George has this obsession where he likes to take pictures of
himself with places and things with “George” in the name. You can probably
think of more than a few just off the top of your head. More than once, our car
has screeched to a halt on the side of the road, so George can jump out and
take his picture with the road sign for “George Street” or “George Road”. In
Utah, we laid down rubber so we would not miss our chance to take a picture
with “George Rock”. I’ve asked George when all this surname hunting started. He
told me “really just with you”. It is so ridiculous, but so funny and sweet
that I’ve always just gone along with it.
Perhaps it is my penance for the need to dip my feet in big
rivers and my obsession with roadside attractions. Yeah, I am one of those people. One of the legions of
tourists who see an billboard advertisement for the world’s largest spoon and
insist that we must stop. I hit the jackpot today, baby! Not only did I
visit the world’s largest sandhill crane, but I also saw the world’s largest
buffalo; both animals, to boot! No cutlery on this road!
The world’s largest sandhill crane is located in Steele, ND,
not even half a mile from the town’s exit off of I-94. “Sandy” (named by a
local student) is about 40 feet tall and weighs in over 4 tons. She was
completed in 1999, built entirely by one man, James Miller, a North Dakotan.
The statue stands in an area of the state befitting the subject matter. The
south eastern corner of the state is referred to as the Prairie Pothole Region –
so called for the overabundance of small lakes created by glaciers. I posted a
screenshot of an aerial map so you can see just how abundant these lakes are. Smack
dab in the middle of the birds’ migration route, this is one of the world’s
best areas for birding. Real sandhill cranes stand 3-4 feet tall with a
wingspan of 6-7 feet, making them pretty big in my book. Their body type
reminds me of an ostrich with the gangly legs and periscope neck. The sandhill
crane is an awesome bird, my favorite birds are hawks, owls and herons
(specifically the Night Heron). Of course, there was a geocaching hidden at the
site of the World’s Largest Sandhill Crane and we found it.
Back on the road and down (over? across?) I-94 we went,
watching the flocks of birds flying and ducks paddling and knowing that these
were hundreds of thousands of birds nesting in the grasses. On and on we went,
until we reached Jamestown, North Dakota, and the home of the world’s largest
buffalo. The unnamed buffalo is the brainchild of then Chamber of Commerce
President Harold Newman and was brought to life by Jamestown College art
instructor Elmer Paul Peterson in 1959. It weighs over 60 tons, stands 26 feet
high and 46 feet long. The statue presides over an entire area created for
tourists called “Frontier Town” where you can see what it really looked like
inside each of the buildings (a school a saloon, etc.) The Buffalo Museum also
maintains a herd of about thirty buffalo on site, one of which is extremely
unusual. “White Cloud” is a genetically verified albino buffalo that has calved
albino offspring. There are actually a number of reasons that buffalo can be
born with white fur, but “White Cloud” was genetically tested and she is the
real McCoy – an albino buffalo. The chance of a white buffalo birth for any of
the possible reasons is still only 1 in 10 million. Many Native American tribes
have legends surrounding the birth of a white buffalo calf. The Lakota Sioux
believe that the birth of the calf “Miracle” in 1994, symbolizes “the coming
together of humanity into a oneness of heart, mind, and spirit”.You can feel
now, their sadness, their despair when they learned that “Lightening Medicine
Cloud,” a non-albino calf born in 2012 was found killed and skinned on the
Texas ranch where it was born. We were lucky enough to get to see White Cloud from
fairly nearby (albeit behind a big fence) while we visited the Buffalo Museum
and Frontier Town. Although I must admit, we both thought White Cloud was male.
I don’t know why I assumed this, but there it is. Come on, people, you don’t
just ask the buffalo to turn around so you can check things out! Bluck! And yes, there was a geocache at the world'd largest buffalo, and we found that one too!
I really need to find an app that alerts me when an
attraction is on my route. As of now, we have just stopped as we have stumbled
across (or past) these sites. I would have missed “Sandy” had there not been a
need for gas and a bathroom break! There are more than a few websites dedicated
to cataloging, describing and promoting roadside attractions. I like the
RoadsideAmerica site, which promotes itself as “Your Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist
Attractions”. National Geographic and Time Magazine had some slow news days
when their writers submitted articles about these things and they were published!
We finally cruised in to Fargo, ND to get some nibbles and
get out of the car. Again, I used Google Maps, UrbanSpoon and Yelp to find us a
restaurant that would work. This time, I stumbled upon The Drunken Noodle.
Sounds funny, but tastes yummy! What sold me were the gluten-free menu items
listed online and a review praising their gluten-free rice. It was a neat-o
hipster joint, sparsely decorated, but painted with bold colors. The counter
where you order was branded with carvings and graffiti of customers past.
Before we left, I added our names. We split a rice entrée and it was so good,
we ordered a second one “to go” for later when around 9 PM, we would inevitably
get hungry. It was just as good the second time!
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