The Great American Road Trip

We did it! The boys and I have now visited our 49th state. One of our main goals at the beginning was to get to this point, and I must say that there is a deep sense of accomplishment. This trip was always so huge to really wrap my brain around and even now, I have to remind myself of all the things we’ve seen and done.

It was another drive day north to Fargo, then west to North Dakota’s capitol. In my mind, when I think of Fargo, I think of the movie by the Coen brothers. But there is no snow here today. It really looked like any midwestern agricultural town. The only strange thing someone said was a waitress at a 50’s style diner who pronounced root beer as “rut beer”. Oh well.

Next up on our way home is Montana. I expect clear sailing.

Some random things:

• Jamestown, North Dakota claims to have the largest bison (buffalo) ever at the National Buffalo Museum. They also claim to have a very rare “white buffalo.” This is the kind of place we would definitely have stopped at, but unfortunately, it was too late in the day to stop.
• For the most part we have not seen or heard much about politics on this trip. Certainly there are the bumper stickers for both sides, MAGA hats and the like. Frankly I’ve seen more t-shirts regarding the 2nd Amendment than any particular candidate. Only here and there have I picked up sly comments. One that sticks out was this nice little old lady running a gift shop in the Hannibal Museum. I was looking at a t-shirt with a Mark Twain quote that said something like “Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed often, and for the same reason”. She came up behind me and said, “we got a big load in our diaper right now. ” At first this caught me off guard, and then we both laughed out loud. It was the funniest thing I’ve heard anyone say on this whole trip.
• The other day, as we were driving through Missouri, we passed through a town called Chillicothe. We were greeted by a large billboard sign proclaiming “Home of Sliced Bread”. I was interested in what this meant, but not enough to leave the highway to investigate. Later that night I googled the sign and I found an interesting story. Chillicothe’s claim to fame is that in 1928, the first machine-sliced bread was sold here by the Chillicothe Baking Company. The local newspaper had a front page article proclaiming this to be the “greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped.” Not too long after, people started using the phrase “the greatest thing since sliced bread.” Without this invention, we also could never say that comic actress Betty White is “older than sliced bread.”

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

#49!