Road Trip Dream Authors - Week 9

It is Sunday night - thought we'd get a bite to eat since we got in here late -- NOTHING is open!! And grocery stores -- forget it -- I don't think they have anything but mini marts!! Finally found a decent sized store, and had beans and weinnies (John Morrell of course) at the campground!

Week 9

Off for Eastern SD -- seems like we have been here for a long time -- I just checked -- we have!! 11 days, and we have 2 more nights here!

Sioux Falls - home of John Morrell Meats - go Dick!! Actually we are a bit disappointed. It is Sunday night - thought we'd get a bite to eat since we got in here late -- NOTHING is open!! And grocery stores -- forget it -- I don't think they have anything but mini marts!! Finally found a decent sized store, and had beans and weinnies (John Morrell of course) at the campground!

The next morning was no better -- tried to find a credit union ATM (no fees for other CU members) -- found lots of Credit Unions, but they looked at us funny when we asked about ATM's. What's with this town!!

Dick and Lois - don't think of moving here - we decided you wouldn't like it!

We actually had one really good experience here. Back in the dark ages (1963-64), Phil came here to the NAIA (small college) Track and Field Championships. They were held at Howard Wood Field, which is no longer in a field, but in the middle of a large sports and convention complex. Their team placed 6th in the nation, and my buddy Phil took home medals both years in the high jump. He thinks it was 4th and 6th places. It was very emotional for Phil to go back to that field and see it - he wasn't expected to place, but he was really on that day, and some of the "contenders" weren't. A neat experience for him. We sent his old track coach, Ralph Davis a postcard -- he always remembers Phil and his antics!

From here, we're off on another "Phil" adventure. Back in the really dark ages (1957-58) he had a friend in Lakewood, Bob Ritter, who Phil knew was somewhere in SD. A couple of phone calls got us his current number, and today is the day for the reunion of these two guys. Bob had watched Phil at the Sioux Falls meet (Bob is an old jock too...a PE major), but they hadn't seen each other since then.

What a grand time the two of them had reminiscing about everything imaginable! Bob has a great wife, Marti, and 3 grown children. They live in Brookings, SD, a perfectly charming town. They both still teach and are involved in all the sports activities in town. A really nice visit and stay overnight with them, but Minnesota beckons.

Took the back way into Minneapolis -- what wonderful little towns along the way. Mayberry at every turn. Stopped at the Camelot cafe in Ivanhoe for lunch. We rolled out of there -- real farmers lunches for $4.95. The beef was so tender it just fell apart -- and the cucumber salad was fabulous! We felt we should go buck some bales of hay....

Finally found out what that dark green, short, broad leafed crop was that is everywhere between the corn fields -- soy beans. The waitresses dad grew them, so she knew all about that crop!

The start of our visit in Minneapolis isn't so good. We got bumped during rush hour traffic, as we were looking for a motel or campground down near The Mall of America. Luckily, Phil had his foot on the brake, and we were able to stop before hitting the car ahead of us. Took all day today (Wednesday) to get everything lined up on that. Turned out the other driver had let his insurance lapse. Understand he went and paid it today, but it doesn't look good that the company will consider him "covered" yesterday. Will find out the damages tomorrow. Looks like we'll be in the Twin Cities a bit longer than we planned. Oh, we are both OK, and the RWH is fine -- just a new bumper and wheel cover.

Managed to get over to Mall of America between phone calls. Here's the deal. Take 2 Washington Squares and put them around a small Disneyland, enclose the whole thing, and you have Mall of America. Same old chains of stores, same old rides. Hated it.

Took a nice walk in the evening along the Mississippi Mile - a nice Riverwalk along old muddy. Even driving in Minneapolis in the evening when the cars have gone home is more than we could endure. We had planned to eat downtown, but parking and maneuvering were difficult -- we decided it was too much trouble.

Got the estimate on the Van today -- not too bad, so life will go on! The bummer is the factory is closed for summer vacation for 6 weeks, so we have to figure out where to have the parts shipped when they start up again! We promptly checked into the Radisson in downtown St. Paul! We're taking a city tour tomorrow--driving here is scary--too many freeways--all under construction and people going like bats out of you know where! We found a lot where we could park the Van - most everything is parking structures, and we walked around a bit. Hope to see more of what these cities are about than just freeways.

Spotted St. Paul Cathedral as we came into town. This is truly a Cathedral -- like the kind you see in Europe. It is massive and beautiful. Built between 1911-15, it is awe inspiring. Crisp bright stained glass, Mosaics that were made at The Vatican, an alter reminiscent of St. Peters (it was actually patterned after that cathedral, I found out later) in Rome. The dome alone was 196' high. From ground to the top of the cross on the copper roof was 307' -- an imposing site from all over St. Paul.

Will try to figure out this 6 week delay in getting the bumper with Allstate tomorrow, take our tour, then head for the Lakes district and on to Northern Minnesota -- looking forward to seeing the giant Mosquitoes -- the state bird, you know!!

Good news! Farmer's Insurance has come forward and said they will cover this accident! Apparently the insured went in and paid on his lapsed Insurance -- and they back dated it!! But now we have to start over with them. We are off on a City Tour of Minneapolis-St. Paul today, so will deal with them Monday.

What a great tour - should have done this the first day, then could have gone back to some things that were really interesting. The rivalry between the 2 cities is quite real. The tour guide characterized it as fraternal twins - St. Paul, the steady conservative "if it ain't broke don't fix it" attitude, and the other the floozy sister who wants everything new and shiny all the time. You can see it in everything about the cities -- we liked St. Paul and thought they were really moving forward with some great projects.

St. Paul is the home of Charles Schulz (Peanuts) and they have done a cute thing with Snoopy statues all over town with various themes. Quite cute.

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PHIL-OSOPHIES (like the new name?)

Our tour really gave me an appreciation for the cleanliness of Portland and the development of our waterfront. Most everything looked like it was in need of some maintenance (and water!). Although the flowers on the lamp posts were nice, the parks, sidewalks, etc. were all just a little "worn" looking. They did do an ambitious thing within the city - every waterway - lake, stream, etc. is bounded by public park land--and there is lot of them even within the city. Therefore you don't have houses or commercial buildings right on the waterfront. It does look nice from that aspect -- they just need more maintenance!

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Saw many of the nice housing areas in the cities (including Jesse Ventura's home when he is in town). Seems that the housing is more moderate in price than Portland. They have one whole street - 4 miles - in Minneapolis that is all on the historic register. The homes were beautiful and seldom go on the market. Price about $500K-1 M. But even considering that street, things seems about 25% less expensive.

The whole area was quite "Portland-like" we thought. Lots of people jogging, enjoying their parks, freeways that were crowded, nice downtown areas that people actually use, and lots of outdoor activities everywhere.

Other interesting visits were the State Capitol, the old fort, several parks, and the Sculpture garden - a beautiful outdoor Museum. Greyline really packed alot into a few short hours. Think we will consider doing this in all the large cities -- it was reasonable and you saw a lot.

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PHIL-OSOPHIES

It really is a small world, you know. Having dinner at the Raddison, the chef came out to ask about our dinners (it was a slow night!), and it turns out he lived in Portland for several years -- had a nice reminiscence with him - thought about the Dandelion Pub recently?

The next day, I was chatting with a couple of ladies on the tour bus -- turns out they were from Beaverton - out here for a family wedding.

Maybe I just look for people who look the most friendly -- or is it something about the way they talk.....hmmmm

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Off for the only RV Campground that I've seen rated a 10-10-10 - Park-Restrooms-Scenic. It is out in the middle of nowhere - Hinckley, MN. The first thing we noticed was that Bill Cosby was coming to their Amphitheater (clear out here??). Took another look at the map, and it turns out that Hinckley is 1 hour from Minneapolis-St. Paul, 1 hour from St. Cloud, and 1 hour from Duluth -- over 80% of the state's population! This place was incredible. A 500 site RV park with it's own clubhouse, beautiful pool, grocery, etc. A Casino (Indian) that was as big and nice as anything in Vegas, 2 hotels, a wonderful 18 hole golf course, a 24 hour shuttle service every 15 minutes, and several restaurants. Our only complaint was that the trees haven't grown up in the RV park yet -- and it felt a little "exposed". It was a fun place though.

Our next stop was to settle in a cabin or nice RV park along one of the 10,000 famous lakes for a couple of days. The Brainerd area had been recommended as having a lot of nice places of those types. Also thought about lake Mille Lacs (18X25 miles - Big!). Little did we know there was a 20 state baseball tournament in the area -- we couldn't find anything, anywhere -- not even a cheap motel! Drove on towards Grand Rapids, and finally found an RV site. We were pooped out! Not used to going till 8PM before stopping! Got a recommendation for dinner and what a people watching place this was! The Forty Club in Aitkin, MN - a big formal wedding party kicking up their heels -- and it was jammed with other locals, tourists, etc. Had a great Prime Rib dinner, and just enjoyed being around a crazy bunch of people for awhile!

Sunday morning dawned rainy, so decided the abandon the idea of a few days in the area, and headed towards International Falls, and Voyageur NP. Another week under our belt....

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