Since we got sprung from Madison, South Dakota after the Jeep repairs, we’ve been pretty much on the go again – making our way towards Saint Louis. Of course, we haven’t taken the direct route, as our stops have included Minneapolis and Chesterton, Indiana. Even with our week delay, our hosts have had flexibility to host us, and we’ve been soaking up quite a bit of social time. And after over a month on our own up in Big Sky Country, it’s been most appreciated.
Our first stop over point was in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We took a friend up on her offer of crash space to use as a springboard for exploring the area for the weekend.
Our arrival into Minneapolis actually happened to coincide with the release of Apple’s Leopard OSX, so we headed directly for the Mall of America to stand in line with the rest of the geeks. Mall of America was *insane*.
We each got one of the limited edition Leopard OSX t-shirts. Since I don’t have a Mac, mine is still in the wrapper and I’m contemplating eBaying it. If any Man-fans want to make an offer for it before I do so.. it’s a size Large. Just let me know. 🙂
Over the weekend, we did a bit of driving around the city to get a feel for it, including stopping at Minnehaha Falls, which had been recommended to me by several folks. It was pretty.. for an inner-city waterfall. We also saw cool buildings, and did a good bit of thrift store shopping.
Saturday evening we went out to a live music performance of ‘All The Pretty Horses’ in Uptown, where we ran into some fellow burners (the trick to finding burners is apparently to wear el wire!). That was quite cool. We dressed up a bit in costume for Halloween.. me in my leopard dance suit, and Chris in his Leopard OSX T-shirt – he was my leopard tamer. No one at the club seemed to get it.. but I thought it was a rather clever last minute costume. *giggle*
On Sunday we headed over to visit with David and Nancy, who I had met many years ago when they were down to Florida for a rendezvous with our friend Jay – who Chris has known for many years. It’s a small, small world. We had a lovely time hanging out and gaming, and they treated us to a night in their way luxurious jacuzzi suite bedroom. Oh, my! Decadence.
On Monday, we meet up with a friend of Chris’ that he’s known since grade school for dinner a bit south of Minneapolis in Faribult. It was fun catching up. We found a beautiful place to overnight on the Mississippi near Lake City, and then headed on southward following the river into Wisconsin.
Some beautiful things we saw along the way, including the world’s largest six pack of beer in La Cross, Wisconsin.
We overnighted there just outside of Potosi at the Grant River Corp of Engineers recreational area. It was quite lovely on the banks of the river.
In the morning, we ducked over the border into Dubuque, Iowa to fill up on biodiesel than southeastward into Illinois. Along the way, we took a diversion outside of Bellevue, IA when we saw a sign for the ‘Fritz Chapel’. Lovely back country roads and scenery.
We then made a beeline across Illinois, with a stop in Lockport to see one of Chris’ many childhood houses. We arrived in Chesterton, IN in time to take my friend Kele out for dinner. We’ll stay here until Sunday, with a possible train trip into Chicago on Saturday, then we’ll head to St. Louis. I’m very much looking forward to more hanging out and catch up time with her, and exploring the area.
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