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“I was pretty ready to cry.” |
We left the Super 8 in Bloomington after a delicious free continental breakfast and happily headed down I-35 to get back to 90. It was a pretty nice day, nice driving conditions. The kind of day when your speedometer edges up and you don't notice.
But the Minnesota State Police notice. And they don't hesitate to pull you over. After the previous day's event, I was being really careful about my speed and drove on cruise control for most of the day. But I had to pass someone, you know? Anyway, I told him I thought I hadn't been speeding when he asked The Question and when he took my license back to the patrol car, I was pretty ready to cry. Two speeding tickets in two days? This isn't happening, is it?
As it turns out, it's not. I don't know why he let me off with a warning, but he did, and I respect and honor the state of Minnesota for it, which I demonstrated by driving a mile below the speed limit until Jon took over.
The drive to Wall held three enjoyable stops. The first was in Blue Earth, Minnesota where we got to see a 55 foot-tall Jolly Green Giant. A nice man who hands out tourist booklets all day long took our picture and gave us a brochure, which informed us that for special occasions the JGG gets some outfit updates -- a big red scarf for the holidays and a leather vest sometime in the summer in honor of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Anyway, it was completely amazing.
Then we stopped in Sioux Falls, SD for a delightful lunch at Minerva's. Thanks Triple A.
After that, we started to see millions of signs for the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. The puns on the sign were awesome (see photos), the Corn Palace was medium awesome, full of plenty of overpriced corn paraphernalia. It was built, similarly to Wall, by people who wanted to put Mitchell on the map. Considering that we stopped, I'd say it was a successful endeavor.
After Mitchell, we continued down 90, bombarded by Wall billboards, which start way way way before Wall. Which kind of stunk because it was really hot and we were medium cranky and we just wanted to get to Wall already. For those of you that don't know, Wall is a tiny little basically nothing town that some Wall-ians wanted to put on the map. They did so by advertising free ice water on billboards up and down 90 and lo and behold, people started stopping. It's a kitschy little town with stores where you can buy western-style photographs of yourself (sepia shots where you're wearing chaps etc and holding guns) and basically that's about all that Wall is. But we found a campsite there that charged us a mere $18 for a tent site with water & electric hookups. And yes, for those of you who are on the edge of your seats right now, we pitched aforementioned purchased at Mall of America tent and I slept in it and it was delightful. Yay, camping! (See attached photos to prove all this and note that although I am not in the photos, I helped and although there are photos of Jon doing tent construction, he did not do it all by himself. So there.)
Other landmark of note between Minneapolis & Wall, SD: DeSmet, SD, home of Laura Ingalls Wilder. For those of you that are wondering, South Dakota, similar to the rural parts of the midwest, is, in fact, flat, flat, flat and green. I took many pictures out of the car window to prove this, but Jon pointed out that they are far too boring to upload and make you look at.
previous travel blog entryComments or Questions for the Author
Takeasweater says:
Jon--my apologies for misspelling your name. It's the scatterbrain gene at work. Keep the speed demon in check, please. Love
ScottE says:
Y'all are tracing part of the Sex Drive in reverse! I thought I saw a "new" Pickle in a Pouch yesterday, Jon, and I almost bought it for you, but then I realized maybe I had already given you this one (the "Big Papa") and in any case you're probably trying to travel light right now. (Though word on the street is that police can sometimes be "convinced" not to give you a ticket if you can offer up a delicious treat sealed in a sack with its own juices...)