Millions of Beautiful Places, Only One Hometown

For 8 days we hit the road with four stops in mind before eventually landing in my hometown, Rugby ND. As amazing as it was to see some of our nation's most beautiful national parks, there is still something special about laying eyes on your hometown for the first time in years. Although we were only able to spend a little less than 2 days here, it was a refreshing experience. Even in the town where I spent the first 18 years of my life, one college summer, and countless week-long and weekend trips and vacations as a an adult there is still much that I haven't seen.

We tend to take things for granted in our hometowns. For Jenn, it was things like never having visited Antelope Canyon in Page, AZ. We are still planning on making that trip in the near future. For me it was small things like visiting the Prairie Village Museum (formerly Pioneer Village), or watching a sunset over the fields of North Dakota, or even just paying attention to the wetlands in the drive up to the town. 

Photo Credit to Jenn

Sometimes it takes showing someone new the town you grew up in for you to gain some additional insight on all the things you missed while you were there. I'm sure leading up to the trip, Jenn had a little bit of dread in her mind. I can't blame her, because I'm sure my descriptions of North Dakota winters and summer time mosquitoes made the place sound like the outer layer of hell. Showing her the town, brought back so much civic pride. Sure it is a small town and we completed pretty much the entire tour in less than a 30 minute drive. But I gained a nostalgic feeling I haven't had in a while. 

I started with the silly tourist things: taking a picture by the Geographical Center Monument, "dragging a main", showing my high school. As our trip expanded, the memories got deeper. I showed her my grandfather's house where we used to pick crab apples. I showed her my great grandmother's house where the wishing well on the side still stands. We drove by the dirt race track where I told her my father used to race his #53 Trans Am. These were still the surface level memories for the most part. Then things got even deeper, as we turned down each street, there was almost always a story to tell. The alleys we played in as kids, the stores that used to stand that have been replaced by newer businesses, the businesses that have somehow weathered the storms of time, the places we used to ride bikes, the time a friend and I mistakenly stole soup from Cenex for 3 months before realizing it wasn't a 'free' offering and feeling terrible. 

These were the old memories, but there was still plenty of room for new memories. In 18 years of living here I don't remember ever touring the museum. We walked through all of the displays. It is amazing to realize there is so much history, even in a small town like Rugby, and a small county like Pierce County. These relics were not tourist traps, like those you'll find in Goldfield Ghost Town in Arizona where everything is a money grab. Everything we saw at the museum were things that Goldfield tries to replicate and in my opinion exploit. Here they just leave it open for people to explore. They don't even have security on site to make sure you don't break an exhibit while taking a picture with the world's tallest man statue. It certainly is not 'about the money' at a place like that. 

I went to the Centre Cinema movie theater for the first time since I was probably in Junior High.Today, it is run by volunteers who feel that a small town should never be without a movie theater.  I watched the new Ninja Turtles movie like I was 8 years-old all over again. The place still has the same paintings on the side and the same flooring from what I can tell. This part of the weekend was truly one of those life coming full-circle type of moments that I doubt I'll ever forget. The only difference between this trip to the movies and my younger days, is that this time I did kiss the girl I brought as my date. 

As we start the final portion of our journey, the truly unscripted three day trip back to Phoenix, I find myself thankful that Rugby, ND does still hold a special place in my heart. I had this dread that I would come back and feel nothing as I went down those old roads. I'm happy to say that was not the case. We spent the last week at the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, San Francisco, Redwoods, and Yellowstone. For the next three days the stops will be random, and the sights unexpected. Despite all of this experienced and still to come sensory overload, Rugby is special.