Minnesota Replaces Iceland!!

My friend, Marie King, from Minneapolis and I had planned to go to Iceland in July but because of the volcanic excitement there, we decided to go to another cold place instead---northern Minnesota! After a day in Minneapolis, doing "city" things (a marvelous exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a great tiki bar named Psycho Suzie's were two things) we set forth for the northland.

A partial list of interesting features of "Up North" turned out to be:

• a three-way area of continental divide where the water splits and runs to the Atlantic,
  the Pacific and Hudson's Bay
• lots of bedrock! There are areas that look like the backs of whales. Rocks include pink and grey granite, biotite schist, greenstone
• the International Wolf Center at Ely--where we saw the wolves have their weekly meal
• fresh wall-eye on every menu---even for breakfast!
• an iron mine tour: down 1/2 mile at 10 miles an hour and in 3/4 of a mile by train
• a huge open pit iron mine, complete with giant trucks that carry 240 tons!
• short visit to the National Hockey Museum
• Cornish pasties for lunch (originally brought from Cornwall by the miners)
• a walk across the Rainy River to Ft. Francis, Canada
• a tour of a Boise paper mill that makes 20 ton rolls of paper---did you know paper is coated with liquid cornstarch to make it smooth?
• a visit to the headwaters of the Mississippi River where I could walk across it
• a visit to Voyagers National Park where we enjoyed a canoe trip (yes---we paddled!)

We also saw the only gas station Frank Lloyd Wright ever designed:

Viewing the wolf pack was most interesting; our reaction to them was that they are huge and quite beautiful. Here is the white male alpha wolf watching his pack...
Another view of Shadow (the alpha male) observing one of the younger males...

That evening we watched the wolves be fed their weekly meal of road kill. They were each given a beaver (skinned and turned in by trappers); here is Shadow starting his dinner!

This wolf is getting ready to "sleep it off"---they are quite sluggish for several days after eating.

Now, on to the open pit iron mine. Here is one of the huge trucks hauling iron ore to the taconite plant where the ore is formed into small pellets, which are shipped across the Great Lakes to the iron mills of the east. Each truck has six tires that cost about $30,000 EACH!

(Well, shoot, the next picture is my usual sideways one---) Here is Marie standing beside

one of the huge trucks..

Here she is inside the bucket---28 cubic yard capacity!

And. finally, find me dancing down the stairway near the cab of this truck!
Of course no visit to Minnesota would be complete without seeing Paul Bunyan and Babe...can you find Marie and me?
Here we are at the famous headwaters of the Mississippi at Itasca State Park...
Crossing the headwaters where they run out of Lake Itasca and start down the river...

We enjoyed our week in northern Minnesota where we found friendly people, no crowds, and interesting things to do.

PS---almost no mosquitos!

Final Word on the Pennsylvania Roadtrip

June 28th: As always, much time has passed between my posts. I admire the young women with children who seem to post often...

Arriving in Pennsylvania, it was wonderful to spend time with my granddaughter, Audrey (as well as her parents!). She, of course, does not sit sideways in her little rocker, but instead has a grandmother who consistently has at least one photo in most blog posts that lands on its side. My apologies to you, Audrey Grace!

One of the joys was seeing how Audrey loved the giant bear that rode to PA with Karen and me. It was a long-ago Christmas gift to Suzie from Travis. Audrey loved "sitting in its lap" to look at books and simply pouncing on the bear just for fun. A Mother's Day and birthday gift to Suz and me was a lovely tea at the Front Porch Tearoom near York from Travis and Maggie. We enjoyed scones, two kinds of tea, salad, soup, and

delicious desserts, all in Victorian ambiance. We enjoyed acting like ladies---thanks, Travis and Maggie!

Another day, when Karen had returned from visiting her mom and a friend, we trooped off to Intercourse, PA, a charming little Amish village (yep, that's right!) where we finally got to tour

the Museum of Edged Weaponry, which we've been eyeing ever since James and Suz moved to

PA. We always try to tour one unusual museum (we've logged the National Dental Museum,

the Watch Museum, the International Weight Lifting Museum and now this masterpiece!).

It was very interesting, having every sort of knife, sword, dagger, and bayonet you could imagine! Here we are with Suz's friend Jen who consented to go with us---

Finally it was time to turn the red car west to return to Colorado. We visited friends of Karen's in Ohio and then began the long, long, long road through the trees: I-70 across Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri! A picnic lunch at a nice rest stop in Illinois broke the monotony and what should we discover in the rest room but an innovative item: an all-in-one hand washing device. One simply held your hands in the opening (the dark area) and they were sprayed with liquid soap, followed by a soothing warm water rinse and then a blast of hot air! Slick! It is amazing what one can see and learn on an American road trip!!
Driving through St. Louis was exciting for me because I had never seen the arch. The morning was clear, the traffic was light, and I was able to take great photos on the move...
The river boats were picturesque at the base of the arch...
Finally, nearing Colorado, after an overnight in Kansas City with my family, we enjoyed a stop to see the Cathedral of the Plains, a Catholic Church in western Kansas, which presides over the vast plains. It was built in 1909 and is stately and elegant and a surprise to find amidst the huge wheat fields.
If you have never taken a road trip with a good friend, I highly recommend it. Karen and I visited, laughed, said "oops" when we took a wrong turn and usually found something interesting while correcting, stopped when something looked interesting, met friendly people, ate new foods, and, in general, enjoyed every one of the 5300 miles we traveled.

I look forward to the next road trip---any volunteers?