I do not know if my grandfather ran for Minnesota senate or US senate, but in any case he lost and returned to his rural parish, located off of County Road 17, just a bit north-east of the satellite photo on the right. His brief political career was not without consequences, though: the aerial view is of Minnesota's "Scharlemann expressway," embedded in the rural 2-lane Highway 63. Zoom in for a closer look. The 1.5 mile stretch was one of the first 4-lane highways in America. Family lore says that it was built in the '30's as political pay-back for his persuading most of his flock to vote Farmer-Labor in a crucial election. Two of the four lanes have now been abandoned to the weeds. It thus could also be one of the first 4-lane highways in America to be (half) abandoned.