WannaskaWriter

   "Walking the Pembina Trail," with Jackie Helms, Tom Thronsedt, and Orlin Ostby's family: his wife, Amanda, their 15 year old son Christopher and 12 year old daughter Catherine for the better part of 400 miles in the sweltering heat and winds of July and August 2008 from Pembina, ND to St. Paul, MN in commemoration of Minnesota's 150th birthday--then have it 'suddenly' end sort of leaves me with an empty feeling, although we accomplished what we set out to do.  I wondered about this end-of-trail syndrome. Taking the opportunity, I asked two women who participated in the Sesquicentennial wagon train that traveled from Cannon Falls, Minnesota to the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul in May of 2008 about it. They had said the trip had been a good one but they were glad it was over so they could get back to real beds and hot showers. They had walked for five days and covered 150 miles... What would we think after 50 some days and 400 miles?      Reviewing the ...

Off The Beaten Path         I had long felt I was a country boy in a city boy's body. After learning I wasn't going to be drafted for Vietnam, in 1971, I took the opportunity to purchase my uncle Martin Davidson's farm that was for sale in Roseau County, Minnesota. This 160 acre farm of dense woodland and flowing water resides in a township named after my great grandfather on my mother's side named Louis Palm, a Swedish immigrant, the first settler in the area.     Owned by my mother's younger sister and her husband, this farm was my favorite place to visit all the summers we came north to see her mother, sister, brothers and cousins throughout my childhood. This farm and the surrounding community embodied the mystery of natural timberland, open fields, creeks and rivers, and wild animals I would never see in Iowa including black bears and timber wolves; one of the best things I remember treasuring about it was that there were so few people t...

  That's where we live, appreciably far off the beaten path the rest of the 21st century takes. Having returned from another walk with the Orlin Ostby family of Gatzke, Minnesota who are reenacting in part, a 420 mile walk along portions of the Pembina Trail with ox and two-wheeled cart undertaken by Delmar Hagen in 1958 for Minnesota's 100th birthday, for Minnesota's 150th birthday this year, I return home thankful to live out of everyone else's way. Oofdah for traffic! Where is everyone going all in a rush? Four dollar a gallon gasoline hasn't stopped them all...   It may be dull here in comparison to all the hubbub of the urban areas but it's always been my great retreat, this opportunity to step out of the mainstream, to savor silence (though I admit, in increasingly rarer moments even around here), to acknowledge the seeming closeness of the Milky Way overhead after I get home from work, witness the northern lights, recognize the melody of a meadow lark or ...