Day 8

Saturday, 14th June

Arby's, Dairy Queen, the Jolly Green Giant and pink quarzite! (Where's the SPAM?)

I washed my hair when I got up, after having slept badly (snorer!). I walked down to the River, early. It was lovely down there.

Breakfast was in with our room rate, though only for 2. So we went down for a take-away to share between 3!! The girl in the breakfast room would not allow us to take away china plates, so we had to make do with polystyrene cartons! We then drove down to Riverside Park, and walked alog by the river, to the Hiawatha statue and up to the Japanese garden. There was evidence that the Mississippi had slightly broken its banks here.

We saw a fair bit of La Crosse, because we couldn't find our way out of it! It was a marvellously neat little town, typical of the area. Perfect little streets, with perfect little houses, with perfect little lawns.

Once we had found the bridge over the Mississippi and crossed it, we were in Minnesota. We had originally planned to take the Historic Bluff Country Scenic Byway - that was, before the flooding. We had changed our minds. However, whether by accident or design, we did actually take that road! There were plenty of flooded fields, the economic and personal cost of which, we could only guess.

We stopped briefly at the town of Lanesboro, where there were Amish women selling their wares beside their buggies in the park! It was certainly a town from a bygone age.

Back on the interstate, we stopped at Austin, but we couldn't find the SPAM Museum! We went into a shop and stocked up on water (24 bottles for $4.99) and were given instructions for the museum, but we still couldn't find it! "All roads lead to the SPAM Museum", indeed! Getting out of Austin was another problem as we had to stop at the railway crossing and the train went on for miles, so we turned around and got lost!

Next, we stopped at Albert Lea for some (late) lunch. We thought we'd try Arby's, so we enjoyed our first Arby's beef sandwich things!

We had better luck finding the Jolly Green Giant - it was right off the interstate at Blue Earth. Two giant statues in one day was a bit much! The Jolly Green Giant stands 60 feet high and there is a gift shop in a little red barn which was, unfortunately, closed. In the field next door, there was a rodeo going on! Also, there was a Dairy Queen nearby and we were thirsty, so Paul walked over and brought us back candy blizzards!

We continued, through the Minnesota, before, finally, reaching South Dakota.

minnesota sky


a stop somewhere

Our hotel in Sioux Falls, was the ClubHouse Hotel and Suites. The hotel was quite new and looked great! Our room looked great too - 2 queen beds + a sofa bed. Free internet and lots of space. However, the beds were as hard as a rock and the pillows even worse!

HARD!

We decided to drive to Sioux Falls Park to have a look at the Falls. It wasn't too far and we found it easily enough, but it was difficult to find parking as, each night in the summer, there is a light display and the park was full of people! We decided not to wait for the display, but just to have a look at the falls and find a piece of pink quartzite to put in my bag!!

All that was left to do now was to find something to eat! We opted to buy pizzas from the Dominos opposite our hotel. We sent Paul in and he had to wait AGES! However, the wait was worth it.

*** BEWARE! MOSQUITO BITE! ***

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[ Introduction ] [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Day 4 ] [ Day 5 ] [ Day 6 ] [ Day 7 ] [ Day 8 ] [ Day 9 ]
[ Day 10 ] [ Day 11 ] [ Day 12 ] [ Day 13 ] [ Day 14 ] [ Day 15 ] [ Day 16 ] [ Day 17 ]
[ Day 18 ] [ Day 19 ] [ Day 20 ] [ Day 21 ] [ Day 22 ] [ Day 23 ] [ Day 24 ] [ Day 25 ] [ Day 26 ]

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