Blue Earth, Minnesota

 Blue Earth is one of those midwest towns where stores still leave merchandise outside at night and residents don’t lock their doors. The largest gas station closes at 8 pm and there are three farm and fleet supply stores. It’s middle America that is almost lost. Except for the gnats and mosquitoes, we like and appreciate this little town!

Blue Earth is 190 miles west of our last stop in Sparta, Wisconsin, on the south side of Interstate 90. It will never be visited by a presidential candidate, and hopefully will never be seen on the evening news, but the 3400 or so residents are every bit as important as anyone in a metropolitan region, and contribute immensely to the food chain of the world.

Corn, as well as peas, are huge around here, for a very large reason.

Placed in 1978 to commemorate the completion of I 90, which provided a continuous road from Boston to Seattle, and to also honor the close relationship Blue Earth farmers have with the Green Giant company. Corn and peas are still processed here today!

There are several Sprouts scattered throughout town, and we had fun finding some of them!

The city of Blue Earth maintains a small, but immaculate rv park adjacent to the Faribault County Fairgrounds. At $35 a night for a groomed, full hookup site and a personal greeting by the camp host, it can’t be beat!

This is the view out of our front window.

And this is site 6.

We’ve signed up for two nights here, and after setting up the rv, we toured the town to see what there is to do around here. Thirty minutes later we had finished. That included a visit to the city swimming pool and discovering that they say that a restaurant called The Farmers Daughter has the best food in town. 

Tomorrow could be a long day.

So, we drove north 30 miles or so to the city of Mankato, Minnesota. On the way we passed through the burg of Winnebago, where we saw, once again, an example of the gradual deterioration of small midwest towns. Once the hub of farming activity, these towns are no longer necessary in the current corporate farming scheme. 

Southern Minnesota is such a contrast to the wooded and wet northern area!

On the way north we took a side road to take a look at the Rapidan dam. Heavy winter rains have filled the lake behind the dam and caused outflow to erode a channel around the dam. Gossip tells us that the dam, which at one time provided electricity to the local area, will be demolished.

Back on highway 169, we drifted into Mankato. We wanted to catch a look at the Minnesota River, but access was limited due to flood conditions and the river wasn’t very pretty.

We made our way to one of the nicest parks we’re ever had the privilege to visit, Sibley Park. The park has areas that appeal to children, as well as miles of walking trails, and venues that may be reserved for weddings and other special events.

On of the most interesting things we saw in the park was the lily pad pool.

The flowers and tadpoles at the pond were enjoying 85 degree temps and 65% humidity!

We stooped at 1000 Degree Pizza on the way out of town for lunch and had a great custom pizza that was cooked in a special oven at high temp!

It’s a novel idea, and a tasty Neopolitan pizza!

The clouds gathering over the fields gave us pause, but they eventually dissipated, thank goodness.

Our takeway from the lovely parts of Mankato that we visited is wrapped up in a statue of a young lady reaching for the future.