Day Fourteen

Tonight I write from the geographic center of North America... Rugby, North Dakota. Other notable features include the Prairie Village Museum, Frank's German Restaurant, and a supper club called The Eagles. I am staying with the Anderson family, some dear friends I made during my time at PLU and very gracious hosts.

This morning started with coffee and oatmeal at a local diner and then to a museum tour with my friend Maren, one of those gracious Andersons I told you about. After a riveting time at the museum we drove to downtown where we walked around a bit and eventually made it to Frank's German Restaurant. At Frank's we ordered donor kabobs and enjoyed the company of other Rugbians. The restaurant is small enough that all customers join into a collective conversation- a really cool perk of a small town, even Frank was having fun with us. Maren then took me to some local farmland where I thought it would be fun to do a photoshoot with all my best cowboy gear (see pictures below). Later we met up with Maren's parents Loren and MaryAnn and we proceeded to a 50th wedding anniversary at The Eagles supper club for a much loved couple who are icons in the Rugby farming community.

Rugby is a very small town and it felt as if the entire community was in attendance at the anniversary party, I kept seeing people from passing in town earlier in the day. A sideshow played. There was an attempt to capture the lives of two and all they loved and accomplished in 50 years in a 20 minute presentation. Not a critique on the quality of the sideshow, it was well done, but more an observation on life. A video just can't do the justice that the experiences and memories sitting in those chairs do, but it sure is neat to see old photographs of newly weds and new photographs of old people still in love. To see photos of a family so enriched by each other, and sons and daughter honoring their parents by putting on such an event, really put the Midwest into perspective for me. Being a pure outsider from the west coast observing this all has definitely provided a unique experience that is hard to articulate other than life's really about family and the community out here.