Roadside Surprises

One of the best things about a road trip are what you see outside the car windows as you're driving across state, county, and city lines... . The scene is constantly changing, especially if you decide to take local byways and backroads rather than the interstate. The landscape can change from green vegetation to golden grasses, rolling hills to vast prairies, and sparkling lakes to rectangular plots of crops. This was my expectation coming into this trip, and the Midwest did not disappoint.

But perhaps the best things are the surprises that you do not expect. On this trip, we experienced multiple such moments and locations. There was Theodore Roosevelt National Park (as I blogged earlier about). Another was the never-ending Lake Superior coastline, which we followed all the way to Marquette. Never before this trip did I ever consider that the Midwest would have so much beachfront. (It turns out that the Michigan apparently has the 2nd most coastline of any state, only following Alaska.) If the weather was 15 degreees warmer, I am sure northern Michigan cities would be as popular as ocean bordering beach town. And then there were the fireflies that greeted us with a blinking lightshow as we crossed into Iowa.

It wasn't all Mother Nature's doing though Along the way, we encountered many man made novelties as well... Sue the world's largest Holstein (New Salem, ND) crowd, Wall Drug (Wall, SD) and the Corn Palace (Mitchell, SD) already have a devout following.

However, some reputations have not trickled into the general public's awareness yet. One of these places is located on highway 81 in ND, running north/south on a highway that This 32 mile stretch of road has been named the "Enchanted Highway". On the "Enchanged HIghway", you will come across fish, pheasants, and grasshoppers of epic proportion.

Overall, our drive through the Midwest uncovered numerous "diamonds in the rough"... Some known, some not. But each unique in their own way. And although I probably won't revisit all of them, I was glad to have seen them at least once.