Minnesota

My re-entry into the US from Ontario, I think I might have mentioned in a different post, was quick and uneventful. The agent at the window basically asked where I was from, what I was doing in Canada, asked, and I quote "Do you have anything bad?" and when I replied that I did not, just said "Welcome back."

In Thunder Bay I drove out to Fort William Historical Park -- and it was nothing like I expected. They charged $14 for a tour, where from what I could gather interpreters dressed in period garb would walk and talk and so on, but I just wasn't feeling it. I was expecting something more like Mackinac Island, and it was nothing like that, from what I could tell.

However, just across the border was exactly what I was expecting. Grand Portage National Historical Monument, where I decided to stop on a whim, was actually pretty cool. The highlight, for me, being the few enormous birch bark canoes they had there. Oh, and the fact that one of the interpreters was cooking himself dinner, basically, and that was his job there.

From there I drove down the shoreline, following Lake Superior. To say it was disappointing after the Ontario shoreline would be unfair, but it wasn't as scenic. The land was starting to flatten out and the view of the water was mostly obscured by trees. It was still a nice drive, but just not what I had just experienced in the previous days.

I stopped in Grand Marais, MN, which was a nice little town. I've been to the Grand Marais in the UP probably a dozen times, so I felt like I needed to see the other one. It was a bigger town than the Michigan one, but still small. Walked around a bit, and used the internet at the library. Sent some Couchsurfing messages and received no response.

I decided to keep driving, to get closer to Duluth. Around the time it got dark I pulled into a rest stop which had wifi, and used the internet in my car for a while. But for some reason I didn't want to stay there, so I decided to keep driving.

The rest of my night was pretty awful.

About 20 miles down the road I found another rest stop, this one attached to a state park. It seemed less hospitable than the last, and no internet. I already had wished I had stayed at the last one (and it was about 11 o'clock by then). Thanks to mis-reading a map, I thought there was one more rest area between where I was and Duluth, so I decided to drive to it. Got to what I thought was it and -- it was a chamber of commerce parking lot. I pulled up the map (saved in a tab on my laptop) and sure enough, the rest area I was already at was the one I was looking for. So tired, and at this point angry, I turned around, back-tracked again, and drove back to that one. I picked a parking spot that I thought would be private, and figured out how to block out my windows a bit, more for sun than privacy, but kind of for both.

I actually slept pretty well that night, finally. And the blanket fort made for decent privacy. Someone would have to be exceptionally nosy to even know I'm in my vehicle, so as far as that goes, I'm sort of reassured.

In the morning I went to go use the bathrooms, but out of curiosity decided to walk towards the falls that were apparently there, and they were pretty. So I wasn't in a terrible, terrible mood after that.

I went to Duluth that morning, bought some groceries, visited their libraries. Their downtown main branch was huge. But Duluth is actually pretty big, or at least a lot bigger than I'm used to. I had to park downtown, and had to run out once to feed the meter. I was still doing computer stuff, but didn't want to just put dollar after dollar in the meter, so I decided to relocated to their western branch, which was smaller and had their own parking lot.

While there I finalized a plan for my first couch surf, and got on the road again. I made a stop at Hammerheart Brewing Company. I had met Austin, one of the guys who runs the place, when he had been in Traverse City about a year and a half ago, and I decided it'd be good to stop by. He was really nice, and even though he was busy took a few minutes to chat with me about a variety of things. Slid me a free beer and two small pours of some of their more premium stuff. Later that night I arrived in Chanhassen, outside of Minneapolis, and met my host for the night (actually the next night too).

Then I had a couple of really weird days. I was super grateful for a bed to sleep in, and some good rest, but emotions and an overactive brain really kind of derailed me for two or three days. So unfortunately I didn't get to see as much of Minnesota as I would have liked. I did make a trip back into downtown Minneapolis and wandered around a little bit, though. I went to Minnehaha Falls Park and the sculpture garden, but that was about it.

Before I left the Minneapolis area I decided to try some Somali food, which was recommended to me. It was good. They gave me a banana I didn't quite know what to do with, but I just broke it up and put it in with the meat and rice and it actually complimented it quite well. But I'm still not sure if that's what I was "supposed to" do.

And I also decided to go to a "ninja" gym for the first time. It just so happened that a few weeks previously, before leaving home, I saw an episode of American Ninja Warrior and in it they mentioned Conquer Ninja Warrior outside of Minneapolis, so I kind of knew it was there. There are gyms like this all over the country now, but I decided to give this one a try.

Pretty much all of the obstacles are properly hard, and I could only successfully manage a few. It was very humbling. Almost all of them depend on great grip strength and proper technique -- neither of which I had. There is a large discrepency between the grip strength of my right hand and my left hand; my right hand could grip many things, but my left really couldn't manage much at all. Oh well. I know another weakness.

But as some consolation, I was able to do their warped wall (a thirteen foot wall) on my first try, and two times after that. So that was neat.

Unfortunately I still feel like I didn't get to properly experience Minnesota, mostly because of my mood. In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, I really only got to see Superior, and maybe a few smaller ones I drove by. I wanted to swim, but didn't. I wanted to do several other things, but didn't. I mostly just drove through.

I confirmed what I long believed, though, that Minnesota is very similar to Michigan. The northern parts of the states are both more scenic, with more variety in the landscape. Same flora and fauna, mostly. And as you get further south the forests become more deciduous, the land becomes flatter, there is more farm land, and so on.

So that was Minnesota.