Leaving Minnesota
Sunday, July 13, 2008
So we pass through McIntosh, MN. Contrary to any rumors you may have heard, the MacIntosh computer was not invented there.
We pass through MacIntosh, Erskine, Mentor, bypass Crookston, through Fisher. Then, we come to Grand Forks, North Dakota. This is how we would get to US2 if we came up I29. You might do this if you came a more southerly route, say via I94 (say in a hurry from Illinois), or from Nebraska.
There are a number of interesting towns along the way here. I am sure everyone has heard of Minot (which we will come to later) but bet you haven't heard of Minto. Note that this has the same letters as Minot, but the last two are in a different order. Imagine the confusion if you lived in Minto and typo'd your town and stuff ended up in Minot instead. Bummer. Or, if you were looking for Polish Dancing, and inadvertently ended up in Minto, you might not be so dissapointed, since as you can see, they have Polish Dancing and Snowmobiling Clubs.
A little further up the road is Grafton, ND. I don't think that Sue Grafton was from there, but who knows. Also up that way you can find Poland and Oslo and Pisek.
One thing that I will caution you about is if you take this road at night, it will be dark. There will be few lights to either side of you for miles. You might be lucky, however and get to see an Empire Builder train go by, with their scenic cars and all. This train runs along US2 for most of its length starting at Grand Forks. It is a pretty good way to get from Conrad Montana to school in Evanston, IL.
And along in here, you go through Lakota, ND, where perhaps Phil Jackson spent some time.
You also go through Michigan and Petersberg.