Again in 2011 our Great Train Adventure crossed another state and we never set foot in Minnesota.
Dawn started breaking about 30 miles out of Fargo in North Dakota as we followed US 10 to Minneapolis. This is the land of lakes and I don't remember seeing much except puddle after puddle after puddle due to the heavy rains.
We actually started following the mighty Mississippi River a little north of St Cloud, Minnesota but it is not much of a river until we get to the dams south of Minneapolis.
Originally the Mississippi was a raging torrent in the spring runoff and not navigable to steamboats anywhere this far north. As we pass down the western side some of the flood control backup indundates fields leaving behind sediment for lush fields. At La Crosse we crossed into Wisconsin heading for Milwalkee.
Our original intention was to meander slowly across Minnesota following US-2 which we had been on since leaving the Seattle, Washington area. Staying in Grand Forks, North Dakota over Labor Day I was looking at future stops along US-2 and our next major stay at Jay Cooke SP near Duluth was forecast for freezing temperatures. Based on our experience at Emigrant Springs SP in Oregon we decided it was time for a huge right turn and headed south to Fargo. Before heading south we did continue a little on US-2 to visit the Walmart in Crookston because North Dakota does not allow them to have pharmacies.
During our stay in Fargo, North Dakota we crossed the river to Morehead and a visit to the Hjemkomst Center celebrating the Nordic heritage of the area. This was very interesting since my grandparents emigrated from Sweden and I have had the opportunity to visit their hometown on Gotland Island. The story of the Hjemkomst ship is fascinating and told much better at this site than I can here.
Focused primarily on getting south before it got really cold we stopped for a few days just south of Minneapolis at the Lebanon Hills Campground before continuing south to Iowa. It was another wonderful experience at a local county park and we definitely plan to come back. It was not real
cold yet and this little guy had not gone looking for a place to hibernate.
We were mostly just looking around and deciding another visit to the area when it was a little warmer would be a good idea. Advertised as the largest mall in American it's rather hard to tell if the Mall of America is an amusement park with shopping or a shopping mall with amusements. We really appreciated it was a warm place to wander about.
An here are some special pictures for my Lego grand- daughter.