Okay, Todd’s Scandinavian connection explains driving across the top of ND to Minot. But, all “Center” kidding aside, why not keep going another 2.5 hours west before turning south in order to explore all the cool things the Dakotas actually do have to offer? Think, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Sturgis, Deadwood, the Badlands, Wind Cave National Park, Custer, Mount Rushmore, etc. Heck, that would still be headed towards Colorado, wouldn’t it? What gives? Who failed to plan on that one??

Actually, that’s one of the most wonderful traits of vagabonding. Flexibility! One plan had us spending most of September and October exploring the scenic western Dakotas – hold that thought. However, when we accepted the opportunity in Colorado Springs, we decided we didn’t want to “fly” past all those beautiful spots in the Dakotas, choosing instead to turn a blind eye, i.e. pretend those things aren’t there, and turn due south from Minot for a cruise through the middle.

Since we do know the cool stuff is there, and we have family in ND (Hi, Helen & Bruce!), we will return, hopefully in the spring. For now, though, we had to keep rolling, rolling, rolling!

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Now for the final segment of our flashback tale of the journey from Michigan to Colorado to meet Kim and Mochi.

From where we left off with that nice family run motel in Washburn, ND, it was a two-hour drive through North Dakota cattle country to the South Dakota border. We can attest to seeing the largest (think more than a mile deep by at least 2 1/2 miles long) field of sunflowers these reporters have seen. Pretty!

And then, guess what we found?

It wasn’t really a “blip,” just seemed like it when reviewing photos. There was a six-hour (plus stops) drive, followed by an overnight stop in Winner SD and another long day of driving to the welcome sign into Nebraska and straight on through to North Platte at the bottom of central Nebraska. So, for purposes of our tale, “blip,” we were in Nebraska. 🙂 Seems like we didn’t “like” South Dakota. Not true, it was more like rolling, rolling, rolling!

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Interesting thing about the central Nebraska landscape. It quickly goes from flat to rolly. This is the sandhills region. (And being lazy, straight from Wikipedia, the area… often written Sand Hills, is a region of mixed-grass prairie on grass-stabilized sand dunes in north-central Nebraska, covering just over one quarter of the state. The dunes were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1984.)

Our description would include WOW! Hardly a manmade structure to be seen, just miles and miles of gently rolling, dry hills and prairie grass. What a journey it would have been by wagon train.

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Once in southern Nebraska, we stopped in North Platte to tour the Golden Spike Tower for a panoramic view of the world’s largest rail yard – Union Pacific’s Bailey Yard. That’s right, the biggest and it is just remarkable. Two miles wide by eight miles long and always moving stuff through.

Of course, we also toured the museum where we learned this is the halfway point from Denver to Omaha on the Transcontinental railway. The most impressive thing we enjoyed learning about was the Canteen the town established during WWII to serve the daily troop trains. 55,000 volunteers from 125 surrounding towns baked goodies to give to more than 6 million soldiers over 5+ years. The details in the “Canteen” link above will warm your heart. There’s nothing like the power of American volunteerism! And it is so amazing to learn about the good in our country!

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From North Platte, we took parts of the Oregon Trail and a bit of the Lincoln Hwy a couple of hours due west to Sidney, Nebraska to rest up for a few days, intending to be at our best when meeting Kim and Mochi in Colorado Springs. (Isn’t that a laugh!)

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Uh-oh. Yep, this being a flashback tale, our followers know exactly how things end in Sidney.

For now, let’s focus on the good stuff. Like this! This is the best part! 🙂

Plenty of research and forethought goes into each of our upcoming destinations, but our planner also performs last-minute scouting as we travel to ensure we don’t miss something truly interesting a block over while zipping along at 60 mph. In that regard, a funny thing happened in ND. Something like, h-e-y… how about this town claiming to be the “Geographical Center of North America?” Our curiosity piqued, we added a quick photo-op stop in Rugby, ND to our route.

Here’s where things get somewhat comical.

Note: To give credit where credit is due, the italicized excerpts below are from a 2021 CBS News article, “The debate over the Geographical Center of North America.”

North Dakota is not only one of the least-visited states, it’s also one of the last on a tourist’s bucket list... even the geese just fly right over. And yet, poor, left-out North Dakota may actually be the center of our world.

“… if you can say, ‘I live at the Geographical Center of North America,’ that’s pretty cool!” said Cathy Jelsing… whose job with the Historical Society included pointing wayward tourists to the spot where, since 1931, a stone monument has marked the area claimed to be the Geographical Center of North America.

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So, how was it determined that Rugby, ND was the continental bull’s eye? (Get ready for it. This is highly scientific.)

In 1928, an employee with the U.S. Geological Survey took a cardboard cutout of the map of North America with a pin stuck through it and balanced it on his finger. Not the most sophisticated method, perhaps, but for decades few argued with it.

And the town of Rugby it seems embraced it, as it gave them a sense of place.

“You have to understand that here in North Dakota, we don’t have that much,” said Clay Jenkinson, a humanities scholar and North Dakota native. “We don’t have Carnegie Hall. We don’t have the Statue of Liberty. So, this mattered to Rugby. It’s their Grand Canyon. It’s their Teton Mountains. It’s true! This is it!“

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Jenkinson blissfully never questioned Rugby’s title, until he learned of Hanson’s Bar, and its owner (Bill Bender), who claimed the center of the continent was actually about a hundred miles south, in the town of Robinson.

Jenkinson was offended, thinking, “Who is this jerk? Why mess with this little town’s one pathetic claim to cosmic fame?'”

The owner of Hanson’s Bar claimed he meant no harm. …it was a simple trivia question that he and a few buddies called into question... admitting that their calculations required “‘lots of trial and error.‘”

One night, armed with a globe, some string, and more than a few beers, they made the case that the continent’s center was – perhaps not so coincidentally – right beneath the bar itself. (Imagine that.)

Bender said, “...what we did late at night seems far more scientific than a child cutting out a cutout and balancing it!“

Straightaway, Bender checked to see if Rugby had trademarked their precious phrase “Geographical Center,” and they had, but they’d let it lapse. 😦 So, Bender quickly registered everything and paid the $300 to take the phrase. At that point, per the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Hanson’s Bar in Robinson ND became the “Geographical Center of North America.”

Can’t make this stuff up! So, we added another photo-op stop to our route.

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Per Jelsing back in Rugby, “It wasn’t very nice what they did. If we lost the Geographical Center, what would we be? … just another town in the middle of nowhere.”

Word of the midpoint meltdown soon got around, and Peter Rogerson, a professor in the Geography Department at the University at Buffalo, decided he’d give it a crack.

Rogerson used latitudes and longitudes and, taking the curvature of the earth into account, plugged the continental coordinates into a special algorithm he’d designed to find the true center. The program ran through the numbers and, to his surprise, determined the spot was, indeed, in North Dakota, but this time the center – believe it or not – was near a town actually named Center (pop. ~570).

Again, you can’t make this stuff up!

Two men born and raised in Center (so named because it’s the center of the county), decided they should celebrate the newfound fame just like the other towns had. Finding an ideal site for a marker up on a hill “where you can see forever,” and being fairly confident that this will be the permanent site, they called the coal mine to request “a pretty rock” to mark the spot. Two weeks later, the coal mine lady called to say she’d found them “thirty-thousand pounds of permanence.”

You know it; another photo-op stop. We’d become fairly committed to being centered.

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As for Hanson’s Bar in Robinson? …Bill Bender backed down and gave the Geographical Center trademark back to Rugby, although he’s still not removing the decal on the floor.

Asked, “What do you think this controversy says about North Dakota,” Clay Jenkinson replied, “It says we’re a loser state! I mean, it’s in the same zone as the World’s Largest Ball of Twine, what we’re talking about here. This is about something of no consequence, really, that sort of has a level of absurdity right at the center of it. And if it helps North Dakota, even in a puny little way, I’m for it!”

His advice: Chase after the centers while you can. Continents do wander, after all! 

The Olsens, having covered an additional 100 miles in search of center, decided we could take our successfully focused, relaxed selves and move on. See you later, North Dakota!

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As for our flashforward, how about this? Football has centers, right? Ha!

Whew, Isle Royale National Park was beautiful and fun all at once. But now we needed to head to Colorado Springs for our pet-sitting date with Kim and Mochi.

Along the way, we swung by to see what’s left of the Old Globe Grain Elevator in Superior, Wisconsin. Why? Todd. He read it used to be one of the largest fully wooden grain elevators ever built and after 130 years and several fires, it finally succumbed to one. Hopefully, what’s left will continue to be recycled into flooring and all other things wood.

Speaking of wood, also along the road, Todd found a wooden boat he declared to be a viable “fixer upper.” 🙂

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Just around the corner from this historic area, we stopped for the night at The Inn on Lake Superior, tag lined, “If you were any closer to the lake, you’d be in it.” From our third-floor balcony, we watched the downtown carriages return to the barn before a storm came in across the lake. In the morning, we had a great view of cruisers getting underway at sunrise.

Duluth/Superior is the westernmost point of the biggest Great Lake that was the central point of moving zillions of tons of stuff (highly technical stat there) from the MidWest to the rest of the country and the world! And we could only stay one night, bummer.

In the morning, we visited the interesting Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum for a quick look around before making the 500-mile drive from Duluth to Minot, North Dakota. Say what? But, on the way…

We did have a planned stop at Itasca State Park in Minnesota to see the actual headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River! On the way, Susie kept trying to get a good shot of one of the Great River Road signs through the bug-splattered windshield. In one instance, she checked the tiny screen afterwards to see she’d captured… teeth?

Time for a U-turn

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Established in 1891, Itasca State Park is Minnesota’s oldest state park and, more importantly to us, features the headwaters of the Mississippi River. You know we had to check that out.

We, however, side tripped to Itasca not for the scenic drive through the park but to wet our feet in the actual start of the Mississippi! Here 1475 feet above the ocean, the mighty Mississippi begins to flow north on its winding way to the Gulf of Mexico. Wait. North? Yes, north; not a misprint. The small (at this point) river first flows north from Lake Itasca, makes a bend to the east, and then begins flowing south, essentially making a U-turn, gaining size all the way along its 2552 miles to the Gulf.

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After splashing in the Mississippi, it was back on the road, rolling, rolling, rolling through the rest of northern Minnesota on to North Dakota for a quick stop for the night on the edge of ND in Grand Forks.

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But why Minot (pronounced mynot)?

Apparently, there’s a joke among Air Force members about Minot, which isn’t generally high on the list of dream assignments. The joke goes, “Why not Minot?” “Freezin’s the reason.”

Established in 1988, the park celebrates and preserves Nordic architecture and represents the five Scandinavian and Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland. The first three are important to Todd’s heritage.

Along with the gorgeous Gol Stave Church, our other favorite areas proved to be larger than life.

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After our afternoon in the park, it was time to find the hotel we’d booked for the night, an hour due south in Garrison, which turned out to be a bust when they played a bit of shuck and jive with the rate during check-in, doubling it from what we’d reserved months before. We firmly but politely declined… with no Plan B. Lesson learned – if you walk away, you have to be very flexible when searching for alternative lodging in the middle of farm country!

We ended up 35 miles south in Washburn, where we found a small but clean mom and pop motel just a block off the main road. No free breakfast like the chain hotels, but there was a fairly priced diner conveniently located across the parking lot. Score for the weary travelers!

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Now for our flashback to the present and taking care of the precious Mochi, here you go, Kim. Mochi says hello.

A few days ago, we hinted at a flashback tale. We couldn’t possibly go any other way. Since learning about Hodags on our return to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to catch a seaplane, we’ve traveled nearly 2,000 miles, through eight states, in seven days. Needless to say, there’s a great deal to catch up on, a-n-n-d we won’t be able to do so in one post, so bear with us. Here goes.

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Now let’s get to that seaplane adventure, shall we? Seemingly ages ago, on the morning of August 28, we boarded a seaplane with four other passengers for a 45-minute flight from Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula to Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior.

Our cabin wouldn’t be ready until mid-afternoon, so after leaving the small overnight tote bags with the lodge staff and consulting with the park rangers, we made our selection of doable trails and struck out to find…

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After joyfully taking selfies among the mosquitoes at what we thought was the cave entrance, we continued on, following the trail around the rocks, only to discover we’d celebrated the backdoor exit. Ha!

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The longer hike after the cave was more challenging, with changes in terrain, a bit of rock scrambling, and gorgeous views of Lake Superior.

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After a well-earned bite of lunch, we enjoyed the view of the harbor while waiting for check-in. Once informed the cabin was ready, we happily walked the 0.6 miles UPHILL to the cabin and opened the door to find…someone else’s luggage. Uh-oh. Is this the wrong cabin or just the wrong stuff?

Matters not, since there’s no phone service on the island. No choice but to walk the 0.6 miles back to the lodge office to report the situation, which they offered to rectify straightaway. And they did. They jetted off on their golfcart. Ah, thanks? Oh well, we trekked back up the 0.6-mile path to the cabin.

With the luggage bit straightened out, we were finally able to remove our boots and rest before dinner. Good thing, because the restaurant is located 0.6 miles back down the hill. To their credit, with a captive audience of ravenous hikers, dinner was delicious. After which, we trudged the 0.6 miles back UP the hill for the night.

If you’ve been keeping track, that’s 0.6 x5, which added up to an additional THREE miles on top of the five-mile hike. Our watches were tossing virtual confetti at our accomplishing more than 20,000 steps!

“Royal treatment?” Honey, I’ve got blisters on my calluses. Ouch.

Yes, but listen. What do you hear? That’s right. Nothing but the gentle, soul-restoring sounds of nature. Ahhh.

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After a good night’s sleep, we awoke to another beautiful day for the seaplane transport back to the mainland.

And with that, we returned to Hubbell, Mi, changed out of our hiking boots and hit the road. 270 miles to Duluth, Minnesota!

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And because no flashback movie or book worth its salt would miss the opportunity to confuse the audience with the occasional brief return to the present, h-e-e-r-e’s Mochi!

At approximately zero dark thirty on Friday, September 6, we checked Todd into the ER in the small town of Sidney, Nebraska. (How we got to Nebraska we will cover later.)

After many hours of diagnostic testing, it was determined that his system was totally out of whack due to a nasty gallbladder that needed to be removed ASAP. Determining the problem was the good news. The bad news was there’s no surgeon in Sidney, Nebraska, so they needed to transport him two and a half hours west to Fort Collins, Colorado.

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Susie packed up the rental, topped off Pearl with gas, and followed her man into the sunset.

It wasn’t long until…

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Todd was checked into the Surgical Unit at UC Health Poudre (pronounced “pooter” – Todd giggled every time they said it [could have been the drugs]) Valley Hospital in Fort Collins and dosed up with even more medications and antibiotics to prep for surgery in the a.m.

And for the best news? Surgery went well; the nastiness is gone; and Todd feels “a thousand times better.” (No, you don’t need photos for this part, although we do have some, thanks to the surgeon. Eeeuuuu.)

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After an additional night in the hospital for observation, Todd was discharged and we headed to Colorado Springs, where we will be house/pet sitting for a few weeks for Kim, the cousin of our dear friend and fellow-cruiser, Lynn.

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The surgical speedbump in our path delayed our arrival to the point that we missed meeting Kim before she headed to the airport Sunday. As a Plan B, she left Mochi with a kind-hearted friend, who delivered her to us after we could make it to the house.

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Now that we’re staying in one place for a few weeks, the patient can finish healing, Mochi can get used to us, and our photographer can get through the backlog of 300+ photos to prepare our catch-up posts. Consider this like a Flashback style show. Wonder how they ended up here…

That’s life. Gotta watch out for the curveballs, especially when Todd is pitching! Enough is enough! 🙂