July 2019, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Day 8

We woke up bright and early this morning to embark on our longest drive of the trip. We’ll be in the car for about 13 hours without many stops. After loading up, we headed to the Castle’s breakfast room for coffee and a continental breakfast. Gary and Rod were already there and Gary shared that he was heading to church. We learned that the town once had 3 bustling Catholic churches. Now only one is still open and there is only a priest on Sundays. So on top of being an artist, hotel manager, restaurateur, store owner and ice cream scooper, Gary is also a Eucharist Minister in the Catholic church.  Every morning, he goes to church and administers the sacraments to one or two parishioners.  What a pleasure to meet people like Gary Greff! Now, away to the Enchanted highway we go!

The Tin Family, 1991
Pa is 45 feet tall and is held into place with 16 telephone poles!
Made of used farm equipment

Teddy Rides Again, 1993
A tribute to Theodore Roosevelt made of old well pipe and weighing over 9000 pounds!

Pheasants on the Prairie, 1996
This one was my favorite. It is so big with lots of detail. The rooster is 40 feet high and 70 feet long! This took 3 years to complete.

Fisherman's Dream 2006
3 dimensional, so colorful with great detail.
The sun wasn't doing me any favors with this picture.

The Deer Family, 2002
Made of old cut up well tanks
The buck is 75 feet tall and had to be taken apart and reassembled on site because he couldn't fit down the streets of Regent!

There is also an amazing grasshopper, but the picture I took was atrocious and it would be insulting to post it.
Finally, Gary's Guinness Book of World Record holder! The World's Largest Scrap Metal Sculpture!

Geese in Flight, 2001
This gorgeous piece is made of oil well pipe and oil tanks.

 I am here to tell you that these pictures don't do a thing for these amazing sculptures. They need to be seen in person. Get thyself to Regent, ND!

Mile 2548 Bismark- We paid a quick visit to the state capitol building. It was pretty anti-climatic after our trip down the Enchanted Highway. 

Meh.

Did I mention we were in the car forever today? The grumpy twins needed some alone time. They've always wanted their own rooms!

With so much ground to cover,  I only had one stop planned and that was the “other” World’s Largest Ball of Twine. The twine ball in Darwin, MN and the one in Cawker City, KS are feuding over who should be able to claim the title. They’ve altered their names to distinguish one from the other. The one in Cawker City was “built by the community” and the one in Darwin was “built by one man” (it took him 29 years!) And now you can win at trivia. On my map, it was a quick little dip to the south to see the twine ball and then back on the road to Mazomanie, Wisconsin. That was until the road to Darwin was closed. “No prob”, I said, “I’ll just reroute myself and maybe tack on a few extra minutes”…Another road closure and a detour.  At this point I am getting a little miffed. Finally, we seemed to be on the right track when we spied another road closed sign in the distance. 

WTF- Why The Fence?

I quit, I said. That is a very un-Sarah thing to say, but I knew that we were already going to be rolling into Nana’s house around 11:00.  But, do you know what? That sweet Mr. Bullington dug deep into the map and found another route to the big twine ball. It gave the kids just enough time to get good and asleep before I started blaring “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota” which is quite possibly Weird Al Yankovic’s magnum opus. And, if you don’t believe me, I will fight you. They even had pictures of Weird Al when he visited the gigantic twine ball. There was gift shop that I barrelled into  because it was about to close and detours had really knocked me off schedule. Nothing was going to stand between me and a schweet new pair of twine ball earrings, a t-shirt, and an ornament.  As for our comparative analysis of the twine balls, we think the Darwin ball looks bigger.  However, it is housed behind glass so our conclusion is based only on observation.

Yay! We made it and sun is bright!

That is a big ball o' twine!

1 out of 3 kids not hating you is good, right?

Mile ???- So I am nestled in a big, comfy bed that only Nana can provide and I have no idea how many miles we've been without looking at the odometer. We've made this pilgrimage to check off 4 more states on our way to 50. We only have 10 more to go!  We are revisiting a few and we needed to check on our "Nana". I don't know the exact mileage of Mazomaine, Wisconsin, but I do know that so far we've been in the car for 51 hours since July 6th. And, I'd have traveled a million more for one of Nana's  hugs and to hear the peal of her laughter. Nana isn't any blood relation, but she helped us raise the girls until they went to school and helped with Thomas until she moved back to Wisconsin.

At last....Nana!