Nebraska

Cool places to go. Great things to see. Many free.

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(Photo: Hooloomooloo, by Frank Stella at DCA Airport)

It’s Friday. Finally.

So we are digging into the inbox to share some of the messages we’ve saved about cool places we’d love to go and great things we’d love to see. As always, we give bonus points for anything cool and free.

Visit Vessel for free

The “Vessel” structure at Hudson Yards in New York City is a 16-story honeycomb-looking attraction that has 154 flights of stairs and 2,500 steps and plenty of landings where you can see catch great views of the city.

It costs $10 to visit on a specific day and time. And $15 if you choose a flexible day and time to arrive.

But if you’re a New York City resident, you can visit for free on Thursdays.

There are some hoops and strings, of course. Free ticket reservations are being released on the last Friday of every month at 9 AM for the following month. But a limited number of free, day-of tickets will also be available to reserve every Thursday.

(DaM-FunK, Bohemian Cristal Instrument, Photay – courtesy LAWA)

The 2025 LAX Presents music series at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is underway,

And if you’re traveling to or through LAX between now and June, check to see if you can catch one of the cool acts offered in various locations across the domestic and international terminals.

Nebraska? Why not?

When we’re not in airports, the Stuck at the Airport team is all about quirky places and unusual museums.

And Nebraska beckons with all that. And more.

In addition to odd attractions such as Carhenge (above), Nebraska has a great list of odd museums we’re hankering to visit, including the National Museum of Roller Skating in Lincoln, the Hastings Museum Kool-Aid Exhibit in the birthplace of the Kool-Aid and Lee’s Legendary Marbles & Collectibles in York.

Kitschy Carhenge up for sale

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Photo courtesy Alliance Chamber of Commerce

Carhenge, a classic and kitschy roadside attraction just outside of Alliance, Neb., is up for sale.

Price tag: $300,000.

Created 24 years ago by Jim Reinders during a family reunion, Carhenge is a sculpture made of 38 gray-spray-painted vintage American cars replicating Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England. Some of the cars stand upright, while others are welded in place to form arches.

“It’s astronomical what Carhenge means to our community,” said Dixie Nelson, executive director of the Alliance Chamber of Commerce. “More than 87,000 people visit it each year. The people in Omaha said they wished they had it, even though they already have so many attractions there.”

Not long after he built it, Reinders gave Carhenge, and the 10 acres of farmland it sits on, to the nonprofit Friends of Carhenge, a group that has maintained the site and improved it over the years with a building, a parking lot and additional sculptures.

But Marcia Buck, president of Friends of Carhenge, says the group no longer has the money or the staffing to do Carhenge justice. “We do what we do and we do it every summer, but we recognize there’s more that can be done out there. Putting in an RV park or a restaurant or expanding the building, for example, would take a lot of cash that we just don’t have.”

Buck said she’s talked with Reinders, who now lives in Arizona and visits Alliance and the sculpture about once year. “He’s always surprised it’s lasted this long,” said Buck. “And he understands.”

This story first appeared on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin.