Friday, September 08, 2006
NoDak: Middlest
I'm now way north, and near nothing. Some rusting pickup trucks, some cows, the sun draining down toward an impossibly distant horizon. I head west toward it, and still farther north, until I finally come to US 2, which passes for the main road. More wheat, some hay, sunflowers.In the late evening I come to a weird, wide lake called Devil's Lake. It's getting cool, threatening rain, the wind is still howling. The waters look cold and deep, but then I look at the landscape around it and realize I might be able to wade across. Mostly, it looks like it doesn't belong here.
I drive on until dark; think about sleeping in the Element at a little rest area and then think better of it. I find a room in the town of Rugby.
Rugby is tourist attraction number 2 in the state of North Dakota: the geographical center of North America. There's a sign that says so:
and a pylon in the middle of the parking lot of a building housing a cafe and a gym. A man from Ohio and I share our disappointment in the experience and take each other's picture. I'm fairly certain I got him with his eyes open.
Parked in front of the cafe are mostly pickup trucks with North Dakota plates. I take this to be a good sign, and it basically is. Mostly older men getting together for breakfast on a Saturday morning. I have left the home fries belt and entered the hash browns belt, and this is a good thing, and the waitress asks me if I want them with onions, which makes a good thing better. I pass on the strawberry rhubarb pie, only because I'm full, and on the special "butter gooey cake with coffee, $1," which has nothing to do with my being full.
