After visiting the International Peace Garden, we spent the night in Rugby, ND. Rugby has the distinction of being the geographic center of North America. That made it imperative that we plant ourselves in the middle.
It’s Ted and me–right in the middle of North America!
In case you’re wondering how far it is to Acapulco, Neah Bay, WA, the Arctic Circle, or Lubec, ME.
The funny part? The geographic center of North America is in the parking lot of this Mexican restaurant. It’s just to the left of the picture.
Rugby has a population of about 2,800. We had lunch at what appeared to be a small local restaurant in this small city.
We thought this was it, but there were three more larger dining rooms behind the wall with the “Cafe” sign, plus a huge banquet hall running the length of the building behind the four dining rooms. We arrived around 11:30. At noon, people started pouring in and two dining rooms were in use by the time we left. Where do people come from to fill all these dining rooms?
We heard another customer discussing what to order. He said he wanted dinner (noon meal), not breakfast (served all day). I haven’t heard of eating “breakfast, dinner, and supper” since we moved out of Wisconsin.
The “supper” menu on the whiteboard included chicken “hot dish”–another northern favorite.
As we drove out of town, we found Rugby kitsch. Yup! We’re definitely having a kitsch-y trip.
Wherever we go in North Dakota, there are bales in the ditches along the highways. Do they actually harvest the ditches or do they just wait that long to cut the grass?