Day 6: August 1, 2025 On the King of Trails Comment via blog

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I had left home without much of a plan for my return, but somewhere along the way had sort of settled on taking US-75 south until it crossed a homeward pointed road like US-36, US-40, or US-50. I spent the night in West Fargo, ND, then drove east through Fargo to pick up US-75 in Moorehead, MN. There were plenty of places in those towns where I could have eaten breakfast, but I figured I would be going through lots of small towns with mom & pop diners on every other corner. What I got was this.

I only started searching for breakfast after I'd left Moorehead, and kept turning up places behind me or far off to one side or the other. Finally, after nearly fifty miles, at the north edge of Breckenridge, something promising showed up that was about a mile off of my route. That mile took me back into North Dakota where I had breakfast at a travel center with gas pumps, a wine shop, and a couple of other offerings.

In Wheaton, MN, the Traverse County Sportsman's Club displays some pretty fancy wood carvings.

King of Trails was a named auto trail that connected Winnipeg, MB, with Galveston, TX. Although US-75 does not completely follow the route of the old auto trail, it does in parts parts and has been designated King of Trails in Minnesota.

There are some very choice classic cars in this collection near Odessa, MN, for someone with lots of skill, time, and money. It's part of a wrecking and salvage yard that occupies a 'V' between two roads. On the other road, I got to see some of the cars that didn't make the cut.

As I left Madison, MN, I snapped this picture of a giant fish that greats travelers entering the town from the south. Then I found an even bigger catch (IMO) just beyond. Unlike those cars near Odessa, these appear not to be survivors of a salvage operation but stand alone front yard ornamentation.

This architect designed water tower in Pipestone, MN, was built in 1920 and retired in 1976. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

My first stop in Luverne, MN, was not at this motel but at a brewery. Searching by voice as I drove had turned up a motel from a chain I sometimes use and I halfway planned to stay there. But while I sipped a beer at the brewery, I scanned reviews and decided otherwise. Most reviews of the chain location were negative, while almost all reviews of the Cozy Rest were positive in one regard. Several said it was badly overgrown and hard to see and that the cat aroma in the office area was nearly overwhelming, but just about all of them said the rooms, though neither modern nor fancy, were clean and quite satisfactory. All of that -- overgrowth, cat smell, and clean rooms (including mine) -- was true.

From the bartender at the brewery, I learned that a food truck would be there in the evening. After checking in, I decided that would be dinner, and, since it was only a few blocks away, decided to walk. That gave me a chance to photograph the Palace Theater and some of the many large nutcrackers displayed around town. Starting with a donation of a personal collection of 2,800 nutcrackers, the county museum now has more that 5,300 on display as described here. Luverne is on a mission to make itself the nutcracker capital of the world.

The party was well underway when I made it back to Take 16 Brewing, and Prairie Home Rebellion would start playing a few minutes after I arrived. Dinner tonight was a pulled pork sandwich from Murph's Burger & Fries.

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