Day 5 - US 10 at DennyGibson.com
I left the motel quite a bit later than usual today because my first
planned stop opened at 11:00 and was only about half an hour away. Partly
because that first stop was going to be a food stop and partly because I
still felt full from yesterday's overeating, breakfast was coffee and a
small pastry at the motel.
I stumbled onto Val's Rapid Service when I drove the Jefferson Highway
in 2018. That
happened to be during one of the restaurant's busiest periods and I was
fascinated by how it earned the "rapid" with kiosks for ordering
and assembly line style preparation and delivery. It wasn't nearly as busy
today and I expected to zoom right through ordering my meal now that I was
experienced. I zoomed right up until payment time when I could not get
beyond the "Pay Now" button. No problem. I simply paid at the
window when I picked up my order. When I did, I mumbled something about
my lack of success paying at the kiosk and was told, "Yeah, that
doesn't work."
I did not order fries back in 2018, but I did today, and found out they
are very good. I've heard the Five Guys always tosses "extra"
fries in each bag. I've a hunch that Val's has been doing it longer, and
I'm pretty sure they are doing it better.
The World's Largest Tractor Sculpture at the Sculpture Park in
New York Mills, MN, is the first of a series of big
things I had marked in my GPS.
The playground turtle isn't quite what I expected, but it is big. Big Tom
in Frazee, MN, is more impressive. He's the World's Largest Turkey. He is
the second at this location to hold the title, and the bird he replaced
has
quite a story. Alexa is just one of five trolls (and
one golden rabbit) that Thomas Dambo installed in Detroit Lakes, MN, last
year. Alexa's
recipe book helps her make her
elixir, and she provides clues to help find the other trolls as described
here. I did not seek out any other trolls in Detroit
Lakes, but I have seen all of Dambo's trolls near
Dayton, OH, and
Louisville,
KY.
I believe this roadside marker is the last of its kind on westbound US-10.
The big green overhead sign is what I saw after joining the westbound
expressway, exiting, and heading back east. Neither an end nor a beginning
is marked.
This trip differs from most of my route following outings in tracking the
current rather than historic path of a route. Not only did that make this
trip short enough to be feasible, it made sense to me since the entire
outing was based on a ferry that was very much not part of the original
US-10.
democrat
