The owner is a guy named Wayne Castka, who built the snowman alone with nothing but his hands, a bucket and ladder. He makes the pieces of the face out of wood, and the scarf is an old blanket.

In Albuquerque, the official start doesn't happen until motorists see Tumbleweed Snowman – that's his formal name – sitting atop his perch along the north side of Interstate 40, just west of ...