Hello Everyone! I can’t believe it’s November already. That means it’s almost 5 months since I left home and that it’s almost time to turn my headlights back in that general direction. I turned 46 last weekend in the Twin Cities and really enjoyed the weekend. I caught up with some friends and found some Halloween festivities as well and even went to the Vikings game at U.S. Bank Stadium. After a fun-filled but tiring weekend, I traveled up the St. Croix River through some really cool historic towns and have once again turned west for my final run across Minnesota. There’s been a lot of sun this week which has made the freezing and near-freezing temperatures pretty easy to bear, but with the sun coming up at 8am and going down before 6, it’s been a challenge to get everything I want to accomplish done during daylight hours. Daylight Savings Time is ending this week and while I’m looking forward to getting up with light in the sky, it will be dark by 5 and that’s not so easy. There was even a little bit of snow this week which was fun, but definitely a reminder of what is right ahead of us. I’m going to be pushing hard this week to see and do the things I want to get done so I can get out of here before the real snow flies. It’s been a busy week, so let’s get right into it.
After finishing this post last week in St. Cloud, I told you I was looking forward to an open-mic night in town. What I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know was that it was an open-mic comedy night which was quite something to see in a mid-sized Minnesota town, especially since most of the comedians were in some form of costume. On the whole, they were pretty terrible and bombed pretty hard if they could even remember their jokes at all. Some read directly off of their cue cards while others blanked entirely and wished they’d brought some. As far as hilarious stand-up goes - this was not that, but as far as observing life in St. Cloud, it was fascinating. Some people just spilled their guts and I wondered if there was supposed to be any jokes in it at all or if it was some form of humiliation therapy (although I sincerely applaud their courage to get up on stage at all). My favorite was probably Large Marge, a 40-something drag queen who had the best delivery and was actually pretty funny. The crowd was small, but generally supportive and I had a great time. The $4 craft beer pitchers didn’t hurt. Before the show I went across the street to Pioneer Place, an old theatre which was having a live radio performance. I wish I had known it was going on because it’s been a long time since I’ve attended such an event, but I did catch a little bit of it and it was also a lot of fun.
Thursday I headed out of St. Cloud and made a beeline for the Twin Cities. I had a great conversation with my old friend Peter as I drove. Peter lived near me when I lived in Japan and it was nice to catch up with him. When I got to Minneapolis, I ran around and did a bunch of errands and then spent the afternoon with my friend, Val. The last time I saw Val was at her place in Dallas on my drive home from South Texas at the beginning of the pandemic. It was good to see her and we spent the whole afternoon just hanging out and catching up.
The next day was my birthday and I started the day with a delicious breakfast at a little hole-in-the-wall called Junior’s. Then I headed up to the town of Anoka, which bills itself as the “Halloween Capital of the World”. There were banners on the light posts in town declaring the same and a giant pumpkin down by the river. The stores along the main street were all decorated, but mostly in a very subtle way and I was surprised how little decoration I saw around town seeing as it was 2 days before Halloween. While their big Halloween parade was on Saturday, I was there to see the schoolchildren’s parade. It was really wonderful with all of the different schools in town participating and hundreds of costumed kids marching down the street. The school bands played as well and there was a pretty good turnout of spectators. I loved it. Afterwards I went for a beer at the 10K Brewing Company and then headed back into the city. My next stop was at Psycho Suzie’s Motor Lounge which is the Twin Cities’ premier Tiki Lounge. What I didn’t know was that it was all decked out in an insane Christmas frenzy starting October 1st and running until the end of the year. It was wild and a whole lot of fun. I enjoyed some specialty Christmas cocktails like a Hug in a Mug and a Gingerbread White Russian, but my favorite cocktail on their menu was a Punch in the Boob From Drunk Uncle Glen! You’d really have to see this place to believe it, but it was wonderful. While I was there I thought how nice it was to celebrate my birthday in a Christmas setting since it is Halloween every year on my birthday. It was awesome. I had planned on going to the Stray Dog for dinner but forgot what a reservation was after the last few months and they were booked completely out. I ended up around the corner at Gorkha Palace which is a delightful Nepalese restaurant. Dinner was fantastic and I would definitely recommend it. All-in-all it was a pretty excellent birthday.
Saturday started with a walk around downtown Minneapolis. Apparently that area was once the flour producing capital of the country, with trains bringing wheat from Midwestern farms and the Mississippi River powering flour mills and helping deliver the finished product to markets downriver. The mills are all gone, but many of the buildings and historic signs remain which is cool. I walked over the historic Stone Arch Bridge and up SE Main Street past some cool old buildings before cutting back across the Father Hennepin Bridge with its amazing Grain Belt Beer sign. From there I walked past City Hall and the U.S. Bank Stadium back to my van. I worked up quite an appetite and headed over to Matt’s on Cedar Street to get the original Juicy Lucy, a Minnesota must-have. There was a line to get in, but they moved people through pretty quickly. A Juicy Lucy is really just a burger with cheese melted inside, but it was pretty tasty. From there I headed over to Lake Monster Brewing Company for their outside Monster Bash. There were 4 bands lined up and it was a beautiful sunny day to be outside and enjoying it. While I was there, I got a message from my good friend Tavis saying that he was at work at the new O’Shaughnessy Distillery which was right down the road. I popped over to say hello and he got me on an hour-long tour of the whole operation. The place is massive and brand new and looks like it’s set up to be quite a major player. They have recruited the Master Distiller from Jamison to come to Minneapolis and create an Irish-American whiskey. Right now they are blending whiskeys, as it takes several years for whiskey to mature in the barrels but when it’s ready it’s going to be really good. I have toured a lot of whisky distilleries in my life, and O’Shaughnessy’s was impressive. From there I headed over to Patrick McGovern’s bar which is the viewing site for Penn State football organized by the local Alumni Association chapter. It was a big game against Ohio State and we were competitive but couldn’t pull out a win. I guess it’s not Penn State’s year after all.
It was quite a busy weekend, so I took it kind of easy on Sunday. I did go out to see old Fort Snelling which sits high up on a hill overlooking the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. For a while, this was as high up the Mississippi as boats could safely navigate, so it was a major port area. I think history remembers Fort Snelling most as the site of a concentration camp-like encampment which held 1600 Dakota People in the wake of the 1862 Dakota Conflict, many of whom were non-combatant women and children. They stayed in tipis on the property through the winter and were poorly fed and supplied and 130 deaths occurred in the camp that season. Unfortunately the fort is closed for the season, but is only open on the weekends in summer anyway. Minnesota should adopt the nickname “Rarely Open” based on what I’ve seen around the state – this is not some podunk little town – it’s near the state capital and a major metropolitan area. It was interesting to be there nonetheless and walk along the exterior wall. From there I headed over to the beautiful Minnehaha Falls which is very beautiful and most people know from Longfellow’s poem about Hiawatha. Then I headed back downtown and managed to get a last minute ticket to the Cowboys-Vikings football game which had a 7:20 kickoff. I haven’t been to many pro football games in my life, so I was excited to be there. Unfortunately there was an unbelievably obnoxious man standing right behind my seat who simply would not shut up through the entire game. Dallas fans have a reputation around the country as some of the worst and he sure was a prime example of that. Most visiting fans come to cheer on their own team and have some fun in the host city. They want their team to win, but are respectful and happy to be there. This man picked at absolutely everything from the cheerleaders to the city to the Hall of Fame inductees (thankfully he drew the line at the Paralympic athletes who were recognized). He wanted to get a rise from somebody and everyone just ignored him hoping he would lose interest but he just kept going through the whole game. He was drunk and obnoxious enough to know that confronting him would have either made him worse or started a fight. It’s a shame that he really ruined the whole experience for me, especially knowing that this was his goal. It’s also a shame that there are people like him in the world, and even more of a shame that his team won. Oh well – I hope he was very proud of himself.
On Monday I headed just outside of town to Lake Elmo Park Preserve to run their permanent orienteering course. I ran a few courses earlier this summer in Michigan and Wisconsin, and it was great to get out and do another one on a much cooler day. I ran their advanced course which was a lot of fun and had 11 markers spread over about 5 miles of the park. When I arrived it started snowing which was unexpected and very cool (and better than a light rain). It really was just a few flakes, but it told me winter is right around the corner. I saw a beautiful young buck whitetail dear when I was out there too which was great. When I completed the course, I headed on to the beautiful town of Stillwater on the St. Croix River. Stillwater calls itself Minnesota’s First City and has a wonderful historic downtown area full of old mills and warehouses converted to upscale restaurants and antique shops. I loved it and spent the rest of the day taking photos around town. I had a lackluster dinner in one of the bars with some really obnoxious people next to me. They weren’t nearly as bad as the Dallas fan, but I got out of there as soon as my dinner was done.
The next morning I headed back into town and caught some of the early light on the buildings, the paddlewheel boats on the river and the historic lift bridge. Then I grabbed a wonderful gyro omelet at the cute little Main Café which I really enjoyed. It was very unpretentious and warm. Full and content, I headed up the hill to the historic Stillwater Courthouse, Minnesota’s oldest, and was thrilled to find it open. The old courtroom was set up for some kind of concert and the whole place was already decorated for Christmas. In the back was the old jail which was kind of neat to see as well. From there I wandered around looking at some really exceptional old houses before hitting the road on my way north. I stopped off briefly in Marine on Saint Croix – a tiny town with a big name – to see their cute general store and post office. Then I went up to the old Swedish settlement of Scandia which didn’t have much to see but there were some cool old buildings there as well. From there I headed on to Taylors Falls which is a very cool little town right across from St. Croix Falls in Wisconsin which I was in about two months ago. When I was there back then I visited Wisconsin’s side of Interstate State Park and yesterday I visited the Minnesota side. It was a little weird and also great to look out and see the markers I read and the trail I walked down and think of how much I’ve seen between then and now. The geologic potholes on the Minnesota side were deeper than the ones across the river, including what’s thought to be the deepest pothole in the world, The Bottomless Pit, which is 60’ deep. These potholes were carved after the last ice age by sand and debris caught up in whirlpools and are definitely something to see. From there I took some photos around town and wandered up to the oldest standing schoolhouse in Minnesota which is right next to the old jail. The day was wearing on, so I headed on to Hinckley where I spent the night at the casino there.
This morning I headed a little north of there to Banning State Park and hiked along the gorge there to Wolf River Falls. This was the site of an old limestone quarry and there were some old ruins still standing in the park. The river looks like a fun one to kayak, but it’s a little cold out there right now. It was a sunny morning though and I enjoyed a nice walk in the woods.
Now I’m in the little town of Isle on Mille Lacs Lake. When I finish this post I hope to head out to Father Hennepin State Park and do a little fishing and then head around the lake to the casino on the other side for the night. Tomorrow I’m headed clear across the middle of the state and hope to end up in Fergus Falls by the evening. Then I’ll be headed south to explore the southwest portion of the state before turning back east and returning to the Twin Cities. I don’t think I’ll quite be back to the cities by this time next week, but I should be getting close. That following week will be my last in Minnesota as I make my way out of the state along the mighty Mississippi. I don’t know what this week will hold, but I’m really looking forward to it and I hope you’ll come back next week to see what I’ve been up to. Until then, have a great week and I hope you get out and enjoy the fall colors while they last. Take care and I’ll see you back here next week. Thanks for reading.
-Mike