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Today was a casual day. We tried to sleep in, but renovation workers on the property nipped that in the bud. Then O had an 8:00 a.m. phone call. After that, we grabbed a little breakfast downstairs and headed over to "The Mall" (The Mall of America) for our morning walk. We had a good walk, did a little browsing and shopping and then came back to the motel for a quick shower before we went to the St. Paul Minnesota Temple. It is a cute little temple, a lot like the Kona temple but without some of the local detail (such as the wood carved trim and tropical motif in the sculpted carpet) that we enjoyed when we were on the Island.
Yesterday when we arrived in Minneapolis it was 88° and sunny with a soft, steady breeze. It was pleasantly warm this morning when we went for our walk. When we got back to the motel after the temple, it was considerably cooler and windier with some clouds. By the time we walked back to the motel again after dinner it was cold and very windy with a dark, overcast sky. It looks like the cold, wet weather, that is supposed to be here during the conference, has arrived.
I forgot to mention our six little traveling companions. They have traveled the 1200 miles or so without complaint, tucked in along the right-side cargo window where they would be on the sunny south side of the car for our eastbound trip. They’ve gone from little sprouted cotyledons to cilantro seedlings with true leaves during their cross-country adventure. Today they spent their time on a sunny windowsill in our room.
We hope they will all “hang in there” with us for 5 more days until they arrive at their new home in Kohler, Wisconsin.
Well, here we are in Minneapolis. It was a mostly uneventful drive from Murdo, South Dakota. We had stayed up late the night before, so we slept in, went for a walk and then hit the road.
We crossed over the Missouri River on the Lewis and Clark Memorial Bridge.
Here is a not-so-great picture of the river and the bridge. I took the picture from a park at a rest stop/visitors' center after we crossed the river. I wanted to go out past the edge of the park and into some low underbrush to get a better picture that showed the whole bridge, but a nearby sign changed my mind.
We left the rollings hills and by the time we reached Minnesota we were out onto the broad, flat plains. It was windy today, and on the plains, the wind can really get going. We had to be careful when we opened the car doors at gas stations and rest stops because the wind would try to whip the doors open. It isn't as windy or as flat in Minneapolis as it was out on the open plains.
It's planting season here in Minnesota. We saw lots of huge corn planters- 24 rows wide- pulled by big tractors. I remember driving the cab tractor for O and Uncle Charlie, pulling the roller to get a field ready to plant. We thought it was a nice, good-sized tractor, but these were bigger. The fields in Scott Valley were smaller. There are thousands of acres in the valley, but they are all divided into fields that were 40, 80 or maybe 100 acres in size. Here the fields went on, unbroken and undivided, for farther than you could see sometimes.
As we were driving along through corn country (acually still in South Dakota), I saw something strange in the distance that seemed to rise up out of a corn field. Whatever it was, it was big. Finally we were close enough to see that is was a massive steel sculpture. I grabbed my camera, held it out the window (at 75 mph) and snapped a shot as we went past. It was pretty cool. I don't know whether a sculptor made a deal with a farmer or a farmer earns a living growing corn and feeds his soul sculpting/welding steel during the winter, but there is was. You can get an idea of how big it is if you compare the sculpture to the size of the fences nearby. I didn't notice the giant hammer until after we were past. It was the bull's head that got my attention from several miles away. There were several other smaller sculptures around the big ones, but you can't really see them in this picture. Pretty cool!
Tomorrow we will go for our morning walk at the Mall of America and then go to the St. Paul temple. Then it will be time to get ready for my conference.
Two National Monuments and a National Park in one day. Plus lots of miles through the Black Hills and out across the Plains.
We went to Devil’s Tower and walked around the base of the tower. It is a short, pretty little trail. If we are ever there again, we may have to try one of the other trails. We didn’t see any climbers while we were there, but it is a popular climbing destination.
Then we headed out for South Dakota and the Black Hills. There we went to see Mount Rushmore.
After Rushmore we hit the road and headed east again and out onto the plains. As we neared Murdo, where we had decided to stay for the night, we noticed some strange geologic formations a few miles from the freeway. Then we saw a sign for the exit to Badlands National Park. Off we went to see the Badlands. If you are old enough to have seen the old western movies on Saturdays, then you know the Badlands is where those low-down varmints go to hide out after they rob the bank, or whatever else it is that low-down varmints do. And now we know why it was such a great place for outlaws to disappear.
One thing about the Plains that we don’t get to see in the Rocky Mountains: the horizon- way off in the distance. We really don’t get to see very far off tucked into the mountains the way we are. I forgot just how far you can see when there aren’t mountains in the way. It seems like you can see forever once you get out of town and into the open. If you look at the second Badlands picture, you can see a little of the horizon there. At sunset, with a few clouds, it is really something.
And one more thing about the Great Plains. You can’t really see them when you are out just walking around, or even in town, but there are lots of insects along the highways and byways. LOTS of them.
That isn’t a meteor shower over the parking lot. That is what our windshield looked like from where we were sitting. And we had already cleaned the windshield once today! Imagine our delight when we way this little amenity as we pulled in to the parking lot of our motel in Murdo.
We spent the day crossing the vast range lands of Wyoming. Sightings: buffalo- none were home. Antelope- too many to count; none were playing. Deer- finally saw a lot of them once we left the range lands and headed up into the hills for Hulett, Wyoming; they weren’t playing either. Wild turkeys- lots of those, too; I guess you could say some of them were playing. We saw several males with their tails spread wide, doing the “Hey, baby!” for a group of hens.
We got to our motel in Hulett at 7:40. The desk clerk mentioned that the only restaurant in town closed at 8:00. We hustled over there for a quick dinner. It was a tiny little place with seven tables and lots of the wall art that you see in small, out-of-the-way places; you know- Indian artifacts, old photos of settlers, wild life paintings, etc. I’m sure you can imagine what kind of place I mean. Our server was a guy in worn-out docker style pants and a T-shirt. Interesting conversation we overheard between him and the cook (the only other people in the little café besides us):
“I wonder if we can get some. Do you think Sysco can get some for us?”
“Which ones?”
“You know, the ones stuffed with asiago.”
“Oh, right. Well, the asiago is what really makes them so great.”
“Absolutely.”
Not the kind of conversation you expect to hear in a 7-table diner with about eight choices on the menu. Maybe a conversation about some processed cheese sauce substitute, but not one about something stuffed with asiago cheese.
