Tuesday - July 18, 2006

We awoke somewhat late in the morning to winds that howled across the open plains sending occasional lines of trees into a frenzy. Forecasters were reporting that cold and warm fronts were clashing to the east, but we expected no problems during the length of our drive. Our destination was Darwin, Minnesota, and its world famous twine ball, which we'd see in a day or two.

To start our day, we toured Rugby's Prairie Village Museum. This attraction, costing five bucks per ticket, offers a lovingly assembled collection of buildings and objects gathered from the surrounding region and cobbled together in one spot. After passing through a random assemblage of local collections that include dozens of salt and pepper shakers, portraits of city founders, and even a display dedicated to a onetime "world's tallest man" (Clifford Thompson, 8 ft. 7 in.) we entered the Village. More than two-dozen structures include a house that had been owned by a Norwegian homesteader, a consolidated school house, and a two-room jail. After I tried out these lodgings, I called for Vienna to join me. I'm not sure she enjoyed her impromptu incarceration, though.

She certainly did find the church to be fascinating, commenting on how "real" it seemed - not like a museum display at all. Me, I loved the "hobo jungle" by the train tracks. For the past day, we both joked about how much I'd invested my enthusiasm in seeing a display dedicated to hobos. And, I must admit, sitting on a stump and dipping a stick into some "stone soup" was pretty cool. Anyway, we toured the village for a couple of hours and then headed back to the parking lot. And you'll never guess whom we saw on our way out: the grandfather we'd met the a couple of days ago at Glacier National Park. He'd found his grandson after all.

Before returning to the Hi-Line, we snapped some obligatory shots of the cairn dedicated to the point where local boosters claimed we could stand in the geographical center of North America. While other places might protest, we're willing to take Rugby's word for it. For me, seeing the cairn was particularly cool. In my years of postcard collecting, focusing on roadside memorabilia, I've often seen images of the stone obelisk standing in the high plains, and I enjoyed the chance to touch it for real.

That afternoon, we pulled into Grand Forks near the Minnesota border and grabbed lunch at Whitey's Cafe, home of the stainless steel horseshoe "wonderbar" (not quite so wonderful, though). Thereafter, we shot southeast along I-29 until we reached Fargo. Stopping off in a Wal-Mart, we asked someone selling videos if they had the movie of the same name. The Wal-Martian wrinkled her nose and reminded us how the locals resented the movie for its unfair depiction of their hometown. So, we picked up some other supplies and then faced our biggest choice of the day: two direct but distinct paths to our likely destination for the night, St. Cloud. The first was I-94, 75 MPH of dependable monotony. The second was US-10, a meandering highway that marches through town after tiny town. It took only a moment to conclude that our best bet was to stick with the smaller road, schedule be damned. Maybe we just felt guilty for stopping at Wal-Mart.

We'll never know what we might have spotted along the interstate, but we know we wouldn't have seen the "world's largest turkey" in Frazee had we not come this way. We also enjoyed a pretty decent meal at the Uptown Cafe in Wadena. And, best of all, we saw a sublime sunset under the neon sign of the El-Ray motel in the town of Motley. Along the interstate, we would have seen the same sunset, but we would have had much less luck in stopping at such a photogenic place to enjoy the show. Within a couple of hours, we made it to a KOA near St. Cloud where we snagged a cabin (Kabin, I mean) and settled into our beds to dream of seeing Darwin the next day - and its transcendently tacky Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.