Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The World's Largest Buffalo

I just looked down for maybe a minute (doing a puzzle - Hidato), and almost missed -

DOG RIVER, Saskatchewan!

I didn't know it was there! 

If you don't know Dog River, you must not have seen "Corner Gas" (http://www.cornergas.com/), which is a funny, happy, quirky Canadian sit-com...try to find it on re-runs!

(The real town is Rouleau, SK, but the sign on the grain silo is "Dog River".  Google map http://goo.gl/maps/80yct)

OK - on to the Tallest Stalks of Wheat! 

I'm not totally sure these are the record holding Tallest Stalks of Wheat, but, even if they aren’t, they are really pretty, and make driving through Weyburn, SK that much nicer. (Google map http://goo.gl/maps/k4vq7).
 It's amazing what qualifies for a roadside attraction! What I love is that some of the "attractions" are so crazy, you have to really admire the person who said, "Let’s build the World’s Largest Mosquito so people will stop in our little town." And it works. ("Mossy the Mosquito" is in Rainbow Lake, Alberta. I don’t know where that is, but if I’m ever there, I will be sure to stop.)
I’m browsing the roadsideattraction.ca site and am finding out that, in Calgary, I should be able to see: King Kong climbing a building, a giant rooster, tulips and beetle, and an upside down church... I haven't seen these things... I might need to go on a local field trip...

Which is totally off the subject- we’re on a roadtrip!

We didn’t go through Weyburn to see the Wheat - we went there because it’s enroute to Fargo ND...Yeah, that’s right! You heard me - Fargo ND.

Jamestown ND is also enroute, and home to the World’s Largest Buffalo.

There isn’t a sign (or if there is, we missed it) for "World’s Largest Buffalo", so we took a guess that it was at the National Buffalo Museum. (It’s actually just passed there at the Frontier Village http://goo.gl/maps/j1ZdB).

First of all, the Village is a cute little old-west street, with stores and buildings rescued from various places around North Dakota. There, you can take a stagecoach ride (we didn’t - we usually travel with two little dogs, Daisy & Coco, who don’t love horses), visit the little house dedicated to the works of Louis L’Amour (who is apparently from Jamestown), and go for a drink at the local saloon.
We didn’t do any of that - I just wanted to see the World’s Largest Buffalo. And it was HUGE!! Gigantic! Totally worth it! I thought it’d be a plastic looking thing, but it looks just like a giant buffalo! (That's Peter, Daisy & Coco standing in the buffalo's shade.)
From there, you can see a couple albino buffalo, too. (In fact, that’s how I convinced Peter to go visit.) They were far away, and at first I thought one was a white rock, but THEN! It got up and started walking. My pictures aren’t great (I didn’t have "the big camera" with me at the time), and by "not great", I mean "terrible", but here they are anyway. (You can Google for better picture OR, even better, go there and take your own!

Next time, I’ll bring the big camera.

There was more to do, more to see - we could’ve stayed longer, but we had to get to Fargo... to be continued Sunday.

(In other news - I can't figure out how to put a "follow" button on here, so if anyone could tell me that, that'd be great! Also, I can't figure out how to allow people who aren't members of "blogspot" to comment, either... I'm certain it's an easy fix, but I don't know what it is... In the meantime, and because of that, I'm also blogging on http://biggestballofstring.wordpress.com, which has a "follow" button right there and anyone can comment...)

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