Finally at the "Center" of it all!

Since it is Memorial Day, we thought it made sense to start the day off with church (good idea, Theresa).  From Minot, we headed a bit north and then east to Rugby, the Geographic center of North America.  It is a grand pillar, visible from far far away, and striking in appearance.  OK, it's a pile of rocks in the shape of a pillar, and about 30 feet tall.  But it is accompanied by three flag poles with the US, Canadian, and Mexican flags.  I guess "Central America" doesn't count?  And when Highway 2 was widened, they moved it out of the way.  So, the location is sort of ...arbitrary.  Also, it is in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant.  By the way, there are a LOT of Mexican restaurants up here in North Dakota, but we'll come back to that.  After a few quick pictures, I literally ran all around North America (in a circle around the cairn).  We hopped in the car, and I proceeded to drive around North America, before crossing Hwy 2 for gas and potty break.  (We live a little on the wild side!)

At the heart of North America?  A Mexican restaurant!

That's right...we're not near anything!!!

We continued East about an hour before coming to a bustling town with a Taco John's.  Recall there are a lot of Mexican restaurants?  Not sure why, but every night this trip that we searched for where to eat, Theresa put "Taco John's" on the list.  I have no idea why!  But there it was, and it was lunch time.  So, we stopped for the magical and long awaited experience.  It was better than Taco Bell...I think.  :-)

Missileer's Launch Control station.

On we went to Cooperstown, and the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historical Site(s).  After the treaty with the Soviet Union in which we began drawing down out nuclear arsenal, we decommissioned lots of Minuteman Missile sites, but N.D. petitioned to make this one a museum.  So, the control room was preserved.  They could launch missiles from 10 different silos from one control center like this one.  It was a good tour.  We then went on to one of the silo sites (about 6 miles away).  Although they filled this one with dirt (others they imploded), they left the top intact so it looked like it would have back in the day.  There was no one there, so we had it to ourselves, and even though it began sprinkling, it didn't really rain until we got back into the car and started our final leg to Fargo.

A rather beefy door!

We took a "long" way, heading to I-29 and south.  I-29 was the first section of Interstate completely finished after the highway act Eisenhower signed in the 1950s.  I'm not sure they've kept it up since, however...it was a bit...bumpy...  But the rain was light on the back roads, and helped wash some of the bug crust off of the windshield (a never-ending battle to keep the window clean as the bugs seemed magnetically attracted to our window).

Another early night arriving in Fargo about 5pm. Writing the blog with wine and cheese at Homewood Suites...off to the Barney Pub for dinner (another thing they have plenty of in North Dakota...Irish Pubs).