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Clerc Scar 9.124 August 2009
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Chapter 21 Ordering Breakfast Today was Thursday, August 17. It had been exactly one week since we had left our home in Lansing, Michigan. Just before passing into North Dakota, we stopped for breakfast at McDonald's. Tensions from last evening's miserable night drive and a cold night sleeping inside the van without any heat or blankets spilled over into this beautiful, bright, and sunny morning. Breakfast did not go very well. I was struggling just to read the large menu board when Harvey pulled me into the queue so that I could order my food. I resisted at first and told Harvey, "I'm not ready to order yet! I don't know what I want!" Harvey became a little impatient with me and stated, "You're holding up the line for everyone. We need to hurry. What do you want to order?" I reminded him, "Well, you?re the one who pulled me into this line before I was ready to order! Look, I can?t read the menu board very well so I don?t know which breakfast meals are available!" He hadn't realized that I needed help reading the menu board because he and Dano had been busy deciding for themselves what they wanted for breakfast while I was struggling on my own. Harvey quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, Mel. I didn't realize you couldn't make out the menu. Let me read you the breakfast items, okay?" I felt better and nodded, feeling grateful for his willingness to help me. And I was pleasantly surprised to discover that McDonald's scrambled eggs and pancakes weren't so bad after all! Chapter 22 Geologic Center of North America We entered North Dakota and drove a couple hours through some of the prettiest agricultural rolling hills and pastoral scenes with grazing black and white dairy cows. Our goal was to reach the geologic center of the North American continent which includes the United States, Canada and Mexico. This all-important center was located in a small obscure town named Rugby. The shrine marking this spot turned out to be a glorified plot of dirt with a few rocks and a stone marker stating that this spot was the geologic center of this continent. There was no hooplah and there certainly weren't any crowds jockeying for the best view possible! Even so, Dano was really excited to be here. He loved geography and geology. So for him, this was a pretty cool place to be! From this spot, it was 1,500 miles to the nearest ocean in each direction, with the Arctic to the north, the Atlantic to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. In orientation and mobility training for visually impaired people, I was told to always remember this: Never Eat Soggy Waffles for breakfast! In other words, we always had to know in which direction we were facing before traveling with our canes, whether it be North, East, South, or West. Get it? Chapter 24 Pioneer Village After leaving the Geologic Center of the North American continent in Rugby, North Dakota, we passed a big billboard advertising the Pioneer Village which had a big arrow pointing to the left with the words "Turn Left Here." Harvey continued to drive a little further to the next intersection and turned left onto what turned out to be a country road in a rural area. After five miles of driving with no sign of Pioneer Village, I pleaded, "Harvey, we are getting nowhere fast! Let's turn around and go back!" So we did. We passed this billboard a second time and took a closer look to see exactly where the arrow was pointing to. Directly across the road was a gravel driveway but we weren't quite sure where it was supposed to go. There were no signs to guide us in. Where was Pioneer Village? What we did see were high privacy fences. It occurred to us that perhaps this village was inside this fenced-in area. Sure enough, it was! It was an interesting but sleepy historical theme park set in the late 1800s to early 1900s with several buildings scattered inside the village. Its claim to fame was a man born here in Rugby, North Dakota, named Cliff Thompson who was billed as "the tallest salesman in the world" and "the tallest Norwegian schoolteacher." In real life, he couldn't get a job teaching so he earned his money appearing in freak shows. He stood at 8'7" tall and wore size 22 shoes. And although he hadn't lived in Rugby since he was 7 years old, this rural town tried to capitalize on his short-lived fame. We walked through several outbuildings such as a schoolhouse, a church, homes, and a few business shops. It was interesting viewing memorabilia, vintage cars, old farm tools and implements, 18th- and 19th-century gun collections, antique glass figurines, dolls, dishes and vases, and much, much more. Harvey especially enjoyed touring the different buildings, homes, and workshops, the vintage cars, and the horse-drawn winter sleigh. It was fun imagining how life in a rural area here in North Dakota must have been like 100 years ago. For Dano who was being home-schooled, this was a great opportunity for him to learn American history in the slow lane. And that's how we chose to remember this humble Pioneer Village in Rugby. [To be continued next week.]
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