2008 Western Adventure

Day 7 - June 26, 2008

I woke up to another cloudy day, but it didn't look like rain clouds overhead...thank goodness. I was anxious to get to Minneapolis, so I hustled to get loaded and on my way.  My anxiety made the trip seem longer than it should have been.  Once I arrived in Minneapolis my GPS told me to turn at Ft Snelling, a familiar place to  me when I was a child.  Unfortunately, my GPS directed my onto on a road that lead me to a military guarded gate.  The roads were totally unfamiliar to me, but I knew which direction to go, so I used my dead reckoning skills (yeah, right) to find my way to the street that I used to live on when I was 4 - 6 years old.  Of course, the street seem much smaller and the trees much bigger.  My old house was a different color and had been remodeled some over the years.  They also build a garage in the alley.  After taking a picture of the old house, I proceeded to my old school, which was old when I attended Kindergarten, and first grade.  I did remember a little bit about the school, Morris Park Elementary. 

Then I headed for the house that we lived in next, which was last house that we lived in before we move to California. I was 9 years old when we moved.  I remembered this house more vividly, but again the street we much wider when I lived there.  At first I thought the house was empty because the grass hadn't been cut for ages, then I saw someone come out of the house.  I guess they were just to busy to keep up the yard.  There was a sign in the front yard, but I couldn't tell what it was because of the tall weeds.  I then proceeded to the other school that I went to in Minneapolis, Hiawatha Elementary.  I remembered that they would flood the playground in the winter so we would had an ice rink.  That's where I learn to Ice skate.  I remember a painful fall on my face, and a very bloody nose.  That didn't stop me from skating though.

A must see, was Minnehaha Park, which is located in between the two houses that I lived.  Needless to say, I spent a lot of time there.  That was back in the day when our mother's didn't have to take us to the park and watch us like a mother hawk.  It was a big park to us back then, and to my surprise is still a big park.  Minnehaha creek runs down the middle of the park, and there's a 50 foot water fall in the park.  They've add so many nice features to the park, including a nice restaurant called the Sea Salt.  At the East end of the park you can see the Mississippi River.  What a trip into my past.  I was so busy gawking that I didn't take near the pictures that I wanted.  Memories....Memories!!

Once I got my fill of old memories of the neighborhoods, I headed West through downtown Minneapolis.  The only thing I remembered was the Foshay Tower, which was the tallest building back in the 40's (32 floors and 607 feet to the top of the antenna).  It was almost hidden by some of the newer buildings. 

Soon I was clear of the town, and heading Northwest towards my next destination, Portland, ND.  I made it as for as Wadena, MN that afternoon, and stopped there for dinner and hopefully a good nights sleep.  I had the dinner, but I didn't get to sleep until very late....again.