one big-ass cross!
These fine folks are clearly of the small sect of Christians that believe that Christ was a giant…a direct patrilineal ancestor to Paul Bunyan. “Glory in the highest” being, in this case, a descriptor of his massive height.
That same storm crossed us here as well. The temp drop was astounding. My poor brother went to work in short-sleeves and no coat since it was 63 degrees. Drove home fighting sleet and 21 degrees. I almost felt sorry for him. You, on the other hand, I feel a bit more sorry for (Texan that you are, you’re just no longer equiped to deal with the cold.)
All - Yep, it’s a biggie. I wish I would have made it all the way over to the structure. I didn’t even know I was going to be a Silhouette against the cross. And I hope everybody caught the satiric tone of my little Jesus scene. I certainly don’t think that He or His pop would give a rat’s arse about such a thing.
I am laughing by butt off at the comment by Simon and Moksha! Hilarious! I couldn’t have said it better myself Simon!
MD…Cool pictures. That storm shot looks menacing.
I was heading West on I-40 during that windstorm. 73 in Russellville, then a few hours later, 26 and snowing in Rogers. The amazing part was that a few times my Yukon XL (BFV) actually dropped a few gears to keep up to speed with the setting on the Cruise Control!! That was weird. I bet my fuel mileage was really nice on that trip.
I think it’s cool that you make those little side adventures when you travel. I’m more apt to stay in my hotel room and work on the computer while half-rearedly watching TV. Then I leave for home with no sustainable memory, and you continue to amass these little nuggets that will stay with you for a lifetime.
“I saw the tallest cross in the US.”
“I saw Joss Stone and Leane Rhimes (sp?) sing together on Crossroads.”
OK….so in truth, it was pretty cool to see those two together, and I’ll remember that, so I guess that makes that a bad example. On an average night though…nothing.
I’m not a tattoo fan, but that cool little ivy/flower tattoo that Joss has on her ankle and foot is the best tattoo I’ve ever seen.
There seems to be an epidemic of giant crosses. I recall seeing one somewhere in West Texas; one in St. Augustine, FL also claims to be the highest in the Western Hemisphere; and there is a 200′ cross planned in Rogers, AR, a place we know and love (to be from). All of them make me think involuntarily about Gerald L. K. Smith and the anti-semitism that prompted the Christ of the Ozarks which you mentioned.
Mankind started building ziggurats as dwelling places for the gods centuries ago. The Rogers, AR cross is planned to house a “communications facility” (cell tower?). Same thing, I guess.
I just looked up Gerald L.K. Smith because I’d never heard of him, even though I’ve been to the Christ of the Ozarks. It’s more likely his name just didn’t stick with me.
Anyway, saw this in the Wikipedia article about him, fwiw:
(In reference to Christ of the Ozarks)
“The sculptor, Emmet Sullivan, had worked under Gutzon Borglum as one of the sculptors of Mount Rushmore.”
He was anti-semitic?
Don’t these people ever realize that Jesus was “King of the JEWS”???
Alvis…Two weeks ago I overheard someone in an airline terminal saying “Anti-Semantic” over and over regarding someone a mutual friend was apparently dating. I sat there trying not to laugh, but thinking to myself about wanting to say…
“I’m not sure what not wanting to be concerned with the particulars of anything, or what’s going on behind the scenes makes you a bad person.”
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Charles, I love that you refer to your Yukon as a BVF. I knew in an instant what you meant.
And Pops wins for the best closing sentence to a blog comment ever. Succinct is best.
To say that the storms sky shot is intimidating is an understatement!