Corn, Corn, Corn, more Corn, and....Dust

We left Stillwater, MN, yesterday morning at about 11:00 am after seeing Donnas brother, Bill, and his wife, Linda one last time for this visit.  They dropped by our rv park with boxes of pastries from one of the best markets in the area, Kowalski's.  We sampled sticky buns, lime drop cookies and biscotti, as well as scones and coffee cake.  What a send off!  After they left, we dried the tears and hitched up our drawers and hit the road.

A short section of freeway southeast of St. Paul got us to Hwy 52, which sent us south to Iowa.

The road went through about a million square miles of corn fields. The destination was Decorah, Iowa, a small midwestern town with a private college called Luther College, which has affiliations with the Lutheran Church.  The official school year starts on Tuesday after Labor Day, so there is going to be a lot of activity this weekend! As we got close to Decorah, we turned off Hwy 52 on 6 miles of side roads that were not necessarily Nessie friendly...the last mile or so was a one lane dirt/dust road that made us wonder what we were doing.  The people at Hutchinson Family Farm and Campground were waiting for us, however, with a friendly welcome and a wonderful place to park along the edges of a pasture that borders the Little Iowa River.  They run a small operation that caters to family and river activities.  In fact, a large group of families moved in next door and set up a "compound". We talked to them this morning and learned that they live a few hours away and are enjoying a long weekend together fishing and canoeing.

We took a short walk last night about dark, and enjoyed a firefly show.  The locals tell me that the heat has not been kind to fireflies, but now that it is supposed to cool off, they should be coming out in greater numbers.  In the field that we're parked in, the fireflies were thick in some areas, but not in others, so I'm interested in trying to find out what attracts them. The neighbors told us that if you squash a firefly and rub the juice on your hands or face, they will glow for 30 seconds or so.  Not going to try that....

This morning we took a drive into downtown Decorah. One of the first things we came across was a drive in that looked interesting....

Maybe we'll get there for lunch.  Downtown Decorah is pretty typical of midwestern towns, with a dash of college stirred in.  That got us to Java John's Coffee Shop so that we can use their wifi, as ATT is not user friendly in northeast Iowa. We will be mostly silent for the next four days until we can get back to "civilization", or as we get into Java John's. I suspect that we'll be going from air conditioner to air conditioner for the next few days, as it is very warm and "sticky" for us west-coasters.

Here's a shot of the main street.  We're contemplating a short walk until it gets too hot, then it's back to Nessie and the cool air.  The campground is providing 30 amp electricity, but it's not quite enough to operate all the ac units.  We're limping along on two at the moment, and cycling them every so often to minimize low voltage problems.

Until later...

Sayin' Good Bye

Well, we've come to the part of this adventure that we have been dreading: Saying Goodbye.

We went over to AL and UB's house this morning to do some laundry.  Bill and Linda have been so generous in letting us use their washer and drier since the rv site we've been assigned in the St. Paul East RV Park does not have a sewer connection.  While the laundry was going, Bill and I drove into Stillwater to find a tire pressure gauge that would read the 130 psi that Nessie's tires require.  We found it, and made another stop as instructed by SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) at Target to get some SoBe drinks.  Back to AL and UB's house until about 6, when we went into Stillwater again for dinner.

Cara and Bruce, AL and UB's daughter and SIL joined us for dinner at Smalleys Caribbean Barbeque. This restaurant was featured on an episode of Diners, Driveins, and Dives on the Food Network Channel, so we figured "What have we got to lose?" and off we went.

We started with a few appetizers:

The chips were a combo of Plaintain and Corn, and the Salsa was very spicy.

Roasted Jalapeños sprinkled with sea salt appeared on the table and were dispatched pretty quickly. Linda surprised us all by munching her pepper right down!

Dinner was good, with Jerk Pork Tacos, Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Barbecued Ribs, Brisket and Habenero Sandwiches, and Pulled Pork Combo Plates with Tater Tots ordered all around.  We spent a bit of time with the fam and then returned to the rv to prep for leaving tomorrow.

The evening has been very warm and humid.  When Pris and I went on our evening walk about 10pm local time, there was a huge lightening display to the north and east.  The television has been warning of possible tornadoes for the last hour, but most of the activity seems to be in Wisconsin.  If we don't post tomorrow, you'll know why!

We ate Our Way Thru The Minnesota State Fair!

Up and at 'em early today, because we were on a mission!  The weather has cooled and the humidity is lower, so we're off to the Minnesota State Fair! The fair is in St. Paul, only a few miles from where we are "camped", but the highway system is completely messed up around here due to road construction.  Seemingly every intersection, offramp and overpass is undergoing some repair or renovation. This led us to find a remote parking lot and take a free shuttle bus into the fair, so the the driving would be minimal for Uncle Bill.  Calvary Church in St. Paul was the lot that we chose to use, as they were kind enough to donate the use of their parking lot.  Many of the younger church members worked in the parking lot, handing out bottles of water and providing chairs in a shade structure.  Good job, kids!

The bus took us right to the south entrance of the fair, and the first thing we saw was......FAIR FOOD!

It being early in the morning, we restrained ourselves and went to the animal barns.  We saw:

A turkey that was just a few hours old:

A cow that was within hours of giving birth:

Some pigs:

A cutting horse competition by some high school age kids that was fascinating:

These cutting horses are so focused on the calf and on the riders nonverbal instructions, that they are in a world of their own.  A calf is selected from a group, the rider positions him or herself and the horse with the reins held high.  Then the reins are dropped to the horses' neck, and it's game on. All the riders instructions are through leaning and squeezing, and the horse and rider act as one unit.  It was a wonderful demonstration of horsemanship.  The competition was fierce, and I'll have to admit that I don't know just how it's all graded, but it was wonderful to watch!

So then we ducked into the Spam exhibit to whet our appetites!

A couple of pics to remind us of the wonderful meat.....product.....

OK, on to the serious stuff!  First we layered on an order of deep fried cheese curds, then a norwegian version of onion rings call Lok Rings (funny little slash mark through the o) and pronounced "Lurk Rings".  The batter was really light and fluffy, and the rings were served with a Lingenberry dip. Then an order of deep fried Spam curds  (small bites, don'cha know).

We had to rest, so a sidewalk bench was pressed into service.  As luck would have it, a parade happened by with several high school bands, some old fire trucks and some brand new road clearing equipment and a young man in a rolling contraption that was completely human powered.

He rolled it down the street by stepping from bar to bar, sometimes stopping by stepping backward, and then starting again.  Every once in awhile, he would jump out, let the wheel roll on down the street, and go sit down on the curb and rest for a moment.  Then he would go running like crazy to catch up and start again.  Pretty cool!

We went back to checking out the eats again, but we had to pass on the double bacon wrapped corn dogs...

In favor of a trip to the old tractor area.  There were many old tractors that had been used on the farms in the area and then lovingly restored.  The oldest was this 1915 Aultman Taylor that was purchased new for $100.  A tree fell on it, damaging the cab on the day it was delivered to the farm, and it was never started or used until the restoration process started in 1999.

The tractor was started several times today, and runs every bit as good as it ever did.

Then back to some serious eating:

Pork Chops on a stick seemed to be the majority selection:

While a pastrami and cream cheese wrapped pickle with Jalapeno's was the minority selection:

Followed by a thick slab of bacon with maple syrup on a stick for a chaser.  I hope my Dr. doesn't see this post.

An hour of people watching while we let our dinner "settle" and we were off to the shuttle for the trip home.  All in all a great day at a traditional midwest fair.  The brick buildings in the animal area hark back to the early days of the state, and the attitude and demeanor of the 4H and FFA kids really gave us a sense of pride.  The vendors, whether for farm implements, new cars, or made-in-Poland glassware, were all friendly and nice to talk to.

Good Job, Minnesota!  We'll be back!

MOA Overload

Time is getting short for us with our extended family in Minnesota.  We have a couple of places in Iowa and Indiana that we need to be over the next few weeks, so we have to start checking off items on the "To Do" list.

Today we were up early for our excursion to the largest indoor mall in the country: the Mall of America.  It's only an hour or less south of the Twin Cities, near the airport, so we were there for the opening of many stores at 10 am. There are four complete floors, with stores and restaurants on every level.

We entered on the third level from the parking garage and were met by the largest parrot I've ever seen!

So off we went!  We shopped for shoes.  We shopped for T shirts.  We shopped for Green Bay cheese hats.

And we walked.  We walked up and we walked down.  We walked in and we walked out.  Then we walked some more.  Then we stopped at Caribou Coffee for a break.  Whew!  A quick cup of Campfire Mocha with Dark Chocolate and we were off again....

Two pairs of shoes, two jars of hot salsa, a hat and two T shirts later, we stopped at "Bubba Gumps" for lunch.

Bill and Linda and Donna and I shared two orders of Forrest Seafood Feast, which consisted of deep fried cod, shrimp, "Hush Puppies", and french fries, with cocktail, tartar, and ranch sauces.  The hush puppies were superb, and made in house.  The entire restaurant was based on the famous movie, and was a lot of fun.

Just down the "street", I tried to sell a dessert of my favorite seasonal candy, but didn't have much luck...

By now we were on overload, so we checked out the indoor rollor coasters, carnival rides, LegoLand and Ninja Turtle rides as we cruised out the door...

As we left the mall, we were treated to a late afternoon weather show...

What a wonderful day with family!  And the shopping....!

Hot Night in the City

Uncle Bill was a bit under the weather today, so Donna and I stayed near the RV park, taking care of a few errands while Bill took it easy.  We took a short drive to WalMart (of course), and then to PetSmart for a little grooming for Pris.  She hadn't had her toenails trimmed in a couple of months, so it was definitely time to do it.  We've never been to the grooming shop in PetSmart, so we were pleasantly surprised when Dan was able to take her right in.  He was very gentle with the old dog, clipping and then filing each nail.  He did a super job for a very reasonable price.  Thank you PetSmart! We went to Great Clips next to get a hair tuneup.  Again, we haven't been to one of their shops in forever, and maybe Donna hasn't ever been in, but we took a chance and got a fair haircut for the price.  Not perfect, but adequate, and certainly nothing that our regular hair people back home can't fix whenever we get there...

Our towed, James the Silverado, desperately needed a bath, since he hadn't been washed since we were in Idaho several weeks ago.  We saw a car wash place just down the street from PetSmart, so decided to try it.  Wrong!  If you're ever in the Woodbury, MN area, please think twice or even three times before going to Heppner's Auto Wash if you value the finish on your vehicle.  In spite of reviews that tout "attention to detail", the result we saw was anything but.  A young fellow with a pressure washer held 1/2 inch away from the car, removing bits of decals and 3M Protectant Film is not my idea of attention to detail.

To recover from this less than stellar experience, we stopped at Starbuck's to lick our wounds and enjoy a cup of iced coffee.  This was the first visit to Starbucks in several weeks, and we enjoyed sitting outside and sipping our drinks, in spite of the heat wave we're suffering this week.

The temps in the Twin Cities area was again in record territory today, with a reading of 95 and a heat index of 110 according to the TV news.  In fact, as we were enjoying a bit of dinner with Bill and Linda this evening, the power went out, most likely from thousands of air conditioners humming like the Minnesota state bird (the mosquito, yah, we bite-cha).

The candles were nice, but when the power came back on...

reality set in.  However, any reality that involves Klondike bars can't be all bad!

Ketchup is Hot Sauce?

We decided to take a walk around downtown Stillwater, MN, today.  Of course, we had to wait until noon to do it, so that the heat and humidity would be greatest...The local temp was 96 with a heat index of 106.  This set an alltime record for the area for a high temp.  Wonderful.

So off we went, starting with lunch, of course, on the north end of town, at ChicagodogsMN.com.  Where we had, of course, Chicago Dogs.  Except for Donna, who had to be a little different, and order a polish dog.

The downtown area is about 4 blocks long, with antique stores, clothing stores and restaurants on both sides.  We ducked into some of the stores just to cool off, and the first one was a candy shop:

A couple of orders of toffee and fudge later, we ambled on down the street...and yes, that does say "squirrel turds".

Donna found a kitchen store that was to die for, so we spent a bit of time checking out all the goodies:

Next on our tour was the local co-op market.  They had a great selection of locally grown and organic foods, including the ingredients for a Raz-ma-tazz smoothie, made with blueberries and other tasty goodies!

We needed a respite from the heat, so we stopped at a bench in a lovely park that parallels the St Croix River and downtown. Stillwater is known as the birthplace of Minnesota because in the early 1800's a bunch of businessmen gathered at what would later be known as Stillwater and drafted a petition for status as a territory.  Of course, they weren't just being nice; they wanted a safe place to do their lumber business stuff, as Minnesota has millions of trees.  Probably had more back then, eh? Well, anyway, as we watched people and boats, we heard the alarm for the drawbridge, so I snapped a couple pics:

Notice the huge counterweights on either end of the drawbridge.  These raise and lower inversely to the bridge to reduce the amount of weight on the cables.  Nice job of engineering.

And we finished off our downtown walk with ice cream from Nelsons:

Notice the concentration....Of course, it was still hot, and the ice cream was melting faster than we wanted it to.

So we returned to Bill and Lindas home and recuperated some, then left for dinner at Mama Maria's Italian Restaurant in North Hudson, Wisconsin.

It was still hot outside, but nice and cool inside.

Cara, Bruce, Donna, Gary, Bill and Linda.

Oh, the ketchup thing?   Well....

Where I come from, a bit of seasoning, even an occasional pepper is used to flavor food.  I'm learning that in the midwest spicy food is not generally found, but ketchup is an accepted accompaniment to almost anything that will stand still on the plate.  Tonight I was informed that ketchup is considered to be hot sauce.  I think the cold winters can damage taste buds, yah, ya becha!