The rains began yesterday with a giant Low over Des Moines, Iowa headed east. Despiite the rain, we managed to pack the car and get out of Bemidji and head south towards Alexandria, Minnesota. The rain did not stop, but when we arrived in Alexandria, we managed to eat at the Italian restaurant Bello Cucina and at the Firehouse…. (I forgot to mention that in Bemidji, we ate at the Italian restaurant Tutto Bene and the barbeque restaurant named Fuzies) Rain does not stop us! In Bemidji we also did the Art Walk actually a sculpture drive around town to find all the statues that were made and placed for the Art Walks up to now. Some were really cool and hidden in gardens. One was two giant bicycles that actually were a bicycle rack. We found a big moose in a garden with a mural of men in canoes behind it. Beminji is a beautiful little town. We left early Wednesday, just finishing repacking the car before the rains started. A note on traveling great distances in a car: Take one bag that goes into hotels every night. Our problem is we have one bag with "clothes we will wear for a few days" but we also have a pretty big bag full of "ditty bags" shampoo, conditioners, creams, tooth stuff, cosmetics, all the etc stuff we need when we get ready after a shower or before night. On top of that is the computer bag, the 2 pillows, a bag of maps as I’m constantly changing our route, my purse, Chuck’s Bubba coffee cup, …. The reason I carry a bag of maps and the computer into the hotel room is I have to do a reconoitering on a town and find everything fun… for example when I settled on Alexandria Minnesota as the stop over place before we get to Clear Lake, Iowa Friday afternoon I went online to find hotels, resturants, events and "things to do". Alexandria thinks the Vikings visited so there is a giant Vikings statue, a Vikings museum with a rune stone, an art museum with "Sky photography" and out door cafes on several lakes that surround the town. I’m looking out the window and it looks like it might brighten up by lunch time… otherwise, we’re inside for lunch. Yesterday we went to the Rotary "Corn and pork chop jubilee" at the local fire house. It was great barbeque for charity! I got to look at fire trucks and uniforms (really the children enjoyed it a lot more!!!!). I went to a great book store on main street (called Broadway – actually a 4 land main street) to get concert tickets and proceeded to stay and talk to the lady for 15 minutes. Chuck came in to see if I was OK and he found me chatting about everything Minnesota with a most friendly group of women. I’ve found only friendly happy people in these small towns! Hatred and vitriol is playing out on television… I worry about marches in Boston and San Francisco and more this weekend. Chuck and I have discussed what the Confederate statues and relics do to a town…. Things are not well in the big towns, but here in tiny Minnesota, communities seem to be pulling together. Of course I don’t live here… In the bookstore and on the hotel check in counter in plain view was a poster for a lost girl… the woman at the book store counter suggested that because of the near by interstate, "sex trafficking" is suggested in her disapearance and I thought about the difference between this town and Bemidji which is 1/2 a day away from an interstate. The interstate running by on your south flank might influence the development of your town… What about when the expressways cut you into bits? God bless small town America. Off we go into the rain! God bless you.
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