When Pete and I were in grade five, we heard a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic about the Biggest Ball of Twine that was located in Minnesota. Well, being from North Dakota, we knew it wasn't far away. We made a pact that when we gradutated from High School, we would humble ourselves and make a pilgrimage to this new "Mecca" of sorts. The time came in the summer of 1997 when we all piled into Pete's car to set out for Darwin. We then realized that he had a flat tire, so we went in Dustin's car instead. We had all the sacred relics as spelled out in Al's timeless anthem..."potato skins, pickled weiners, crossword puzzles, Spiderman comics" and instead of rhubarb pie, we had rhubarb in a baggie. It was as close as we could get. A later lyric in the songe refers to the Last Chance Gas Station where we get more pickled weiners and a "diet chocolate soda". Pete actually found us some Diet Chocolate Soda for our trip. Amazing. Here are the photos from that sacred first journey. The travelers on the trip were Dustin, PJ, Peter, and Tony.
.