The Biggest Valentine: Salvation Mountain

Salvation Mountain, originally uploaded by Eye-Appeal.

This pretty much sums up what I plan on doing for my retirement: Making a big, crazy colorful mountain in the middle of nowhere.

Salvation Mountain was created by Leonard Knight, if you would like to learn more go to www.roadsideamerica.com/.

In the mid-1980s, Leonard Knight, with the aim of spreading God's word, began building a hot air balloon from bed sheets. In bold letters, he painted “God is Love” on the balloon’s face. He planned to float it high above the earth where all could see its message. Attempts to get the balloon airborne failed, however, and Knight was left in the Southern California desert with a pile of rotting linen. It was this aborted mission that led Knight to his eventual calling, the 20-year construction of Salvation Mountain. Today, Knight’s mountain is a colorful array on a neutral canvas. Built of adobe and covered in over 100,000 gallons of donated paint, Salvation Mountain forms part of the cultural landscape.

See more at PBS Travelogue.