When I lived in La Crosse 20 years ago, I was a part time house sitter for a co-worker who lived in the country. A couple of weeks ago, as I was driving back toward La Crosse from Winona while dodging severe storms and heavy rain, I began to think about that house and wondering if I could still find it.

Finding places is not just a hobby for me – it’s my mutant power. Here’s an example. After my grandmother died in 1988, my aunt led a tour through Klinkenberg country in rural eastern Kansas. One of the places we visited was a very old and very tiny country cemetery where my great-great-grandparents, Klaas and Klaasien Klinkenberg, were buried. Years later, I found that little country cemetery based solely on my memory of a watertower and an s-curve – no directions from anyone, no return visits in the interval.

That cemetery was my inspiration as I went in search of the cottage. I primed the recall pump by trying to re-create the 1980s. While I couldn’t resurrect my white 1980 Impala, I could play some tunes by Bronksi Beat and Simply Red. As I drove though Hokah, then by the Valley High Golf Club, everything felt familiar, although nothing really stood out. Inspired by a sudden gut feeling, I made a left on a dirt road and immediately felt excited. “I remember this road”, I thought. But, after a couple of miles of exploration, there was no cottage. My gut was wrong…this time. I turned around and when I reached the previous fork in the road, as Yogi Berra advised, I took it. Again, no luck.

Not quite ready to give up, I returned to the highway and continued on toward the town of Houston. Bam – an image popped into my head – a bridge…the road to her house was just before a bridge. I drove the remaining three miles to Houston, just to make sure that my road was not that far, then did a u-turn and started scanning for the picture in my head of a turn onto a dirt road next to a small bridge. Just half a mile east of the first wrong turn, I found the road. Excited again, I turned right, went uphill, then followed it around a slight bend, and just as the song “Holding Back the Years” by Simply Red was playing – there it was! I found the cottage! The front yard was still beautifully landscaped, and, even though there was at least one new addition in the past 20 years, the cottage looked like reassuringly familiar.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with the Great River Road or the Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming I attended earlier in the day in Winona. I reached the festival grounds just in time for a heavy downpour, so I diverted to a coffee shop to wait out the rain. The festival was smaller than I expected but still had enough to keep me busy for nearly three hours, especially at the “Learning Tent” where you could wander in and chat with people about Dakota culture. The dancing was cool, too, and, for some strange reason, I was entranced by feet. See below.

Today’s Bad Decision: Trying to avoid a turtle in the road by driving over it instead of around it. I meant well, I really did. The turtle was near the middle of my lane, and, in the split second I had to make a decision, it didn’t seem prudent to swerve left into the on-coming lane to avoid the little beast. So, I made a slight swerve to the right, trying to keep the turtle between my wheels. It nearly worked, but, alas, my rear wheel hit the little bugger, sending him to turtle heaven with a sickening thud.

© Dean Klinkenberg, 2008