The great wind

Despite the title, this entry has nothing to do with moving air. The "wind" in "the great wind" rhymes with "kind", not with "sinned". So don't worry, you don't have to read about yet another cyclist complaining about a headwind.

One of the first journals I discovered on CycleBlaze was "the great unwind". It refers to the way we lead our busy, hectic lives, trying to juggle 7 or 8 balls at a time, then we go on a bike tour and suddenly there is just 1 ball to keep in the air. All you have to do is ride your bike. It can take many days and many miles to slow down and unwind, but eventually you let go of those other concerns and just enjoy being on your bike.

Today we visited Darwin Minnesota and saw the astonishing evidence of someone who spent 3 decades winding up instead of trying to unwind. From 1950 to 1979 Francis Johnson spent 4 hours a day winding up a giant ball of twine.

This structure contains Francis Johnson's ball of twine.

I can only imagine that while he was winding, he was unwinding. It must have been like meditation. Four hours a day focused on a simple and repetitive task. Just one ball in the air to think about.

When we arrived in Darwin (named after a railroad tycoon, not a naturalist), the shed housing the giant ball of twine was locked up. But the local bar was open. Viktoriya went into the bar, not for a drink but to use the bathroom. Local bars are great sources of information. They said "go next door and ask for Josh, he'll let you in to see the twine".

Next door turned out to be the bank. Josh worked there and had to meet with a customer, but promised to let us in to see the twine if we could wait until 4:00. Wait half an hour to see a ball of twine? Of course we can! We're not wound up people with places to go and things to do, we're retired!

Josh opened up the inner sanctum for us. In addition to working at the bank and giving tours of the twine, he's also the Mayor of Darwin. A great guy.

It was everything you expect in a giant ball of twine.

The smell of twine in the exhibit was delightful, almost like freshly cut hay. Francis Johnson died of emphysema, most likely from breathing twine dust for 30 years, but for a five minute visit the smell can't be beat.

Francis took particular pride in his ball of twine being round in shape. It's almost 40 years since he stopped winding the ball, but it still remains quite round.

When we left Darwin it was about 5:00 and we still had 35 miles to travel. The nice thing about Minnesota in June is that the sun is up until after 9:00 in the evening, so there was no need to rush to make it to our hotel before dark.

What do they do with all the corn they grow in the Midwest? A lot of it gets turned into ethanol in plants like this.

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