Minnesota Ramblings

Thursday, May 2

After spending the night in a motel in Bismarck, we turned on the TV in the morning to find that the temperature was at 26 degrees. No wonder we were feeling cold, especially when we took Lily out for short walks during the night. We wanted to do a Volkswalk that was offered there, but not wanting to be real cold, we kind of stalled around in the room for awhile, and didn't get started on the walk 'til almost 11:00. Before starting on the walk that took in the state capital and the old Governor's Mansion, we made a diversion over to the bluff overlooking the Missouri River. When we had crossed it last night, it was dark and we couldn't see it at all. The walk through town was very nice. The capital building, itself, is not what I usually think of for a state capital. It is a high-rise building built in the early '30s. The old Governor's Mansion is a very attractive, Victorian building that was used by the Governor up until 1963. We left Bismarck in the early afternoon, and drove to Moorehead, MN to camp for the night.

Lili has been acting real strange for the last day or so. It is almost like something happened to scare her in the car – now she is very loathe to get in, and when she is in the car, she doesn't get very far from us at all. We have no idea what might have happened, but we are hoping that, whatever it was, she can regain her old enthusiasm for driving. She is enjoying the walks and activities such as they have been.

Friday, May 3

I was going to journal today's trip from Moorehead Minnesota to Itasca State Park and the headwaters of the Mississippi, but then I noticed that Lili had been playing with my computer. It turns out that she was writing a letter to her friend and best buddy, Bailey, the bassett hound that lives next door. After reading her note I thought that I would just quote it her:

Bailey,

I miss being able to play with you. I sometimes wonder about my people. They have mostly kept me in the car for days. They have only taken me on a couple of long walks, but at least they were interesting because I got all kinds of new things to smell and taste. I have been so worried about the fact that they don't know what they are doing that I haven't even been able to eat very much. Imagine me not eating much!

Today, though, we seem to have stopped driving quite so much. Earlier this afterrnoon, I stood in the very start of some very long river. I even drank some of the water, so that won't make it to the river. The sign said that the river is 2250 miles long. When I asked dad what that meant, he said that that is almost 6,000,000 Lili's long. Boy would I get tired walking down that river.

There are neat new things to smell and taste. I just keep running from one to another trying to fully understand them. I tried something that mom called deer droppings. Boy, let me tell you, going back to just cat will never be the same.

Wow, is it ever cold when dad takes me out at night. The last couple of nights he said it was in the mid 20's - whatever that means. I would get really cold, but I convinced mom and dad that I could help keep their feet warm if I could just crawl under the blankets and sleep there. I sure fooled them. Now they wind up keeping me warm.

Tonight we are staying in a big state campground near that big river I told you about. There are about 250 campsites, and so far, we are the only campers. That is kind of neat because, now when I bark nobody gets mad at me. The only problem is that there isn't anybody to bark at. Oh well, I guess I can't have everything.

You take good care of the neighborhood and your mommy and daddy. Mom and dad said that we will get back there some day so we can play again. Maybe in the meantime, you can find someone else to bite your ear and make believe it is me.

Love,

Lili

That covers the meat of the day (as well as a review of other things that have been going on), so I will just let her words stand.

Saturday, May 4

We are getting very tired of waking up to cold, damp weather. Last night a small thunderstorm blew through, and when we woke up this morning it was back in the mid 30's. We drove up to Bemidji – the home of Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox. We didn't stay there very long, however, because it was very cold and the wind made it quite bitter. Most of the day was spent driving down to Minneapolis.

Sunday, May 5

It would be nice to start an entry without referring to the weather first thing. That will happen when the weather starts getting dependably nice. In any event, when we got up this morning, the weather was moderately nice. It was almost clear and probably about 50 degrees. There were thundershowers predicted for late in the afternoon, but it looked like a good day for a volkswalk. We drove to St. Paul and did the Minnehaha Park/Mississippi River Road Walk. There was a slight mishap in that I misread the instructions, and we walked what was probably about 5 to 6 kilometers (3 or 4 miles) out of our way. As a result, we wound up doing 9 to 10 miles. By the time we were finished, two of us were acting pretty tired – Lili was still pulling.

The walk was very pretty. The "Mississippi River Road" part of the walk (that was really on "Mississippi River Blvd") is a very picturesque stroll with some very elegant looking homes on one side and a great view of the Mississippi River on the other. The walk crosses the Mississippi to Minneapolis to Minnehaha Park. This is a very comfortable park with notable views of Minnehaha Falls, a statue of Hiawatha and Minnehaha, and Longfellow's house. After the walk, we drove through the downtown area of Minneapolis (I'm sure glad it was Sunday – that would have been nerve racking if traffic had been heavy). By the time we got back to the motel that we are staying in, it was mid-afternoon, and we were all pretty tired. About 5 or 6 PM the first of the thunder storms blew through. It was a pretty violent storm, but it really passed through just north of where we are staying. Another, less violent storm blew over us later, and I think that a third came through in the middle of the night.

Monday, May 6

Today Linda had the joy that only a volkswalker can understand. One of the pleasures of volkswalking is the accumulation of credits – credit for the distance walked and credit for the number of events in which the walker takes part. One of the pleasures of travel, at least for many women, is to go shopping in new locations. Today Linda took part in a 10K volkswalk that was entirely within the Mall of America.

We spent most of the day in this icon of American consumerism. If you ignore the left amusement park in the center of the mall, and the fact that there are more stores than any mall I've been to, it is just another mall. The two stores I liked were the Garlic Shoppe and the Cilado Chili Traders that deal exclusively with garlic and chili peppers, respectively. The other notable was that instead of just having food courts, like the malls that I am used to, there are also real sit-down type restaurants. We had supper in one of these and accomplished one of our goals for this trip – to eat some walleye. It was quite good – a relatively light white fish.