Marathon Road Trip 2024, State #5

 

Entering Minnesota at LaCrosse, we decided to take The Great River Road north toward Minneapolis. Ms. Garmin was not at all happy with that! She consistently encouraged us to take the fastest route. We did not give in and enjoyed a nice scenic drive. We will spare you hours of video and share a photo that pretty much describes the entire drive.

Arriving at our campground in Savage, MN (just outside Minneapolis) we were happy to find we could get the TV network that allowed us to watch the Texas A&M/Notre Dame football game, Well, that didn’t turn out the way we had hoped.

So close to the Mall of America, we had to check it out. OMG! We have no words to describe it! With over 500 retailers, 60 restaurants, an amusement park with 5 roller coasters, a climbing wall, a theater, an aquarium, an arcade and no doubt things of which we were not aware, there was no way to photograph the experience.

Can you find the climber on the wall? Hint: she is in the United States.

Let’s just say, capitalism consumerism is thriving. If ever in the area, we recommend you check it out. Be sure to take a dose of patience as it was very crowded and lots of children.  For us, it is one of those “been there, done that” and have no plans to return.

More to our liking was a 2.8 mile walk around Lake Harriet. It was impressive to see so many people walking and bicycling.

Interestingly, there was a separate path for bicyclists.

At the recommendation of our friends, Jeff and Geri, we stopped by Wooden Ship Brewing Company.

Even though we were by far the oldest patrons, we enjoyed being a part of a neighborhood gathering.

Being a holiday weekend, most campgrounds required a minimum of three nights stay, which gave us some down time to catch up with laundry and housekeeping chores.  It was nice to have full hook-ups, which meant we were connected to the campground water and sewage and didn’t have to be concerned with running out of water or overfilling the holding tanks

Not always having strong cell and Wi-Fi signals, we sometimes have taken our devices to where we can get a connection. 

The inconvenience makes us appreciate the strong signal at Town and Country campground that allowed us to watch our home church service on the internet and post our blog without a lot of ‘work-arounds.’

 

We found the folks in Minneapolis to be very friendly. Expressing this to a local, he replied, “You haven’t been here in the winter, have you.”

With so many people, traffic and road construction, we have renewed appreciation of living in a small town. However, we have no complaints with the weather; in fact we are glad we packed flannel pajamas.

Minnesota completes our 10-year challenge of staying overnight in all of the Lower 48 states.

The Wanderer continues westward.