July 2003 - Round America

J-E-L-L-O – Day 122

J-E-LL-O

Day 122 – July 31, 2003 – Thursday

Jamestown, New York is where Jell-O was invented. I took the tour at the Jell-O Museum. The museum is small and the tour is short, but it was very interesting to learn more about what Jell-O calls “America’s favorite dessert.”

In 1845, the industrialist, inventor, and philanthropist Peter Cooper (of Tom Thumb engine and Cooper Union fame), obtained the first patent for a gelatin dessert. Although he packaged his gelatin in neat little boxes with directions for use, Cooper did very little with it. Home cooks still relied on sheets of prepared gelatin, which had to be clarified by boiling with egg whites and shells and dripped through a jelly bag before they could be turned into shimmering molds. This was a time-consuming process.

In 1897, Pearle Wait, a carpenter in LeRoy, New York, was producing a cough remedy and laxative tea in his home. He experimented with gelatin and came up with a fruit flavored dessert which his wife, May, named Jell-O. Wait tried to market his product but he lacked the capital and the experience. In 1899, he sold his formula to Orator Frank Woodward for the sum of $450.

Woodward moved with his family to LeRoy in 1860. He had already realized some success in manufacturing and selling; his company was one of the best known manufacturers of proprietary medicines. He developed a number of products. In 1896, Woodward bought the patent for and placed on the market Grain-O, a roasted cereal coffee “for those who can’t drink tea and coffee.” It was this highly successful coffee substitute that made enough money to carry Jell-O along until the new dessert replaced Grain-O as a money maker.

On September 9, 1899, he purchased the name and the business of Jell-O from Mr. Wait. Sales were initially slow. Then in 1904, William E. Humelbaugh and Frank LaBounty began the distribution of recipes and samples. Salesmen would take a box of Jell-O and a Jell-O Recipe Book and put them at the back door of homes in a town. They would then go in and sell local stores on carrying the product that they could assure the retailer the local housewives would be seeking. The salesforce also attended every possible local party, fair, church social, and picnic where the company supplied each event with free Jell-O and demonstrated how easy it was to make the dessert. Housewives and families liked Jell-O, and the free giveaways were extremely successful. Sales grew at a fast pace. Jell-O developed very successful advertising campaigns featuring the art of artists such as Normal Rockwell. Jack Benny was the first celebrity spokesperson, followed by Bill Cosby.

Jell-O changed from a hand-packaged business to a highly mechanized factory, and Jell-O become one of LeRoy’s most important businesses. On December 31, 1925, the Jell-O Company, Inc. was sold to the Postum Cereal Company, Inc. for $67 million and was later merged into General Foods Corporation. The LeRoy plant was closed in 1964. Today, Jell-O is manufactured by Kraft / General Foods in Dover Delaware. The Jell-O brand is found on over 158 products encompassing everything from gelatin and puddings, ready-to-eat snacks, and no-bake desserts. The Jell-O brand is recognized by 95% of Americans and is used regularly in 66% of our homes. 300 million boxes of Jell-O are sold in the US each year.

Mr. Woodward died, and his sons ran the business before it was sold. I didn’t get the whole story, but it seems the children and his wife were all more than a little wacky. His wife had their huge mansion in LeRoy demolished after her death as she didn’t want anyone else to be able to live there.

I didn’t realize that Jell-O was an animal derivative. Gelatin is made up of a protein called collagen that’s found in cow and pig hides, hooves, bones, and connective tissue. To make Jell-O, this stuff is boiled down, chemicals are added, and then the collagen is extracted. Gelatin, water, artificial sweetener, and food coloring are the primary ingredients in Jell-O.

Salt Lake City is the #1 market for Jell-O. On a per-capita basis, the top markets for Jell-O are Salt Lake City, Des Moines, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and St. Louis. The first four flavors were orange, lemon, strawberry, and raspberry. Chocolate and cherry were added in 1904. Chocolate was discontinued in 1927. Lime wasn’t introduced until 1930. In Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 silent film “The Ten Commandments,” Jell-O was used to create the effect of keeping the Red Sea parted as the Israelites fled Egypt. And in “The Wizard of Oz,” the horse that changed colors was actually six horses sponged down with Jell-O.

As you may have guessed from all the detail above, today was a slow “news day.” After seeing the Jell-O sights, I drove across the rest of the state of New York — through the Adirondack Mountains — and into Vermont.

New York is a pretty state. I’d only seen New York City, Buffalo, and Niagara Falls previously, and the rest of the state is much prettier than I expected.

There wasn’t much to see on today’s drive, so there was not a lot to write about. I did see the last of the Great Lakes — Lake Ontario. I enjoyed excellent Coconut Cream Pie at Greg’ry’s Bakery & Cafe in Bergen, and I had great hot dogs at The Patio in Utica (though their chili is a lot different than what we know to be chili in Texas). New York has some interesting town names; today I was in Mexico, Texas, Ohio, Sweden, Rome, Florence, and several other such places. Vermont is state #38.

I met some nice folks today — Jamie and Rita at the Jell-O Museum; Chad, Mike, and Diane in Bergen; Melanie at a gas station; Sue Ann at The Patio; and Levi, Ann, Robin, and Brian at the hotel in Burlington, Vermont.

The lesson for the day is to be careful when selling your inventions. I imagine I would have had trouble dealing with it if I sold an invention for $450 and it ended up being a $300 million a year business and a brand name known by 95% of the people in America. I’d be proud but sick.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this web site. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest and the full itinerary is shown.

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:Jell-O Museum

I Love Lucy – Day 121

I Love Lucy

Day 121 – July 30, 2003 – Wednesday

I visited Jamestown, New York today — the hometown of Lucille Ball. I saw the Lucy-Desi Museum and then went to Niagara Falls.

This Wednesday featured our radio show as usual.

I drove to New York and U-turned back to visit the Pennsylvania Visitor Information office along I-90. Since I saw so little of PA this time, I wanted to stock up on information for the next trip. Esther was the Pennsylvania Visitor Information lady on I-90 at the border of Pennsylvania and New York. I met John and Mary Ann from Syracuse while there.

Eastern Pennsylvania is very pretty — as is western New York. I liked Jamestown. Lots of flags — appears to be a very patriotic town. It was also nice to see big Lucy murals on several of the buildings around town.

The Lucy-Desi Museum was tiny. Not much to see, but it was full of people. The gifts and souvenirs occupied a significant portion of the building, AND there was another Lucy-Desi Museum Souvenir and Gift Shop in the adjoining storefront.

Jones Bakery is across the street from the museum, so I stopped in for an Almond Tart — cooked in an individual-sized pie pan. Very tasty. I met two bakery folks there, John and Anastasia.

I passed through Gerry, New York. Gerry is a “Rodeo City,” which is kind of unusual. You don’t think of New York as being in the rodeo business. The town was very patriotic; there are flags on every street pole and many houses.

Ryan, John Riggins, and I saw Niagara Falls about eight years ago. I visited again today as I felt it had to be included on the Round America trip. Truth is, it is really more of a Canadian sight. There is little or nothing on the US side; the best views and a wide variety of tourist attractions and hotels are on the Canadian side. So, I drove across the Rainbow Arch Bridge to Ontario to see the Niagara Falls sights. It’s really something to see!

I do like hot dogs, and the Northeast is big hot dog country; I have several hot dog places on the agenda for the next two weeks. I visited Ted’s Hot Dogs in Amherst (Buffalo) for dinner today. Ted’s has been cooking up charcoal hot dogs for 76 years, and they were really good. The onion rings were also great, and I enjoyed my first Loganberry drink.

Sorry, Buffalo folks, but Buffalo has to be the ugliest city in America after Detroit. I met Randy at a gas station, Jerry at Ted’s Hot Dogs, Jessica at Canadian Immigration, and Kelly at the hotel in Batavia.

I called it a day in Batavia, New York as the Jello Museum is near here (but closed at 4 pm), and I just couldn’t pass it by. I’ll start the day with J-E-LL-O in the morning.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:Jamestown New York — Lucy-Desi Museum — Niagara Falls — Ted’s Hot Dogs

White Holidays – Day 120

White Holidays

Day 120 – July 29, 2003 – Tuesday

Today’s itinerary: Detroit, Michigan to Toledo, Ohio to Cleveland to Erie, Pennsylvania. 34,164 on the odometer as Week 18 began. Ohio became state #35. Pennsylvania was #36.

Bozzie Jane has left me alone for a while. I took her to the Detroit airport this morning so she could fly off to be with family. I hope she will rejoin the trip Round America in either Boston, New York, or Washington, DC.

There was nothing to see from Detroit to Toledo. There was nothing to see in Toledo. What I saw of Toledo was ugly. I’m thinking Ohio should let Michigan annex Toledo, as Toledo is just out of place in the pretty state of Ohio. While Michigan is handling this, they should allow Wisconsin to annex the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as it makes no sense for the UP to be part of Michigan; it logically fits with Wisconsin. The one other change I would make is to let North Dakota annex the western part of South Dakota, so North Dakota (where we really liked the people all over the state) could have the popular tourist attractions that South Dakota enjoys.

My Dad worked at WTOL Radio in Toledo in the 40’s. He reports it wasn’t regarded as a nice place to live back then. I’m sure there are nice parts of Toledo, but my Dad didn’t see them 60 years ago, and I didn’t see them today.

The drive from Toledo to Cleveland along Lake Erie passes home after home backing up to the lake. Another snoozer of a drive. The farmland in Ohio is, however, very pretty. Ohio is a nice state. We lived in Ohio by accident from 1994 to 2001. In 1992, I was recruited to be President of a European company that was headquartered in Chester, England. The company was acquired by a much larger company headquartered in Cleveland. In 1994, I was promoted to President of one of the two divisions of the parent company (Advanstar), and we were moved from England to Cleveland. We had never spent any time in Cleveland, but our impression was that it was a horrible place. We were totally wrong. We loved it in Cleveland! Wonderful people — best neighbors we have ever had — great staff with which to work — an organization called New Clevelanders that Barbara joined that enabled her to establish many wonderful friendships — a great baseball team — and a city that was revitalizing downtown and building fabulous new sports stadiums and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I even liked the climate. I prefer it cool or cold rather than warm or hot, and the White Christmases were a treat. I even enjoyed the White Halloween, White Thanksgiving, White Boxing Day, White New Year’s, White Valentines Day, White St. Patrick’s Day, and White Easter.

So I was happy to roll into Cleveland. I drove straight to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s a nice museum, though it could be several times the size it is. The special exhibit was U2. There was also something going on with a band named Phish. A security guard grabbed me and stopped me from taking a photo of a giant hot dog; he said it has something to do with these Phish folks and was off limits for photography. Strange. I can’t imagine how or why a giant hot dog should be some kind of photographic secret. Anyway, if you like rock and roll music, be sure to visit Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I recall there was some controversy over the choice of Cleveland as the location for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It seems appropriate to me, since the term “rock and roll” was coined by DJ Alan Freed of WJW Radio in Cleveland in 1951. He used the term to describe uptempo black rhythm and blues records that he began playing that year. Mr. Freed named his radio show “Moon Dog House Rock and Roll Party.” In addition, the first rock concert ever held was in Cleveland — March 21, 1952. Alan Freed put it on. It was called the “Moondog Coronation Ball.” It was oversold, and there was a riot after the first set. The “Moondog Coronation Ball” was held for many years, and I believe there is still a “Moondog” event of some type in Cleveland. The Alan Freed radio display is one of my favorites at the Rock Hall.

Outside the Rock Hall, I met Tom and Vera from West Virginia. They were getting married this weekend, so I wished them all the best.

Downtown Cleveland near the lakefront along Lake Erie is really nice. The new highrise buildings are on that part of downtown. Along the lake are the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Great Lakes Science Center, and the Cleveland Browns Stadium. Just a few blocks away are Gund Arena — home of the Cleveland Cavaliers and new superstar LeBron James, and Jacobs Field — home of the Cleveland Indians. The three stadiums are world class and just a few years old. No other city has stadiums for football, basketball, hockey, and baseball that can match these!

Cleveland also has the World’s Largest Rubber Stamp. And Cleveland has many beautiful bridges — all types of bridges. There are two downtown areas filled with restaurants and bars — The Flats and The Warehouse District. From downtown, I drove out to the suburbs to Independence, Ohio to see two friends and former employees — Ray Fassett and Bob Sopko. Ray was one of our accounting and Internet gurus at 1st Communications, and Bob was Vice President of Marketing. Two of the best people I have ever had the privilege of working with. While at their office, I met Steve, Loree, Rick, Jennifer, and Mike.

Bob took me to a nearby bar and restaurant — Quaker Steak and Lube. Cool place with cars hanging from the rafters, walls, etc. I met Rachel and Krystol there.

I then drove by our old home in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. As I drove down the street, the little girl who lived next door spotted me and waved and ran inside to get her parents. It was great to see Leva and Mae and their mom and dad, Jan and Farid. Sister Nadine was in Belize. I met Bancroft and Ruth — friends over for dinner. Boz and I always referred to Jan, Farid, Nadine, Mae, and Leva as the “Angel Family.” Just the sweetest, nicest family we have ever known — like angels. They are members of the Bahai faith, and they are certainly wonderful ambassadors for their religion. We miss them and the other wonderful folks who we lived around there. Absolutely the best neighbors we have ever had.

We’ll never forget meeting Nadine and Mae in 1994. They were probably ages 8 and 5 at the time. They saw us in the driveway and came over bright-eyed to meet us and ask whether we had children. They said they had been waiting and hoping to meet the new people moving in — hoping the new family would have children they could play with. We told them we had two children — a girl and a boy. Nadine excitedly asked: “How old are they?” We said: “24 and 20.” They just drooped. But these little girls were very mature for their ages, and it only lasted a second, they perked right up again and said: “Oh, it doesn’t matter. You both seem very nice, and the house on the other side of us is for sale, too, and maybe a family with some younger children will move in there.” We became fast friends. And a family with two young children did move in next door to Nadine and Mae.

I drove into Chagrin Falls to snap a few photos and to grab something to eat. Chagrin Falls is a charming little community with a quaint little downtown. Many of the homes are white wood century homes built in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s — lots of white picket fences and beautifully maintained yards. Great restaurants in Chagrin Falls are Hunan (Chinese), Rick’s (barbeque ribs and chicken), and Dave’s (subs). Hunan and Rick’s were packed with folks waiting in line, so Dave’s won by default. It was a good default, though, because I have eaten great Chinese and barbeque elsewhere, but I have never eaten a sub anywhere that I like as much as the unique subs at Dave’s.

Dave Lombardy started “The Original Dave’s Cosmic Subs” in 1997. As I understand it, Dave is an actor and playwright, too. Dave grew up in the 60’s. He says he always wanted to create the ultimate sub — a sub that after tasting it, a person would immediately smile and say “Far Out, now that’s one great sub.” When Bozzie Jane found Dave’s soon after it opened in 1997, she brought two subs home. I absolutely loved my sub. Boz encouraged me to try hers as she loved it. It was great, too. Neither of the subs tasted like any that we had ever eaten before, and that’s hard to accomplish with bread and meat and cheese. One of Famous Dave’s secrets is “Dave’s Cosmic Sauce.” I don’t know what’s in it, but it is good. It’s as good on a sub as the Olive Garden Salad Dressing is on their salad. So, when in Cleveland, be sure to visit one of the four locations of The Original Dave’s Cosmic Subs! And if you want a franchise, Famous Dave is now offering them — Famous Dave’s Franchise Corp, PO Box 606, Chagrin Falls, OH 44022, 440-247-9117. Dave was there tonight, and he was kind enough to let me take his photo. Like Phish and its giant wiener, he doesn’t allow photos inside the Cosmic Subs shop. While in Chagrin Falls, I visited the falls for a photo, and I went to the world-famous Popcorn Shop. I also took a photo of the shoe tree near where we lived.

I then drove to Tano’s Hair Salon — hoping that the world’s best hair lady and my good friend, Juliana, might still be there. It had been a long time since the Barber Ship in Montana where I had hoped to get a haircut. Tano’s was closed for the night, so I planned to stop in a small town soon to get a good old-fashioned haircut from the town barber.

Down the road I went. Pennsylvania became state #36 about 9 pm. When I rolled into Erie, I tried six hotels/motels (all sold out) before I found an overpriced non-smoking room at the Marriott Courtyard. I choked on the $141 rate, but agreed to pay it as I didn’t want to have to drive two hours to Buffalo and take my chances there. I also want to hit the Jello Hall of Fame and Museum just east of here. Tony fixed me up with the room. I met Ken out front. Adria at the Hampton Inn had the best smile and did the nicest job of telling me her hotel was sold out.

The lesson for the day is that ugly cities can become beautiful. Cleveland had a downtown that rivaled Detroit in ugliness. Cleveland undertook a dramatic revitalization.

Random Comments:

Week 18 of the trip Round America began today. We’ve already driven over 25,000 miles. Looks like we could top 30,000. 12,275 photos have been taken. Only one (disputed) traffic ticket. 1,478 gallons of gas. A few car issues — one flat tire, four replacement tires, and one transmission replaced. 36 states behind us, and we’ve been to over 2,200 towns. We’ve met well over 1,500 people. We’ve seen most of the sights we planned to see thus far.

We’ve eaten 143 pieces of pie. Our dear friend, Berlinda Shanklin, wrote recently to say if we keep eating so much pie, we’ll have to add “World’s Largest Tourists” to our list of sights — US. We have gained weight. Thank goodness for the elastic waistbands! As I recall, Berlinda suggested those as well.

Right now, it looks like we’ll be back in Atlanta by August 19. We’ll probably fly to Hawaii immediately after we appear in court in Kingsland, Georgia to dispute the traffic ticket we received from Officer Vincent Passarelli on Day 3 of the trip. I’m hoping that 30,000 miles without a ticket (other than the one we feel we were unfairly given in Kingsland) will help our case — so I need to be really careful the rest of the way. I’ve got a great list of questions to ask Officer Vincent Passarelli when I get him on the witness stand.

Tomorrow brings “I Love Lucy” and Niagara Falls. I was going to meet up with an old business associate (from Toronto) in Buffalo, but Gary’s wife, Judit, had some unexpected surgery today and will be in the hospital for several days. Get well soon, Judit! I’m not sure what else I will see as I drive across New York state — not much was identified in our research until I get to Vermont and New Hampshire.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:Cleveland Ohio — Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — Great Lakes Science Center — Cleveland Browns Stadium — Gund Arena — Jacobs Field — World’s Largest Rubber Stamp — Chagrin Falls Ohio — The Original Dave’s Cosmic Subs — The Popcorn Shop

Worst City Worst State – Day 119

Worst City Worst State

Day 119 – July 28, 2003 – Monday

Detroit, Michigan today.

We saw the World’s Largest Tire. We had lunch at Lafayette’s Coney Island, a well-known hot dog diner in downtown Detroit. We went to the Motown Museum — in the original home where Motown got its start — but it is closed on Monday. We drove around some ugly areas before reaching Dearborn and the fabulous Henry Ford Museum. Laura was kind enough to provide free admission for us. Thanks, Laura!

The Henry Ford Museum was founded in 1929. Henry Ford brought together dozens of buildings and millions of artifacts — one of the largest collections of its kind. He created a bold and ambitious way for people of all ages to discover and explore the richness of the American experience. The focus of the museum seems to be showing how the innovation of the past shaped the present. Henry Ford apparently had a bigger budget than Harold Warp. I guess there is more money to be made with cars than with baggies.

The Henry Ford Museum was fantastic — very, very informative and entertaining. We saw a display tracing 100 years of the automobile. One fabulous car after another. Cars were so much cooler “in the old days.” There was a display of Presidential limousines, and we saw the limo that President Kennedy was riding in when he was assassinated in Dallas. We also saw limos used by Presidents Reagan, Ford, Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Teddy Roosevelt. There were cars of all types and all makes.

In addition to the 100 years of the auto, another exhibit was “American Made.” Another highlight was the bus that Rosa Parks was riding in when she refused to give up her seat on December 1, 1956. We loved seeing the original 1952 Oscar Meyer Wienermobile. There were some interesting artifacts scattered about — General Custer’s hat, Edison’s dentures, the lantern that caused the Great Chicago Fire, and much more.

It has been almost 40 years since I went to the Smithsonian. It would be interesting to see if it is as good today as the Henry Ford Museum.

Greenfield Village is adjacent to the Henry Ford Museum. We had heard little about it, and we were blown away. Henry Ford’s vision was to create a vast outdoor museum filled with buildings of historical significance. It covers 90 acres, and it’s like a small town that spans 300 years of history — streets, buildings, storefronts, workshops, farms, and more. We were surrounded with the sights, sounds, and sensations of America’s past. The staff is costumed, and transportation is provided throughout Greenfield Village in Model T’s or horse-drawn carriages. Just amazing.

Unfortunately, this is about all Detroit seems to have to offer. The roads are terrible here. The drivers are bad. It’s a very difficult city to navigate. It’s the first dirty town we’ve been in. Crime is bad. There’s little to do here. It even smells bad here. Boz and I had to nominate Detroit as Worst Big City and Michigan as Worst State. But, the Henry Ford Museum and the Greenfield Village do make Detroit worth seeing. You need a full day, and they close at 5 pm for some reason, so get there earlier than we did.

Bob Hope was certainly a very special American. He died yesterday. How sad it was to lose an entertainer who was the ultimate patriot.

Why can’t Detroit clean up its city?

The Daily Journal of Round America:

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:World’s Largest Tire — Lafayette’s Coney island — Motown Museum — Henry Ford Museum — Greenfield Village

Seabiscuit – Day 118

Seabiscuit

Day 118 – July 27, 2003 – Sunday

We rested today.

When we were trying to find a motel room yesterday, we learned that Buick was having its 100th Anniversary Celebration in Flint, Michigan this weekend. The parking lot at the Marriott was literally full of classic Buicks when we checked in late last night, so we decided to go to the Buick Gallery & Research Center and the Sloan Museum to help them celebrate.

As it turned out, the big event was yesterday, so we missed a lot of the action, but we enjoyed seeing the Gallery and the Museum. The Gallery did not have nearly as many cars as the local Flint promo brochure indicated, but the Sloan Museum made up for it. The Sloan exhibit was an exceptionally well done walk through the history of Flint, and Buick has been a big part of Flint’s history.

After the Museum, we cruised around Flint looking for a place to eat. We passed franchise after franchise, and we finally found a local place with a parking lot full of cars. Venus Family Restaurant. We’ve stopped at a few restaurants over the last 118 days where the parking lot was full of cars, but there weren’t many folks inside. Venus Family Restaurant was packed. The servings were huge. We enjoyed Coconut Cream Pie for dessert. We enjoyed talking with Penny, Mary Ann, and Wendy — owner, waitress, and cashier. www.venus-family-restaurant.com

We drove from Flint to Detroit — about 60 miles. It took us longer to drive through Detroit — one of those cities where you seem to drive and drive and drive and see little or nothing and have trouble finding what you are looking for.

After Tiffany helped us get checked into the Marriott Courtyard, we went online to find the nearest theater showing “Seabiscuit.” Boz has said it is the most enjoyable book she has ever read, and she had been waiting for it to hit the theaters. We went to the Showcase Cinema in Westland, Michigan.

“Seabiscuit” was absolutely wonderful. It’s heartwarming and inspirational — a tearjerker. We both loved it. What a great, true story.

It was quite a coincidence to find that Buick played a significant part in the “Seabiscuit” story.

The lesson for the day is that if you have a big heart, you can accomplish great things.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:Buick Gallery & Research Center — Sloan Museum — Venus Family Restaurant

Somewhere there are Farmers Smiling – Day 117

Day 117 – July 26, 2003 – Saturday

Somewhere there are Farmers Smiling

Today did not turn out as planned! We had really looked forward to our visit to Mackinac Island. At 7 am, we awakened to heavy rain and reports for thunderstorms throughout the day and weekend. There are no cars allowed on Mackinac Island — only foot traffic and bicycles, so it isn’t a place to visit in the rain. Reluctantly, we packed our bags and headed out of town, knowing that we’ll return again someday, hopefully with better weather.

The beds at the Comfort Inn were terrible. Neither of us slept well; we got up with our backs hurting. This added insult to injury. We were so disappointed about Mackinac Island.

We saw Castle Rock in the rain and the Paul Bunyan and Babe sculptures there.

We’ve had VERY LITTLE rain on the trip. Only two rain-outs — today and the day I spent in Lexington, Kentucky. We hope the rain has some farmers smiling.

We drove across the Mackinac Bridge, and we decided to give Mackinac another try for fudge (since the area is known from having a million and one fudge shops, and the fudge we bought last night tasted like it had been around since 1887 when the shop originated). Eniko at the Fort Fudge Shop assured us that their fudge is made fresh every morning, so we bought some, and it was great! We enjoyed speaking with Eniko. She was born in Transylvania, now lives in Romania, and was in the US to work for the summer.

The drive on Highway 23 along the coast of Lake Huron was really boring. Nothing to see. Not very pretty. So, we decided we’d better photograph a lot of mailboxes as we might not see much else of interest. We saw some interesting ones. I hope the online traveler who emailed to ask us to take mailbox photos is checking the web site regularly, as we sure spent a lot of time on mailbox photography.

We saw the Forty Mile Lighthouse. It was built in 1896.

The Paul Bunyan made of car parts in Alpena was very nice. Much nicer than the painted cement ones we’ve seen everywhere else.

I was really pleased when Bozzie Jane spotted a sign advising that we were crossing the 45th Parallel — halfway between the Equator and the North Pole.

In Ossineke, we saw the life’s work of Paul Domke. Paul built approximately 30 dinosaur sculptures, and they are now on display in Dinosaur Gardens. Paul was also very religious, and a huge sculpture of Jesus holding the Earth is out front. Dinosaur Gardens was built in the 1930’s on a 40 acre tract of drained swampland. There are sculptures of dinosaurs, prehistoric birds, prehistoric mammals, and cavemen.

We had lunch at Connie’s Cafe in Ossineke. It was the only option in town. The bread was great, but the meat on our sandwiches was rubbery. Our waitress had the personality of a stick. The Raspberry Pie wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t even in the same league as the Raspberry Pie at Dutch Mother’s in Linden, Washington.

I repeatedly held doors open for people in Michigan — mainly women and children. I never had anyone say thank you or even acknowledge me.

There was supposed to be a statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe in Ossineke, but we drove up and down the road and never saw it. We saw the Paul Bunyan Kamp Ground, and I thought Paul might be hiding there, but nope. I finally decided it must be long gone. There was a sign at the city limits that said “the land of fun and sun.” We had no sun and not much fun.

We did find a Paul Bunyan in Oscoda later in the day.

Just outside the town of Black River, we saw a tree with some shows hanging from it. I stopped for a photo, because in Michigan, this is a major attraction.

Several towns down the road we came across the unique front yard of Gordon Clute. It seems Gordon has been creating cement sculptures of cartoon characters for some time, and close to 30 fill his front yard. Lots of folks were stopped taking photos, and we joined them. In his yard, Gordon has 29 sculptures ranging from Mickey Mouse to Winnie the Pooh to a farmer with a plow to Elmer Duck to a horse with an Indian chief. Gordon made them all himself, and they are just sitting in his front yard. There were signs that said “welcome to take pictures.” A lot of people were there. More people were there than at Dinosaur Land.

We decided to detour to see the Bavarian town of Frankenmuth. We saw a brochure about it at a Visitor Center, but we knew nothing about it. What a great surprise! Frankenmuth is a beautiful town with great restaurants and shops — all Bavarian themed. It was much bigger and nicer than the other themed towns we’ve seen.

The biggest attraction in Frankenmuth is Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland. It defies description. It is the World’s Largest Christmas Store. The store fills a space about the size of two football fields. Massive. But there are also displays outside that cover acre after acre — Christmas decorations of all types. They also have a replica of the Silent Night Chapel. My Mother would have absolutely loved it. Anyone who really loves Christmas decorations should make a point to visit Bronner’s in Frankenmuth! See www.bronners.com.

We could have bought a ton of stuff at Bronner’s, but we limited ourselves to one cherry pie-shaped Christmas ornament. Monica helped us as we walked in; they provide maps to help you find your way around, and you really need the maps as Bronner’s is one department and display after another — and no dull, boring straight aisles anywhere.

Frankenmuth is also known for two restaurants that serve over two million guests annually. We went to the best — Zehnder’s. It’s a huge place that specializes in chicken dinners. We were still fairly full from a late lunch, so we opted for dessert. Our waitress, Renea, was certainly one of the most entertaining we have encountered. She was a hoot and a half. We learned all about her children. When she learned about our trip, she was pulling pie from four or five of the Zehnder restaurants and shops. We had a very unique Peach Pie that we both loved. It was made with a very firm peach that didn’t get mushy — couldn’t have been cooked for long (if at all). The peach slices were huge and obviously fresh, and it was really, really good. We also had excellent Blueberry Streusel and Cherry Streusel.

Renea introduced us to Martha Zehnder-Shelton, one of the Zehnder owners, and we really enjoyed meeting her and learning more about Zehnder’s and Frankenmuth. We learned that their busiest time of year is October (Octoberfest) and November – December (Christmas and a big snow festival). Zehnder’s is the second largest independent restaurant in the U.S., and America’s largest family restaurant. All-you-can-eat family-style chicken dinners are the most popular menu item. Zehnder’s serves about a million people a year, and guests consume 840,000 pounds of chicken; 628,000 pounds of cabbage; 110,000 pounds of vegetables, and 26,000 pounds of coffee. Zehnder’s originated in 1856 as the Exchange Hotel. The Zehnder family purchased the hotel in 1927, and the all-you-can-eat chicken dinners began in 1929.

I bought a Coke at a Mobil station on the way out of Frankenmuth, and it had that grass taste that I have run into several times on the trip.

Every motel room for miles around was taken as Frankenmuth is so popular, and we learned it was the 100th Anniversary Celebration for Buick in Flint, Michigan. We were EXTREMELY lucky to find one room available at a Marriott in Flint. The parking lot was filled with gorgeous classic Buicks!

Michigan has been a disappointing state — not much to see, not very pretty compared to the other states we’ve visited, and the people have not been as friendly here. Frankenmuth was a breath of fresh air.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:Castle Rock — Mackinac Bridge — Paul Bunyan Made of Car Parts — 45th Parallel — Dinosaur Gardens — Gordon Clute’s Front Yard — Frankenmuth Michigan — Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland — Zehnder’s

Boring Michigan – Day 116

Boring Michigan

Day 116 – July 25, 2003 – Friday

Today was one of the most boring days we’ve had. We were both tired today. I’m sure we could have made the day more enjoyable if we had worked harder at it. The fatigue factor is certainly having an impact at this point.

When we left the beautiful Comfort Inn in Iron Wood, Michigan, it was 79 degrees, blue skies, and scattered white clouds. This was the best hotel buy for the money. It was a very nice room in the $40 range. It was, of course, very much appreciated because we were afraid we would have to sleep in the car last night.

We met two really nice folks at the Visitor Information Center in Iron Mountain — Lea and Curtis. They were extremely helpful, and we enjoyed speaking with them. They recommended B’s Country Cafe, and we had excellent breakfasts there followed by a good piece of Apple Pie. Wonderful home-baked bread, too. B’s is the epitome of the type of local cafe that we planned to visit throughout the trip. Diane was our waitress.

In Iron Mountain, we saw the Roosevelt Ski Jump. It’s a big, rickety-looking wooden ski jump. Skiers apparently climb up it some way carrying their skis. Scary idea. This 90-meter jump hosts annual international competitions in February, and is the site of the current U.S. distance record. Very scary idea.

We also saw the building that houses the World’s Largest Steam-Driven Pump at the Cornish Pump and Mining Museum, but the folks inside wanted $1 to see it and would not allow photographs. Billboards claim it is 55-feet tall and weighs over 700 tons, but the building seemed to be no more than 40-feet at the peak. We saved our dollar.

We saw the Piers Gorge. We had read that the raging whitewater of the Menominee River scraped out this fascinating, 70-foot-deep gorge on the border between Michigan and Wisconsin, but it appeared to be no big deal — just a little ripple in the water.

It was nice to be in Norway…Michigan.

We looked for Herman, but we were unable to find him in Hermansville.

We had to stop every quarter of a tank of gas in North Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan to clean the bugs off the windshield.

We saw a 17-foot tall, 28-foot long, 30 ton bear on the side of the road in the town of Vulcan. Artist John Radlovic of Cedar Lake, Indiana did the sculpture.

In Hermansville, we saw a sign that we thought was promoting Woodstock. A closer look, and it was for the Woodtick Music Festival.

There are a lot of lighthouses along the Great Lakes, and we saw a few today. We saw a Paul Bunyan-like sculpture, and we saw some great moose sculptures — each one dressed differently. I took a photo of a moose wearing a tuxedo at a Comfort Inn in Manistique River, Michigan.

We got our first look at the Mackinac Bridge (Big Mac) — the World’s Largest Suspension Bridge (not counting one larger in Japan). And we saw both Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Unlike most lakes, the Great Lakes have shorelines and waves that look like calm ocean shorelines.

Joanne took care of us at the motel. We also met Sarah. We gave them beads, and they gave us free ferry tickets for Mackinac Island tomorrow. Nice trade!

We went to The Galley for dinner. It wasn’t bad — just not particularly good. We did meet two cute kids — Lizzie and Jimmy, and their dad, Gary. Lizzie came right up to me and told me how pretty she thought my beads were.

This area is known for fudge, so we visited Murdick’s Fudge for dessert. They’ve been in business since 1887. We were disappointed. The fudge seemed stale.

Just not a very good day. And tomorrow may be no better. The forecast is for thunderstorms. We have really looked forward to our day at Mackinac Island, but a ferry ride over to an island where the sole means of transportation are foot or bicycle may be out tomorrow. We will either spend the day in a motel room here, or head on down the road and visit Mackinac Island another time.

Today resulted in the fewest photos of any of our days on the road. Just not much to see, and highway construction caused it to be slow going. Boring Michigan.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:Iron Mountain Michigan — Roosevelt Ski Jump — World’s Largest Steam-Driven Pump — Piers Gorge — Vulcan Bear — Mackinac Bridge — Murdick’s Fudge

Warmest Coldest Place Ive Ever Been – Day 115

Warmest Coldest Place Ive Ever Been

Day 115 – July 24, 2003 – Thursday

In 1953, our family moved to Duluth, Minnesota. We stayed for just a few months and then moved to Texarkana, Arkansas/Texas. My Dad says there was snow on the ground when we moved to Duluth, and the snowman we built in our front yard in November was still there when he went back in April for the closing on the sale of our home. It’s a really cold place during the winter, but Duluth is a surprisingly nice place with great people.

One of my earliest childhood memories (age 5) was finding a sled in a shed behind our home in Duluth. Brother Tony provided the address of the house by checking old family movies, and Boz and I found the house today. The house is still white, and the shed is right where I remembered it. The house wasn’t as big as I remembered it, but I think places we once lived tend to seem bigger in our memories.

As we checked out of our hotel, we were handed a nice note from the ladies at the front desk at the Comfort Inn thanking us for the pie we got for them. They hand made a card. We met Teresa, the general manager. She told us where to go for tourist info.

From 1992 to 1996, I was President of divisions of Advanstar Communications, a magazine publishing and trade show company. One of the largest offices of Advanstar was in Duluth, so I made several trips there. I really, REALLY liked the folks in the Duluth office. So, Bozzie Jane and I dropped by for a visit. We had a wonderful time talking with Adele and Mary — two very special ladies who have worked at Advanstar through a variety of management regimes. We were sorry to miss CFO Dave Montgomery, as he was out of town. We saw Tammy Lillo as were leaving.

Francis Heid of Advanstar knows rock music history, and he was kind enough to provide us with the addresses for Bob Dylan’s home (he was born in Duluth) as well as the Armory where Bob Dylan saw Buddy Holly perform — a performance that Bob Dylan says encouraged him to decide to become a performer.

Duluth is a much larger city than most of the towns we have visited on our trip Round America. It’s much nicer than I remembered from visits in the 90’s, though Adele and Mary say little has changed. I think the difference is that I was relaxed and looking at the city with a different set of eyes and a different agenda. I never saw much when I was there on business — even if I saw something, I didn’t really “see” it.

I was in Duluth on business for two days one especially cold winter. I collect 45 rpm records, and someone told me about a shop with a great selection of old records. I thought it was just two or three blocks from my hotel. I put on my overcoat, and headed out the door and down the street. The wind was blowing really hard, and I have never been as cold in my life. I was freezing as I tried to keep from blowing away as I walked as fast as I could. I walked five blocks, and I never saw a record store — never even saw a person. I figured I must have walked in the wrong direction, so I walked five blocks back to the hotel and then I walked another five blocks in the other direction. Still no record store. At this point, I can no longer feel my skin; I was numb all over. I found a store that was open, and I walked in. The people inside looked like a ghost had walked in. They looked at me with wide eyes, and said “where did you come from?” I replied: “Holiday Inn.” They were absolutely shocked that I had walked, and they asked me where my hat and gloves and muffler were. I told them I didn’t have any. They told me no one in their right mind would be walking outside on one of the coldest days ever with a windchill of about a zillion below zero. I nodded and asked if they could direct me to the record store. It was “just” two blocks away. I made it. The people inside looked like a ghost had walked in. My fingers were so numb that I couldn’t even flip through the records, so I walked back to the hotel. Duluth is definitely the coldest place I have ever been.

Duluth has some beautiful homes. At one time, there were more millionaires per capita in Duluth than in any other city in the country.

We visited the Leif Erikson Park, the Aerial Lift Bridge, Lake Superior, and the canal waterfront area. We had an excellent Italian lunch at Grandma’s. After nine pieces of pie yesterday, we didn’t have any pie today. Lake Superior is the World’s Largest Lake. There is enough water in Lake Superior to cover the entire United States with three feet of water. It’s big!

Just across a bridge from Duluth, Minnesota is Superior, Wisconsin. State #33. It took some work to get a photo of the “Welcome to Wisconsin” sign, but I made the effort and got it.

When I asked what we would see driving Highway 2 across the top of Wisconsin, I was disappointed when the Wisconsin Visitor Information Center lady didn’t offer much. Then we drove across the state and found there wasn’t much of anything to see. Shades of Tomacita. We did see a number of Green Bay Packer signs and tributes, but that was about it. Then we saw the Northern Great Lakes Information Center, and we couldn’t believe our eyes; it was a huge new building and inside was really high quality museum that told you everything you might ever want to know about the Great Lakes. Last but not least, on the state line between Wisconsin and Michigan, we saw the World’s Largest Corkscrew. All in all, the decision to take Highway 2 across the northern United States was not a very good one — just not enough to see and do compared to the other routes on the trip.

We met Dave at a gas station in Iron River. He asked whether we were at the beginning or the end of our trip. I was pleased to report that we were getting near the end.

Michigan became our 34th state. In Ironwood, we saw the World’s Largest Indian — 52-foot tall Hiawatha. We met Lee Ann and her dog, Tarzan, there. A little further down the road, we saw a giant skier. There are a number of ski resorts in this area, though we could not see any mountains or hills from the highway. Perhaps folks here are into cross country skiing.

In Bessemer, we stopped for a photo of the giant skier. The skier statue promoted Big Powderhorn Mountain in Michigan. We also took photos of the most scenic little league baseball field I had ever seen.

The main thing we saw today was trees — lots and lots of trees. Late in the afternoon, we began seeing deer on the road right in front of our car. I believe we had seven such encounters today alone! Fortunately, the deer managed to avoid us, and vice-versa.

We had two encounters with the police today. We had only one quarter for the parking meter when we went to Advanstar in Duluth, and we got to talking with Adele and Mary, and we knew we could have a problem when we came out to the car. Sure enough, there was a slip under the windshield wiper. It was a nice note from the police — welcoming us to Duluth and excusing us for overparking. Was that ever nice!

Then along the highway in the woods of Michigan, we met Officer Richard Burke. He pulled me over, and I was driving at a speed faster than he said the speed limit was at that point. We talked about the trip. He let me go with a warning. He will definitely be nominated for Best Policeman in our “Best and Worst” competition. I am pleased to report that it has been 112 days on the road without a ticket of any type. Our only ticket has been from Officer Vincent Passarelli of Kingsland, Georgia (Day 3 — April 3). We are fighting that ticket; Bozzie Jane and I will return to “beautiful” Kingsland in September to argue our case.

We passed by an “air mail” mailbox tonight, so I stopped for a photo. This 10-foot tall Michigan roadside mailbox reads “Air Mail.” In the town of Crystal Falls, I took a photo of a big chicken holding a hamburger and a mug of root beer. In our continuing quest to capture signs from towns with interesting names, we couldn’t resist getting Spread Eagle, Michigan.

Once the sun set, we began worrying about finding a decent motel for the night. There weren’t any big towns along Highway 2 across Wisconsin and Michigan. We were mighty thankful when there was one room left at the Comfort Inn in Iron Mountain, Michigan. Andrea took excellent care of us.

Day 115 wasn’t action-packed, and we didn’t meet nearly as many people as we normally meet, but Boz and I had a great time. We especially enjoyed spending time with Adele and Mary. They are high on the list of people I most enjoyed working with in my career!

Minnesota is the warmest coldest place I have ever been. Everyone should be as nice as the people we have been fortunate to know in Minnesota.

Random Comments:

Tomorrow will bring a relatively short drive to Mackinac Island, Michigan. Mackinac Island is a huge resort area, and we have no hotel reservation, so we hope we will be able to get a nice room so we can relax and enjoy the area. I realized today that it won’t be long before I touch the final corner of America when I visit the northeasternmost point in the continental US in Maine. Then down the East Coast and back to Atlanta. After close to five months of Round America, I imagine being at home will be quite a shock.

We passed a car today. #30.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:Duluth Minnesota — Bob Dylan’s Home — Leif Erikson Park — Aerial Lift Bridge — Lake Superior — Superior Wisconsin — Northern Great Lakes Information Center

Pie Pie Pie Pie Pie Pie Pie Pie Pie – Day 114

Pie, Pie, Pie, Pie, Pie, Pie, Pie

Day 114 – July 23, 2003 – Wednesday

Today was a pie day! We purchased nine pieces of pie today, and I personally sampled seven. We’ve now had 134 pieces of “pie” in 114 days.

The day began as all Wednesdays begin with our weekly radio talk show. DJ Dan McGrath called right at 7:11 am. We talked about Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and the pie at the North Dakota State Fair.

We drove all across the state of Minnesota today on U.S. Highway 2 — from East Grand Forks to Duluth. Minnesota has tremendous natural beauty with 15,000 lakes. We saw Lake Itasca today; it’s hard to believe that it is where the Mississippi River starts, but it is. Minnesota was the 32nd state admitted to the Union, and the 32nd state for us to visit on our trip Round America. We planned it this way. 🙂

U.S. 2 is an east-west U.S. highway that spans 2,579 miles across the northern continental United States.

There’s not a lot to see or do on Highway 2, but we did have four specific places to try to hit for pie, and we managed three of the four. The fourth went out of business five years ago.

We drove through Climax, Minnesota – probably an exciting place to live.

We met Terry at the tourist information office in Fisher’s Landing. There are 15,000 lakes in Minnesota. There are 65 towns in Minnesota that have lake something in them. My Minnesota license plate photo says “10,000 Lakes,” so it looks like Terry needs to call someone about a recall of every license plate in the state.

We passed by the Bagley Wildlife Museum was closed. The sign indicated there were over 750 stuffed animal bodies inside. We love animals too much to look at dead stuffed ones.

We passed by Paul Bunyan’s Animal Land a few miles after we crossed the Mississippi River. We knew nothing about it; we just passed it. The Mississippi is the same color up north as it is down south — ugly brown.

We had a very good Cherry Pie at the Maid-Rite Cafe in Bemidji, Minnesota. We also had our first-ever “loose meat” sandwiches (“the hamburger too good to be a patty”). We met the owner, Judy, and her very cute granddaughters, Bethany and Abby. Judy confided that she made her pie crust using Crisco.

We took a detour off Highway 2 to the tiny town of Palisade, Minnesota (population 91) because we heard the pie was great. Boz had an excellent Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, and I had a Banana Cream Pie that was okay, though not nearly as good as most of the cream pies we’ve had. Our waitress was very nice but we didn’t learn her name.

We then took a detour past Duluth to drive north on Highway 61 to Betty’s Pies in the town of Two Harbors. Betty’s has been recommended to us by people from all over — absolutely the most recommended pie place we’ve encountered. The first time we heard about Betty?s Pies was from the ladies we sat next to after the Pitchfok Fondue in Medora, North Dakota.

Betty Lessard opened the business in 1956 as a smoked.fish stand. She started baking her famous cookies and pies for something to do because the fish business was often slow. Soon, the baked goods outsold the fish, and in 1974, Betty changed the name of the place to Betty?s Pies and stopped selling fish altogether. Betty sold the business in 1984. In 1000, Betty’s Pies moved into a new, 3,000-square-foot “Pie-2K” building and went from seasonal to a year-round business.

We pulled up to Betty’s Pies a few minutes before closing time at 9 pm, and the place was packed. Angela took excellent care of us. We had half sandwiches that were excellent, and then we got after the pie. We saw pie being eaten at every table in the good-sized restaurant, and we saw folks carrying whole pies out the door. Betty’s makes 250 pies a day! There were 24 different pies available (one of the best selections we have seen on the trip), and we settled for 5-Layer Raspberry Chocolate and Chocolate Mint. We chose them primarily because we continue to try to have pies that are different from anything we’ve had. These pies were unlike anything we’ve had or seen on the trip thus far — excellent pies made extremely well. The best way to describe them is to say they are like multiple layers of pudding inside a world-class pie crust.

We brought slices of Strawberry Pie and Lemon Angel Pie back for Rachel and Susie at the Comfort Inn in Duluth, and we brought Blueberry Peach Pie and Great Lakes Crunch Pie back to the hotel room for a late-night snack and/or breakfast. I tried them both tonight, and they were excellent. I liked the Blueberry Peach Pie the best. The Great Lakes Crunch Pie is a multi-berry pie with granola and brown sugar on top rather than crust. I’d have loved it with a regular crust. While we don’t rank any of the Betty’s Pies that we sampled among the Top 10 pies we had on the trip, the selection was certainly among the best, and the 5-Layer Raspberry Chocolate and Chocolate Mint should certainly receive pie recognition for being totally unique in the world of American Pie. Betty’s was also doing the biggest pie business we have seen, and they’ve been doing it for 50 years!

A few World’s Largests passed before us today. World’s Largest Ox Cart near Crookston, World’s Largest Northern Pike in Erskins, and World’s Largest Loon in Loon Landing. We saw the big statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe in Paul’s birthplace, Bemidji, Minnesota. In Two Harbors, we saw a 35-foot tall statue of what looked to us to be a giant holding an oar while wearing a shirt and boots but no pants. We don’t have the slightest idea what it was supposed to be. We also saw a restaurant built inside a fish in Bena.

Grand Rapids, Minnesota is the hometown of Judy Garland. We stopped to see the World’s Largest Collection of Judy Garland Memorabilia, but the museum had closed early for the day. We did see replicas of the famous ruby slippers. We were mighty happy when our detour to Palisade took us right by Judy Garland’s childhood home located on the outskirts of Grand Rapids.

For the last week or so, it seems we spot deer crossing the road just in front of our car every evening as the sun is going down. Late today, it was a momma deer and two little ones. We really kept our eyes peeled for the last few hours of each day as the two-lane roads are often in deer territory.

As always, we met a number of nice people today. We met Terry at the Minnesota Tourist Information Office in Fisher Landing. We met owner Judy and her very cute granddaughters, Bethany and Abby, at the Maid-Rite Diner in Bemidji. We met Rachel and Susie at the Comfort Inn in Duluth. We met Angela at Betty’s Pies. We met Steve, a former missionary, at a Conoco station in Two Harbors, and then we met Julie in the lobby of the hotel in Duluth.

From our pre-trip research, we learned that Minnesota happens to have a significant number of Worlds Largests. Unfortunately, our choice of Highway 2 took us by only a couple of these. Wisconsin also has a significant number of “quirky” things to see, but not along our route. Boz and I have decided we will have to come back to Minnesota and Wisconsin another time to see more.

The Windsor family lived in Duluth, Minnesota for six months when I was five years old. My Dad tells a great story about the experience that I will share tomorrow; we plan to try to find the home we lived in back then. I was also President of a company with a big office in Duluth from 1992 to 1997, so we may drop in to see some old business associates there.

We were reminded repeatedly today how much we love good pie. And it is always inspirational to see a business that has become a huge success in a tiny place. While not on the scale of Wall Drug (attracting millions of people a year to a drug store in a town with a population of just a few hundred people), Betty’s Pies sells 250 pies a day to customers who visit its restaurant. Twin Harbors has a population of just 3,613. That multiplies out to 547,500 slices of pie per year or 150 slices of pie per year for every man, woman, and child living in Two Harbors.

Random Comments:

We passed two cars today. Passes #28 and #29 in 114 days.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:Highway 2 — Maid-Rite Cafe — Palisade Minnesota — Betty’s Pies — World’s Largest Ox Cart — World’s Largest Northern Pike — World’s Largest Loon — Paul Bunyan and Babe — Bemidji Minnesota — Restaurant in a Fish — World’s Largest Collection of Judy Garland Memorabilia — Judy Garland’s Childhood Home

Why Not Minot – Day 113

Why Not Minot?

Day 113 – July 22, 2003 – Tuesday

The North Dakota State Fair in Minot, North Dakota today, and an underground missile silo! Our day took us from Minot to East Grand Forks, Minnesota — state #32.

Barbara spoke with a woman at the Comfort Inn desk this morning. In the 40’s and 50’s, her father helped build quite a few of the underground missile silos in the area. None of them are actually in Minot; they’re in outlying areas along the highways. She said people drive past them all day long and have no idea they’re there. Most of them have fence areas around them. They almost all have slight mounds. They all have markers that are green with letters and numbers, like A52. She said you just kind of have to know what you’re looking for. Some of them have ventilation things that come up out of the ground, and those are easier to spot. She mentioned that we passed two coming in from Stanley along the highway, but we didn?t know at the time. So, we’re going to continue to look today and find some.

We started the day by visiting the Scandinavian Heritage Park in Minot. Most of the folks in this part of the country are of Scandinavian descent. The center includes a 230-year-old house from Sigdal, Norway; Stabbur, one of Norway’s finest storehouses; international flag display; Danish windmill; the Sondre Norheim Eternal Flame; Leif Ericksson statue; Sondre Norheim Statue (Norheim is the father of modern skiing); Casper Oimoen statue (Oimoen is an Olympic ski jumper); replica of the Gol Stave Church; a visitors information center; waterfall; and an authentic Finnish sauna. The Scandinavian Heritage Park is very nicely done, and we enjoyed seeing the various sights there. As an extra-added attraction, the nice lady who helped us at the Information Center had that strong accent that many of the actors used in the movie “Fargo.”

62 pounds of accumulated brochures, hotel shampoo bottles, bedside table ballpoint pens, and the like were shipped back to Atlanta by Barb at Pac ‘N Ship of Minot.

Brook and Rod helped us with parking near the North Dakota State Fairgrounds. We met Scott, Monte, Blaise, Tina, and Alex at the main entrance; Kendra and her cow, Daisy, at the 4H barn; Joan at the Racing Pigs arena; Breanna, Julie, Jessie, and Roman at the First Lutheran Church Pie Booth; Becky and Jimmy at the Pie in the Sky Cafe; and Debbie and Linda at the exit.

The North Dakota State Fair was fun to see. We met quite a few people. We walked around and saw the usual state fair stuff — animal pavilions, midway, children’s area, exhibit buildings, and the food area. We basically grazed our way up and down the food concessions. Hot dogs, tacos, cokes, lemonade, and pie! We had an excellent Peach Pie at the First Lutheran Church Pie Booth. We had our first ever Creme Brulee Pie at the Pie in the Sky Cafe Booth. Jimmy and his wife, Becky, own Pie in the Sky Cafe, and they travel to fairs and big events operating their mobile pie kitchen. They are from Arkansas.

Alan Jackson, Alice Cooper, and Ted Nugent were performing at the fair this year, and we had beads ready for them, but we didn’t happen to run into them. For more information on the North Dakota State Fair, see www.ndstatefair.com.

Back in the car chewing on Rolaids as a North Dakota State Fair precaution.

Minot is known for its Missile Air Force Base, which is just northwest of town. In the Cold War years, Minot led the nation as the big ICBM Base. The missile silos are scattered all across this area — not just at the base. We asked just about everyone we met in Minot to tell us how we could find some of the underground missile silos. We received a uniform description of what the sites looked like, and we THINK we found one. We snapped a photo from a distance. We were told we would not be able to get a tour down in a silo, so in an uncharacteristic move, we didn’t even try.

We obtained the following information from the Commander of the 91st Space Wing at Minot Air Force Base:

“Minot AFB is headquarters for the 91st Space Wing, one of the Air Force’s three operational missile units. The mission of the 91st SW, whose members are known as the Rough Riders, is to defend the United States with safe, secure intercontinental ballistic missiles, ready to immediately put bombs on target, while deactivating remote sites at Grand Forks AFB, N.D. The 91 SW is an element of 20th Air Force, headquartered at F.E. Warren AFB Wyo., which is a component of Air Force Space Command, located at Peterson AFB, Colo. The on-alert missiles assigned to the 91st SW are under the operational control of the nation’s strategic war-fighting command, U.S. Strategic Command, headquartered at Offutt AFB Neb.

“Minuteman missiles provide a quick-reacting, highly survivable element to America’s strategic triad. The Minuteman weapon system is the safest, most reliable and maintainable ballistic missile system in the United States. In 1963, Minot AFB became the nation’s third operational Minuteman base, with deployment of the Minuteman I missile. Today’s Minuteman III weapon system is the product of almost 30 years of continuous enhancement. The Minuteman III replaced the Minuteman I in 1971 — the 91st SW was the first wing in the Air Force to receive the Minuteman III. The Minuteman III is a three-stage, solid-fuel ICBM. It has the capability to carry three independently targetable reentry vehicles armed with strategic weapons. Four sets of three targets can be stored in the missile’s guidance system. A hallmark of the weapon system is that assigned crews can remotely retarget each missile. A tested system of authentication codes and hardware safeguards ensures Minuteman missiles cannot be launched without valid direction of the National Command Authority.

“The wing controls 150 Minuteman III missiles, located over an 8,500 square mile area in north central North Dakota, approximately the same size as the state of Massachusetts. Each missile is located in an unmanned remote site called a launch facility. All LFs are located at least three nautical miles apart and situated in unpopulated areas. The missiles are housed in hardened underground silos. Each launch facility has all the equipment needed to maintain the missile in a ready-to-launch condition. All activities at the LFs are monitored and controlled from remote, manned launch control centers.

“Located in each LCC, missile combat crews comprised of two officers operate in 24-hour alert tours. During the tour, the crew controls the 10 missiles assigned to their flight, and has the capability to monitor and control an entire squadron of 50 missiles. Launch control centers are interconnected by hardened, buried, wire, cable communications links used by the combat crews for status reporting, coordination of missile programming and launch actions. Thus, each crew can launch any missile in its squadron, not just the missiles in its flight.

“Each LCC is part of a missile alert facility. The wing’s 15 MAFs are comprised of a topside facility, which is continually manned by a minimum of eight people, and an underground complex consisting of an LCC and an underground support building.

“The wing has approximately 1,500 operations, maintenance, security, and support personnel working together to keep missiles on alert. The wing is made up of two groups, the 91st Logistics Group and the 91st Maintenance Group. Five squadrons, a helicopter flight and a standardization/evaluation division are assigned to the 91st Operations Group. Three squadrons and a quality assurance section are assigned to the 91st Logistics Group. In addition, the special staff functions of manpower and quality, financial management, safety, and history are assigned under the director of staff. The plans and inspections office reports to the wing vice commander.”

For more information, see http://www.strategic-air-command.com/bases/Minot_AFB.htm.

Needless to say, Minot is a very patriotic area with a lot of flags. That’s always the way we’ve seen it to be in and around military installations.

It seems that the city of Minot once used a slogan to promote the city: “Why Not Minot?” Unfortunately, the slogan was about as successful as “Lucky Me, I Live in Lubbock,” where the Texas Tech students laughed and have referred to the local residents as “Lucky Me’s” ever since. In answer to “Why Not, Minot?” a U.S. Air Force officer told us the answer: “Freezin’s the reason.” We understand this is a very popular T-shirt at the Air Force Base. Temperatures below zero are common and temperatures reaching minus 60 degrees occur regularly in the winter months. He said he had seen it as high as 104 degrees in the summer and as low as wind chill minus 102 in the winter of the same year. We sure hope Louisiana Tiffany knows what she has gotten herself into.

From what we believe was a missile silo just outside Minot, we drove to Rugby, North Dakota.

We toured downtown McGillacuddy City USA (Granville, North Dakota) and took a photo of the bank and the Shady Eye Saloon.

There’s not much but highway and a few small towns from Rugby over to the state line.

Rugby has the Geographical Center of North America, and we took a photo of the cairn that marks the spot. In January 1931 this location was established by the United States Geographical Survey. There are three new flagpoles representing each of the countries making up North America — Canada, United States, and Mexico.

We visited the Pioneer Museum in Rugby. It cost $10 to get in. That was a little steep, but we figured it was a donation for a worthy cause. We met Marlene at the Prairie Village and Museum. She ran out as we were sneaking out to make sure we had a good time. We told her we did (but it certainly was not what you call a world class museum; it was a nice assortment of antiques gathered from local people to give a representation of pioneer things.)

Across Montana, North and South Dakota, Barbara has resisted every attempt on my part to get her to eat a buffalo burger. I was hoping that maybe at the last little bit of North Dakota we could get a buffalo burger for her, but my efforts failed.

There just wasn’t much to see on the road in eastern North Dakota.

We drove around the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. It’s a beautiful campus, and the Ralph Engelstad (hockey) arena is unbelievable! It looks like one of the finest professional sports stadiums in the country rather than a university stadium. The folks here are really proud of it, and rightly so. Home of the Fighting Sioux.

The Red River (which we long-time Texans think of us only being in Texas) divides Grand Forks, North Dakota from East Grand Forks, Minnesota.

We enjoyed dinner at Whitey’s Cafe in East Grand Forks. We met owner, Greg Stennes, and manager, Val. Whitey’s has quite a history — dates back to 1925. East Grand Forks was a saloon town in the early years. North Dakota was “dry” back then, so the liquor trade developed on the Minnesota side of the river. Edwin “Whitey” Larson was just 19 years old when he decided to get in on the action and opened a place that sold bootleg alcohol and an occasional hot dog. After several successful years, Whitey purchased a larger building, and in 1930, he built the first stainless steel horseshoe bar in the United States. The place was called “Whitey’s Wunderbar.” The art deco design of the bar was featured in both the Saturday Evening Post and Time Magazine. Whitey’s survived a 1942 fire and the terrible flood of 1997, when nearly six feet of water covered the main floor. The famed Wunderbar and art deco interior were saved along with many of the artifacts, and Whitey’s rebuilt three doors up the block from the destroyed building. See www.whiteyscafe.com.

I had walleye for the first time. It’s a specialty at Whitey’s, and I figured that was a must after we saw the World’s Largest Walleye in Garrison yesterday. Bozzie Jane had Honey Dijon Chicken with Pasta. We enjoyed our meals and seeing photos from before and during the flood, and we really enjoyed speaking with Greg and Val.

The 1997 flood was caused by unprecedented winter snowfall, and the flood has had a tremendous impact on the two “Grand” towns. After dinner, we drove around to see signs of the flood and fire — water marks on old buildings, vacant lots and parks where old buildings used to be, and plenty of current construction down by the river where lots have been vacant since shortly after the flood. We walked across the main bridge, and when we looked down at the water many, many feet below, it was hard to imagine that the water rose to a level even higher than the bridge roadway. We saw the restored Empire Theatre and a few other sights that folks told us to be sure to see.

Heather helped us at the Fairfield Inn. Minnesota is state #32.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:Minot North Dakota — Scandinavian Heritage Park — North Dakota State Fair — Underground Missile Silos — Grand Forks North Dakota — Whitey’s Cafe