26 August 2010

convincing the impossible.

A short 3 years ago in a small town called Mountain Lake, I met my husband.  Yes, you are reading this right, this Windom girl married a Mountain Lake boy.  I'm still wondering how this happened myself.  Although we met in Mountain Lake during the craziness of Mountain Lake's Pow Wow celebration, we both lived in Windom at the time and ultimately decided to stay as well (this is where he worked and still works).  So we are now both working our 9-5s, we will be paying for our old house for the next 30 years, and we are raising our son all in this lovely town along the river.

So it is here that this story really starts, for the last 3 years I've been competing with that small town a close 10 miles away.  If you know a Mountain Laker, you know his undying passion for nothing else but Mountain Lake.  I'm not saying there is anything wrong with it, in fact I think it is great. But for this Windom girl, it has been hard to convince a Mountain Laker that Windom is even compariable to his former home--home of the almighty Pow Wow.  You can only imagine the look I got when I told him I started this blog.  Of course he was supportive like any wonderful husband would be, but it was pretty hard for him to see the visions I have for this town. 

A few posts ago (post titled "say cheese") I posted some pictures that my husband and I took on our somewhat daily walk.  We started talking more about Windom and its potential. Up until this point, this very moment of capturing some of Windom's points of interest, we had never actually had a good conversation about the subject.  You can imagine the one ended conversations I had been having with him, a Mountain Lake man by heart, regarding Finding Windom.  I think it was more like me talking to myself with an occasional nod and supportive "yeah" from the quiet person across from me who was patiently listening and watching t.v. at the same time.   I asked him if he knew about all the parks in town like Mayflower or the trails by Wolf Lake.  He didn't, so I took him to these two places--we only had daylight left for a couple, which he was probably delighted by knowing he wouldn't get a whole day's worth tour.  He was amazed that such neat things existed in Windom of all places.  I think I may have done the impossible, folks, I may have made a believer out of a Mountain Laker. To tell you the truth, at first I was kind of disappointed he had no idea about Windom's small splendors despite he has been living here for almost 5 years, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it wasn't his undeniable passion for the next town over that kept him from truly knowing Windom.  All this time I thought it was Mountain Lake that I was up against when in turn it was Windom itself.

It was pointed out to me not too long ago that our highway, which blesses us with thousands of travelers in a week, has no signs to point our guests to these points of interest.  A person can drive right through and not even know Cottonwood Lake is a mere 2 blocks to the east or that we have numerous parks for a family to stop and stretch. Where can a person go to know all these great things exist in Windom?  We don't even have a sign to guide travelers to information at our Chamber and Visitor's Bureau. 

So the moral of the story is: Something as easy as a simple sign would make it a lot easier for a Mountain Laker, our guests and travelers to find Windom.

8 comments:

  1. That's a great point. When we're traveling, we often pack sandwiches and look for playgrounds or parks to stop at to eat and let the kids play for 30 min or so.

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  2. It's so very true...my brother said that when he worked in town that LOTS of travelers would stop and ask him and his co-worker for directions!

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  3. You are right Mari we don't "invite" people to take a look at our great community. They will never know what they are missing. It is always important to give information. Keep giving us information so we can FIND WINDOM !!!

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  4. We just bought our Finding Windom T-shirts, they are soooo fun. We will wear them proudly...Dad and Mom

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  5. Cottonwood Lake is probably the best thing in Windom.

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  6. Very nice blog, and informative! I used to live and grew up in Windom so go girl they need your help! Tracy Ashley

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  7. I think a visitor's center where people can get information about things to do and see in Windom and it's surrounds is a good idea. I'm a windom native and I've never been to the trails by Wolf Lake, although I've heard of them before. I wouldn't know where to go to get information on the trail system by Wolf Lake if I ever wanted to go walk/see them. I think the general public is largely unaware of the sites and attractions in the Windom area, even Windomites. I think a visitor's center would help bring about awareness of the treasures in the community for both out-of-towners and Windomites alike.

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  8. I meant "surroundings" not surrounds in the previous post.

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