I know none of you noticed, but on Sunday night, at midnight, I – and my roommate Beth – painted the rock.

A&O Productions later covered it up with an ad for Counting Crows tickets. But I was there first. Cross that off the list.

What you didn’t get to see was my masterful rendition of a pig. A tribute, if you will, to Hubbardsville’s own Norman, the World’s Biggest Pig.

At nearly 8 feet long and an estimated 1600 pounds, Big Norm stands as my hometown’s newest celebrity. Neighbors talk about him. Signs lead up to his mini red barn, tucked away on a back road.

And believe me, seeing Norman is worth turning off the state highway and the $2 donation. It won’t be long before he’s up there with New York’s other big draws: Oneida’s World’s Smallest Church and Phelps’ two-story outhouse.

But we New Yorkers aren’t alone in our crazy highway attractions. Americans perfected the road trip; it’s a side effect of our torrid love affair with cars. At some point in all our lives, it’s our duty to stock up on Red Bull, say goodbye to feeling in our butt and start belting out the road tunes.

Ah, yes. Life is a highway.

Missouri has the world’s largest pecan and the world’s largest fork. As Queen of the Edible Delights, Georgia boasts the world’s largest peanut, largest apple and the site of the Fried Green Tomatoes Café. Oh, and Babyland hospital – where Cabbage Patch Dolls come into the world.

Wax museums. Giant concrete statues of Paul Bunyan. Graves of lost icons (like the guy who invented Coca-Cola). The real fork in the road (think The Muppet Movie). When Americans take to the open road, we want to see the strange, the stupid and the odd.

Or we’ll take big animals.

By far the nation’s most popular roadside attractions remain enormous animals – living or statuesque.

Norman fits right in with a long line of oversized farm animals. Take for instance, every fake cow in America.

In Neillsville, Wis., Chatty Belle cow – 16 feet high, 20 feet long – will tell you facts about milk production. In New Salem, N.D., visitors to the 38-foot-tall Salem Sue statue like to pose under her udders. Better under the udders than all the pictures taken beneath Jamestown, N.D.’s bull monument (famous for a different hanging part of its anatomy).

And now our roadside wonders have taken the Internet by storm. Sites that guide tourists to their favorite sightseeing spots and individual Web sites for each attraction litter the Web. Even Norman has his own Web site. (Yes, we do get the Internet in Hubbardsville.)

Norman’s Web page (www.worldsbigpig.com) takes our obsession with our roadside national treasures a step further. His biggest fans now can purchase T-shirts or one of 1,500 shares in the giant hog.

Step right up, folks; only $75 to own a part of real Americana.

Medill senior Christina Alexander can be reached at [email protected].