Sunday, May 19

Odometer Reading: 51,030 Food Supply: Leftover Pizza Hut breadsticks

Today was Corn Palace day. The folks in Mitchell are extremely proud of their corn center and as a result it was easy to find--smack dab in the middle of Main Street.

It is truly an agricultural marvel. Even the auditorium on the inside is decorated with giant corn murals. A photo exhibit reminds everyone that the corn scenes change every year, so be sure to come again (these writers were obviously trained at the S.D. Welcome Center). South Dakota must really want you to come back!

We arrived in Minnesota about 3 hours later and the lady at the welcome center gave us directions to the twine ball. (At first she didn't know what we were talking about, but then she consulted her Travel Rolodex and found the directions under "T" for "Twine"). This was the highlight of our trip, really. We were on a mission to see that ball of twine.

We made a big sign for the car that read "Twine Ball or Bust." People laughed at us and pointed and stared but it didn't matter. We were lured by the open road and we were just too excited to see that twine ball. (Click here to read the lyrics to Weird Al Yankovic's personal song written about the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minesota, our "official" travel anthem).

Finally, after passing by the Minnesota Dairy Queen phenomenon (Any Minnesotans out there? Write and tell me what's the deal with the popular DQ's on Sundays!), we saw the sign:

"Eat at the Twine Ball Inn."

I spit my ice cream all over the windshield and the dash. And there it appeared, like a vision, before our unbelieving eyes....I'm telling you, that thing is huge! And it's solid to the core!

21,140 pounds of string, right there on display in the middle of the public park. While we were talking to the nice lady who ran the TB Inn, four different carloads of people had stopped to pay their respects at the twine ball. Amazing. (As a side note, the movie "Michael" features the "World's Largest Twine Ball," but they made a mistake. The Minnesota Twine Ball is the Largest in the World, and it was made by one man). And don't send me nasty e-mail either (check out this War of the Twine Balls link)! The twine ball in Cawker City, Kansas is also billed at the "World's Largest," but it's a fraud! You see, the Kansas twine ball keeps getting bigger every year because lots of people add to it. The MN twine ball, however, was made ENTIRELY by ONE MAN. This, to me, is a much greater accomplishment.

Minneapolis looked like a nice city. We didn't have much time to linger, though. And by the time we reached the Mall of America, it had closed for the day. We still went inside and walked around. There's a roller coaster, log flume, ferris wheel and other rides inside, and tons of shops--and every kind of shop you can imagine. Some stores even have two or three different locations in the mall...a true haven for shopaholics. There are also some great restaurants in the Mall (including a small but fun Planet Hollywood) and a "bar walk," featuring a Fat Tuesdays, Hooters, and other sports bars/pubs. We also took a look at the Eden Parie Mall, the setting for the film "Mallrats." We didn't go inside, though.

We pushed on along the Minnesota countryside until we got sleepy and made it as far as Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Monday, May 20

Odometer Reading: 51,539 Food Supply: What's food?

Eau Claire was a nice little college town. The Paul Bunyan Logging Camp was a highlight. We even took a 40 minute detour in order to see the Largest Replica Cheese in the History of Mankind and Chatty Belle, the World's Largest Talking Cow. The talking cow was, ironically, out of order. The replica cheese is a life-sized model of a gigantic cheddar cheese block that was eaten at the 1964 World's Fair. The cheese now sits in the back of a truck and is sometimes driven around for special exhibits.

Adjacent to the giant cow and fake cheese is a radio station. Go inside and say "hello," and buy a cheese log for the road. Mmmmmm!

We drove through the Wisconsin Dells, a place I once visited with a friend, and it's still as awful as I remember. Very touristy and very dirty...an all-around icky place crammed with disgusting family motels, run-down "smorgasboard" restaurants and awful tourist attractions like Tommy Bartlett's Robot World. We got the hell out of there fast. In fact, we got the hell out of Wisconsin. By this time, we were so tired of driving that it wasn't even funny. We tried to find the Pabst Blue Ribbon brewery in Milwaukee, but the whole city was just a smoky cluster of breweries and nothing stood out. The sky here was dark, dark gray. We pressed on to Indiana, braving a terrible rainstorm and passing right through Chicago (not a favorite city of mine) and Illinois.

Tuesday, May 21

Odometer Reading: 52,036 Food Supply: Thank god for the 24 hour truckstop

We breezed through Indiana and Indianapolis, which looked like a swell place. (We saw where Elvis performed his last concert). We had quickie tours of the cities--we drove through them and looked around. Besides, this was the 'down' part of our trip. We had seen all the highlights by now. This was definitely a hypertour of the Midwest, as we were totally out of money and could barely stand holding our eyes open or being on the road for one more day (not to mention wearing 3-day-old dirty socks)!Ohio was also a blur (lots of flooded land/washed out roads), though I do remember that Cincinnati was another nice town. We trucked on through West Virginia and the awful WV Turnpike and made it all the way to North Carolina. But we were so tired we just couldn't press on any further.

Wednesday, May 22

Odometer Reading: 52,709 Food Supply: Help. We're starving.

We made it to Warsaw around 1:00 p.m., a day earlier than scheduled. We ate. We slept. We took my car to get it washed (finally) and developed our cool pictures. The next day we took a longer, much needed rest and later made our way back to Maryland.

And that, my friends, was the Great American Road Trip.

Well, it's finally here! It's the sequel, and our new adventures are up on the Web. Why don't you come along for another ride? We'd love to have you!

Please send your comments, questions or suggestions to: niftybugs@hotmail.com.

And please take a moment to sign my GUESTBOOK.

We hope you enjoyed your journey across the U.S. with us!


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This page was created, designed and written by Louisa Moore.