Ok now this is just the opening and I will ad more as time permits. Please tell me if it holds your interest. Thank You
07/01/2007 The day has finally arrived to embark on the road trip of a
lifetime. The destination a small town in northern Minnesota. From Little falls we traveled those "ribbons of highway"(¤1) made up of "Hwy 371",Hwy 210" & Hwy 169". On this first day in July of 2007 I rode into his hometown, a town that has been described as old, small, dying, struggling and on it's outs. I had these visions of a ghost town, a spot in the road with tar paper shacks weather worn unpainted siding and houses in various states of disrepair. "your streets are getting empty, lord your highways are getting filled....."(¤2). As I write this I am thinking ,"geeze that describes my thoughts on what I actually saw in Hollywood!"
The likes of the words "with half damp eye I stared into that room. where my friends and I spent many an afternoon......."(¤3) ran though my head as we passed though Taconite,Mn. a small Minnesota mining town surrounded by mountains of red crushed rock. They must have been there for a long time with the size tress that were flourishing on those man made mounds of rock. Periodically as we traveled though the many small towns we saw mileage signs indicating the distance to our destination. Now the curious part of our journey was that the area we traveled though was more of a up-north cottage/resort feel than it was of a mining community, yet the empty and idle ore cars paralleled our path and were positioned as if they were in queue to be filled. That was not my reason for this road trip nor did they hold any of my interest. As we entered our destination we stopped at MacDonald’s. Yes a MacDonald’s and even a Wal-Mart is located here, but then those retail outlets are now as much of a part of our landscape as the monuments and Historical markers or our past. Like most places the growth in retail is located on the outer boundaries of the community. The first sign of the city was an elaborate and ornate sign much in the likes of a turn of the century sign on a plot of well manicured grass and flowers boldy proclaiming it's name. This sign seemed well outside of any city limits as it was surround by acres of unimproved land.....more to come
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