Mary's Gone Wild (Supply, NC)

Mary's Gone Wild is the creation of Mary Paulsen and is three attractions in one, and all are awesome and totally free. The first is a rather elaborate, if slightly run down, doll village. What would make someone create treehouses for dolls? God:

One morning in the summer of 1996, God told Mary to go out into her front yard to build a village for her collection of 6,000 dolls. Her village would go towards helping to Feed Hungry Children throughout the world. Like Noah building his ark, Mary set to work despite her lack of carpentry skills, armed only with love, faith and a non-stop sense of humor. God had put a blueprint in Mary’s head, and Mary followed it to create a village that consisted of a chapel (which she was later married in), a little Red Schoolhouse, a Soda Pop Shoppe, a Train Depot, a Library, a General store, and a Make A Wish for Jesus Fountain.

Here's the Soda Pop Shoppe:

And the Train Depot:

The Little Red Schoolhouse:

Don't quite remember what was going on here:

My favorite part of the doll village is the slightly creepy church:

See? Just a tad creepy, right?

Also worth checking out are the signs around her property:

But I mentioned there were three attractions at Mary's Gone Wild. The second is her awesome folk art. Who was responsible for this new direction? Again, God:

In 1998, Mary got another calling from God. This time he told Mary to paint on the reverse side of old glass windows. Never trained in art, God put the images in Mary's head, and Mary painted them.

"My husband and my mother-in-law were makin' fun of me, tellin' me I should do somethin' that was gonna turn into somethin' and I told them I was, and sure enough I had it sold before 10 o'clock the next mornin' at 80 dollars. That was my first one. They said my God, get her more windows. Help her. Get her paint and get her windows."

You'll find lots of mermaids:

Some characters you know:

And tons more cool folk art:

The third part of Mary's Gone Wild is the bottle houses, bottle wells, bottle boats, and bottle everything she's been making the past few years. Don't know if God was responsible for these as well, but they're pretty cool:

Make it a point to stop by the next time you're near the town of Supply. And if you see Mary, take a few minutes to talk to her. It makes the trip all the more special.