Where's Vickie 2010: HOME!

My connections all meshed perfectly (train-plane-plane-train-train-ferry-bus) and I got home about 7pm on Monday evening. I have to say that no place I've been all summer can hold a candle to Whidbey Island in August. It's clear blue sky and 70 degrees, perfect biking weather, but my bike unfortunately hasn't left Minneapolis yet. Tomorrow, they say....

Yesterday I managed to unpack most of my stuff, re-stock my kitchen, pick up and go through all of my mail, do a load of wash, unpack the 3 pieces of artwork I had shipped home over the summer (all intact! ) and cook dinner before collapsing into the lazyboy with cat in lap.

Sabrina seems very happy to see me and even happier to be able to go outside again, after being held prisoner in the house (and with a dog for part of the time) all summer.

My yard is overgrown and brown, the house is full of cat hair and cobwebs and unread New Yorkers, but today I think I must go to the beach and pick blackberries along the bluff...

Although I will still be blogging on a semi-irregular basis, this is my last "Where's Vickie 2010" post, and the last email I will send out. Thanks so much for coming all with me on this trip! See you next time!

Where's Vickie 2010, Volume 14

Me and Mary Tyler Moore

There were a bunch of these cool sculptures of historic buildings, along 6th ave in Minneapolis

Unexplained sticker on a bike rack at an espresso place along a trail in Minneapolis

I just liked this big sign in Minneapolis. There was one for Gold Medal Flour, too

The house of Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern in the '70's

A Segway parade? in Minneapolis

The end of the wonderful Paul Bunyan Trail, in Baxter, MN

The Mississippi River in Brainerd --- quite a bit bigger than at Lake Itasca!

August 17 -- Baxter, MN

Even with the irritating location, we’ve decided we need a day of rest so are staying here for another night. Kathy and I took off separately on our bikes this morning. I rode about 20 miles, around some scenic parts of town along the river, while she went downtown to the bike shop and in search of a library.

August 18 -- Malmo, MN
50 miles, 860 feet cumulative elevtion gain
60 degrees and rainy - perfect biking weather!

Kathy found us a beautiful route on quiet roads through the countryside. Rolling hills, woods, lots and lots of lakes. It rained pretty much all day, and at one point we had to pull off and seek shelter due to thunder and lightning. The place we happened upon turned out to be an animal boarding and grooming place. We went in and Kathy asked to use the restroom. You’ve seen that sign in stores that says “Unattended children will be given an espresso and a free puppy.”? While Kaithy was in the restroom they gave me a warm towel and a free puppy, a 3-week-old springer spaniel. So cuddly but poor little thing, I was still all wet and it was shivering, so gave it back. Kathy wouldn’t let me keep it, anyway.

Just in time for lunch we came upon a nice resort with a restaurant and a latte place. The rain let up long enough so that we were able to eat outside, on a deck overlooking the lake. (What lake, I have no idea, there are so many around here).

We are staying right on Mille Lac Lake, here pronounced “m’lack”. It’s huge, you can’t see across it. Our lodgings here in Malmo are, ahem, interesting. We had originally planned to camp here at the Castaways Resort, $35 to pitch our tents, but since we were so wet we opted to spend an extra $15 for a cabin instead. The “cabins” are 10X20 metal sheds with 4 bunks, no water at all, propane lights and heat, and a single power strip hanging along the wall. And then we noticed these odd fishing-reel things along the walls, and little trap doors in the floor that you can pull up and see the ground underneath --- they’re ice fishing shanties! What a hoot! They are on sled-like runners, and in the winter they pull them out onto the lake.

The resort is mostly a big trailer park, where it looks like the residents are permanent or at least here for the summer months. There’s a bar and restaurant, where we caused quite a stir when we stepped in, dripping wet, this afternoon. I don’t think they get many bikers here.

August 19th - Cambridge. MN
51 miles, 460 feet cumulative elevation gain
70 and party cloudy -- perfect biking weather

We rode into a headwind / crosswind most of the day, on a state highway with a fair amount of traffic but a good wide shoulder. Kathy’s friend Bill, who has been on a car trip for the last couple of weeks, met us today on his bike, just outside of Ogilvie. I jokingly said to him “I’m headed for the latte place in Ogilvie”, and he said, oh, you’ve heard about it already? Sure enough, just after we crossed the Groundhome river, we pulled into Groundhome coffee shop, converted from an old gas station into the nicest little place you could imagine The guy roasts his own beans (the roaster was still hot), made me the best latte I’ve had since Shelby, MT, and sold me a pound of his best espresso roast.

Fueled up, we headed on to Dalbo, where Bill had left his car. We had originally planned to camp in Dalbo. There’s a bicycle-only camping spot there, noted on the Adventure Cycling map as “bikers may camp in farmer so- and so’s yard, even if family is not home”. Sure enough, they had a sign in the yard “Adventure Cyclist Bunkhouse”. Would have been fun to stay there, but due to forecast of overnight t-storms, we loaded the bikes and gear in the car and Bill drove us on to Cambrigde, where we had hotel reservations.

Looking at the internet tonight, I discovered I can move my flight home up from August 26th to the 23rd, for about $75. So, that’s what I did. Kathy and Bill will drive me to Minneapolis in the morning where I’ll spend the weekend exploring, then on Monday I’m going HOME!!!!!

August 22nd -- Minneapolis, MN

For the past 3 days I’ve been happily ensconced in the Comfort Suites, right in the middle of downtown. This place is a DEAL. I have an apartment-sized suite which could easily sleep 4, with a free FULL breakfast buffet (including made-to-order omelets) included, within easy biking and walking distance of everything, for under $100 per night. The biking is so great here I’m tempted to schedule another vacation here just to ride the trails.

The trails --- they’re everywhere! There must be a couple hundred miles of trails within the metroplex, most of which are divided into 3 lanes -- one for pedestrians and one for each direction for bikes. In many cases the pedestrian path is physically separate from the bike path.

I rode about 35 miles yesterday on a trail along the Mississippi, through the U of M campus (go Golden Gophers!) and down into the outskirts of St. Paul. Today I rode another 30 or so, out west of town, all on trails. I had to see if I could track down the house from the Mary Tyler Moore show (where Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern lived), and sure enough, it’s there and recognizable if somewhat more upscale looking than it was in the 70’s. There’s also a statue of Mary tossing her hat, downtown.

And then there’s the “nice ride” bikes. You insert your credit card and for $5, you get one of these bikes to use for 24 hours. You can drop it off at any of the several stations around the city. I saw plenty of people on them although I didn’t try one myself.

This afternoon I dropped my bike off at the local bike shop to be packed and shipped, thus officially ending my summer bike trip. Now I have nothing to do but relax in the AC. I’ll walk a few blocks in the morning to catch the light rail to the airport, and head for home.

Where's Vickie 2010, Volume 13

Kathy on the Paul Bunyan trail

Tabers Historic bait and cabins

Minnesota state bird, although we've seen very few

Jo Ann and Reba

Jo Ann's fabulous house, where we had breakfast

coneflowers along Paul Bunyan trail

August 14th - Bemidji, MN

Here we are at Taber’s Bait and Historic Cabins, where we stayed last night. The cabins have been here since the ‘20’s, one of those old motor-court-cabin places. Tiny and overpriced, but cute. Kathy couldn’t get any cold water in the shower until I re-attached the handle more securely. You can sit on the toilet and lay your head in the sink. There’s an ancient 2- burner stove and fridge in the kitchen, and a table, although I can’t see where there’s any space to actually sit at it. The “closet” is hangers suspended from the rafters; you have to stand on a chair to reach them. No AC of course, but it’s nice and cool this morning and looks like a perfect day for biking.

Yesterday’s was a pleasant, easy 30 mile ride through rolling hills, swamps, and forests. The heat and humidity have moderated, thank god. We crossed the Mississippi twice, tiny little stream that it is up here. It pauses in Lake Bemidji and then runs on south from here. I don’t think I’ll see it again until Minneapolis.

If all goes as planned, we’ll spend the next 3 days on the Paul Bunyan Trail, a hundred miles of paved trail that runs from here south to Brainerd. Then we’ll cut east to catch up with a branch of Adventure Cycling’s northern tier again, cutting into Wisconsin briefly before heading into Minneapolis on the 22nd. Kathy and Bill will head off into Wisconsin then and I will have several days to explore Minneapolis before my flight home on the 26th.

Later, still August 14th -- Walker, MN

This morning, there were a couple of old guys messing around with a boat near our cabin. Turns out they built this boat, somewhere in Norway, had it shipped here, and are just about to embark on a trip down the Mississippi. The hope to get all the way to New Orleans. Here’s a link to their blog: http://www.oldmensriver.com/blogg/index.html

We rode around the north end of Lake Bemidji where we got on the Paul Bunyan Trail, which is supposed to take us clear to Brainerd, over 100 miles. In the town of Bemidji, though, we came to one of those irritating places, all too common on bike trails, where the trail just seemed to stop. As we stood there pondering, here came one of those road angels, offering to ride along with us through town and guide the way

Once out of Bemidji, though, the trail was continuous, smooth, mostly flat and pleasantly wooded all the way to Walker.

Walker, as it turns out, is a major tourist destination. Pulling in on a Saturday night, the weekend of “Walker Bay Days”, at the height of the tourist season, with no reservations, was perhaps not wise. No sign of any place at all to tent camp. The RV places wanted $45 and anyway they were all full. I called the first 5 hotels listed in the visitors guide, and they were all full, at which point I threw up my hands. We were seriously considering just waiting until close to sunset, riding down the trail a bit, and setting up our tents, when Kathy found us a room at the luxury hotel right in the middle of town. Much more than we wanted to pay, but oh well. They did have lattes.

August 15th -- Pine River, MN
Another 40 or so miles of pleasant Paul Bunyan trail today. Forests of white pine, oak, birch, alder, a few hills, a few tiny little towns. Just before we pulled into Pine River, another biker pulls up beside Kathy and begins chatting. We had planned to camp at the local RV park, which wanted $22 per tent, but this nice woman says we can camp in the city park for free, and guides us there. Sure enough, a half-dozen or so nice campsites, flush toilets, running water, what more could we ask? Oh yeah, I want some beer, but the local liquor store is closed on Sunday. The nice woman (Jo Ann) says “what kind of beer do you like? And how many do you want?” and just about the time we get our tents set up, she is back bringing us cold beer! She stays to visit with us for a bit, then takes off for home while we make dinner. Just about the time we’ve finished our dinner, she pulls in again, with an invitation to come to her house for breakfast in the morning! Of course we accept! We manage to build a nice campfire with leftover logs from previous campers and manage to stay awake long enough to enjoy it.

August 16th -- Baxter, MN

We rode to Jo Ann’s house for breakfast this morning, and what a house it is! She says it was the first house built by a white woman in Pine River, in the early 1900’s. They had it moved out of town (amazing, this is a big house!), have lovingly restored it to a beautiful Victorian showplace, and have lived there for 30 years. It is just a beautiful place. As we pulled into the driveway, Reba, a sweet German Shepherd, came wagging and wiggling out to greet us. Jo Ann fed us excellent coffee, biscuits, scrambled eggs with all sorts of veggies from her garden, bacon, steel-cut oats….we did not go away hungry! Thanks Jo Ann!!!!!

Then on down the trail another 30 miles to Brainerd. Wow, this trail really does go all the way from Bemidji to Brainerd, more than 100 miles, all the way paved and beautiful. My only complaint is the lack of camping facilities. Even after consulting with the chamber of commerce and the local parks and rec, we cannot find anyplace to camp within 10 miles of Brainerd except an “RV only” place. So here we are tonight at the Brainerd Super 8. Well, at least we can do our laundry here.

It was quite a culture shock, after 3 days of no vehicular traffic at all, to have to negotiate a mile or so of busy road to get to the hotel. This same busy road is the one that Google has us routed on to get to tomorrow’s destination. We are looking for other options.

Baxter / Brainerd is really all one big town … well, 25000 or so people…separated by the Mississippi river. Our hotel is out in walmartland, in one of those very irritating areas built as if pedestrians don’t exist. We walked a half mile to dinner tonight with no sidewalks, having to cut across lawns and through parking lots to avoid getting run over.

Headwaters of the Missisippi

You find bikes in the oddest places. Thats Kathy looking up at them,

sunflowers

bike trail at lake itasca

The group of us at the Mississippi

August 7th - Hitterdal, Minnesota
35 miles -- 500 feet cumulative elevation gain
85 degrees, humid, sunny -- perfect biking weather

This morning Kathy and I loaded up our bikes and rode out of Fargo and into Minnesota. We are fully loaded now, carrying all of our camping gear, so doing far fewer miles per day. We also had a bit of a headwind today, but even so, we were here shortly after noon. And there is NOTHING to do here -- this town consists of a mini-mart / gas station, a liquor store / bar, and this little half-acre city park where we are camping tonight. It looks like were are in someone’s back yard -- there are houses on 3 sides of us -- but our map says we can camp here and no one has tried to shoo us away yet.

So, it’s been a relaxing-bordering-on-boring afternoon of laying around trying to stay cool, waiting for the sun to go down and the temperature to drop. This little park has a bathroom, running water, electricity, and I was even able to connect to the internet! No lattes, though.

Laater: This evening the woman who lives in one of the adjacent houses came over and talked to us for awhile. She said there are bikers camping here 3 or 4 times per week. A little later a 10 year old boy rode over on his bike, telling us he was “usually the official greeter” and that he has talked to bikers staying hee from all over the world. The listing on the Adventure Cycling map is probably helping to keep this tiny town alive.

August 11th - Itasca State Park, Minnesota
Steamy. NOT perfect biking weather

I’m sitting in the hostel at Itasca State Park., having my morning coffee. The eight of us who are here for the reunion of the 2005 cross-country group have this place all to ourselves, and it’s very nice. Big kitchen, multiple bunk rooms, showers, and perhaps most important: air conditioning. I got up late this morning and everyone else is gone, probably over to the lake to rent canoes, and I will join them in a bit.

The 8th and 9th Kathy and I rode a total of about 70 miles, through a steam bath. For perhaps the first time ever, I cannot in good conscience say that this was perfect biking weather. At times it was downright miserable. My camp pillow feels like a wet towel. A sticky wet towel. All clothing is suffocating, so you can imagine what black lycra bike shorts feel like. The only thing more uncomfortable than riding in this weather is sitting still; at least when you’re riding, there’s a breeze. It’s not all that hot -- low to mid 80’s -- but my GOD, the humidity. Its like….oh yeah, I remember, it’s like August in the Midwest!

We headed directly for the lake when we got here, where I spent a couple of hours floating on my air mattress in the small, crowded swimming area. Between little kids, parents, and water-football games, it was still wonderfully refreshing, After two nights in air conditioning, I feel full human again.

We are a long last out of the great plains, and into the north woods. A mile north of here is the official headwaters of the Mississippi, where it drains out of Lake Itasca in a 4-foot-wide stream. I had always heard that you could straddle it there, but that’s a bit of a stretch.

This park is enormous. It’s about 10 miles long, and there are miles and miles of paved bike trails through the woods, a lodge and restaurant, several campgrounds, a huge bike and boat rental place, miles of hiking trails. If the weather was more temperate it would be a wonderful place, but as it is I don’t feel like doing much but sitting in the AC. I went for a 10 mile ride on the trail yesterday, very pretty, but I was soaked through to the skin by the time I’d ridden a couple of miles. I am fairly dreading loading all my belongings back on the bike and riding on towards Minneapolis in a couple of days. Oh how I hope the air dries out a bit.

Where's Vickie 2010, Volume 11

Pipe Stone National Monument

Elm-lined streets in Fargo. Apparently dutch elm disease has never reached here. Sad to think the streets in my hometown were probably like this at one time.

Corn palace artwork. Picture is corn cobs, frame and stars are some sort of straw

corn palace

August 2nd -- Mitchell, South Dakota

So, to my continuing surprise, much of Nebraska is beautiful.
Yesterday I spent several hours at Homestead National Monument. This is the site of the first homestead claim, made in 1863 by Daniel Freeman. I did not realize the homestead act was in effect for so long…until 1976 in the lower 48, and until 1986 in Alaska. The last homesteader claimed his land in Alaska in 1974. The park itself has several miles of trails through pretty prairie and woodlands, all of which I enjoyed even in the heat. Lots more fascinating information at http://www.nps.gov/home/historyculture/index.htm.

Last night found me in the unremarkable town of Grand Island. I never could determine where the name comes from…it’s near, but not on, the Platte river, and I did not see any islands, grand or otherwise. It’s the home of the Nebraska State Fair (at the end of August), there’s a lot of grain-processing industry around it’s edges, and other than that it seems to be a vast Wal-Mart-land. I did find a very good Thai restaurant (Vientiane) downtown, although I was their ONLY customer. And a Scooters Coffee, the Nebraska version of Starbucks.

This morning I headed north on Nebraska hwy 14. What a gorgeous drive! The area south of Albion is surely one of the prettiest roads I’ve been on. Big steep rolling green hills covered with corn, grass, and trees. This would be a fabulous area to bike through. No shoulders on the road, but little enough traffic that I don’t think it would be a problem.

Around lunchtime I stopped at Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park. Here’s the park’s blurb:
About 12 million years ago, a volcano in southwest Idaho spread a blanket of ash over a very large area. One or two feet of this powdered glass covered the flat savannah-like grasslands of northeastern Nebraska.
Most of the animals which lived here survived the actual ashfall, but as they continued to graze on the ash covered grasses, their lungs began to fill up with the abrasive powder. Soon their lungs became severely damaged and they began to die.
The smaller animals died first (smaller lung capacities) and finally, after perhaps three to five weeks, the last of the rhinos perished. Their bodies were quickly covered by the blowing and drifting ash.
Undisturbed except by an occasional scavenging meat-eater, the skeletons of these animals are preserved in their death positions, complete with evidence of their last meals in their mouths and stomachs and their last steps preserved in the sandstone below.

Lot of rhinos, horse-like creatures, camels, all still laying there in the ash after 12 million years. Quite interesting.

Pretty scenery continued on until I crossed the Missouri back into South Dakota, at which time it became flat and dull. I was racing a nasty looking black sky off to the west, and did not especially want to be caught in a thunderstorm out in the wide open, so stopped early today in the outskirts of Mitchell, whose claim to fame is the Corn Palace, which I will visit tomorrow, after which I think I will hightail it for Fargo.
August 5th -- Fargo, ND

The Corn Palace was only mildly interesting and very touristy. I took a few pictures and drove on over to Minnesota, where I visited Pipe Stem National Monument. (not to be confused, as I first was, with Pipe Spring National Monument, which is in Utah). This is an area where native americans quarried ( and still do) a red rock to make, you guessed it, pipe stems… and now, earrings, key fobs, paperweights, and various other tchotchkes. I suppose if you lived in the prairie, this ridge of rock, with a stream running through it, might seem remarkable. But for me, not so much. (Pipe Spring is nicer).

Got back to Fargo Tuesday night, where I have Ann’s house all to myself until tomorrow, while she and Ed are off riding CANDISC. Yesterday I returned the rental car and spent the day biking around Fargo. There are lots of bike trails here, some nice winding ones along the Red River, and others that are just glorified sidewalks, but still make it a very bike-friendly city. This was the first temperate day I have experienced since pedaling into the city 2 weeks ago… I don’t think it even got up to 85, and this morning it’s downright cool.

About 1pm, it was déjà vu all over again -- tornado sirens! But, but, it doesn’t look stormy…there are a few big clouds…. I’m biking through a park, where do I hide? I’m just about to panic when another biker assures me it’s the test they do the first Wednesday of every month.


I broke my multi-year avoidance of first-run movies, and went to see “Salt”.Have to admit I enjoyed it.

Where's Vickie 2010, Volume 10

Harriet, aka Little Dick

An interesting sign on our Iowa bike ride

Pleasant sight in Old Town Omaha

This is a big stone sculpture of the mountainous profile we rode over, starting with the Cascades on the left. (Although judging from the height, that must be Mt. Rainier, which we certainly did NOT ride over!) This is at the western trails (?) museum in Omaha.

Best coffee place in Fargo. How could it be otherwise?

Days 34-35 - July 23-24th - Fargo, ND
No biking!
70, rainy - perfect biking weather!

The rest of the group has now all gone home, and I so enjoyed not leaving the hotel at all yesterday. I only left my room for breakfast and dinner at the hotel café, and spent the rest of the time sleeping, staring out the window, reading, watching TV.

Our farewell banquet Thursday night was great fun. We took over the hotel bar before the banquet, and again afterwards,where we all sang a reprise of my version of “What a difference a day makes” and Christine’s “Will the shoulder be unbroken”. Much laughter, lots of hugs, vows to see each other again soon. This has been such a great group of women! I see reunions in our future.

About half the group is signed up to ride the “eastern half of the northern tier” next year, continuing on from Fargo to Maine. I don’t plan to do this, but would like to do it on my own at some point. Riding self-supported in the east, where there are fewer mountains and more civilization, is much more feasible.

If I can afford it, my next WomanTours tour will be the Meandering Mississippi in 2012, from New Orleans to the headwaters at Lake Itasca, Minnesota.

One thing I have learned from this trip is that I really don’t want to ride more than 60-70 miles in a day, unless, of course, we have one of those 30mph tailwinds. Fully loaded, my preference is about half that.

I called my dad this morning and asked what’s new, he said “well, I started my new year”, I said “huh?”. Today is his 83rd birthday and I TOTALLY FORGOT IT! BAD, daughter, bad, bad daughter! Sigh….

One more night here at the Radisson, and then tomorrow I go to my friend’s house just a couple of miles from here, for at least a few days. I have nothing certain scheduled until August 6th, when I meet up with Kathy to ride on into Minnesota to the 2005 tour’s reunion.

July 28 -- Omaha, Nebraska

No, I did not bike to here!

After spending a day exploring downtown Fargo on foot, I relaxed for two nights at Ann’s (who I met on the 2005 Southern Tier) house. We went for a nice 25 mile, very flat bike ride, and she showed me around suburban Fargo. I got to ride the ferris wheel inside Scheel’s, which seems to be the prairie states version of REI / Cabela’s.

At 1am Tuesday morning I was awakened by tornado sirens. Ann, Ed, and I migrated to the basement for an hour or so until the all-clear, and then I got my wish of seeing a good thunderstorm… and then another one …. and then another one. Pretty much constant thunder and lightening for the rest of the night.

Trying to figure out how I’m going to fill up more than a week until the reunion in Minnesota, it suddenly occurred to me that I could rent a car! So yesterday, that’s just what I did… and drove from Fargo down to Omaha, to visit Lynn and Christine. It’s much different, and nicer, here than I had expected. They live in Bellevue, just outside of Omaha, and it’s just lovely… hills and wooded, winding roads. Today we rode our bikes into downtown Omaha, much of the way on nice bike trails. A very pleasant ride except for the heat… 90+ with what seems to be about 110% humidity. The old part of downtown merits more exploration, which is my plan for tomorrow.

I crossed 3 state lines yesterday -- South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska -- and have tried to convince Lynn and Christine that I deserve 3 margaritas as a result, but so far no luck with that.

August 1st - Beatrice, Nebraska

August at last! I get to go HOME this month!!!


After spending 4 nights at Christine and Lynn’s lovely home, like staying in a 5-star hotel (except the wireless internet service was a little spotty), I took off again in the car yesterday.

The stay in Bellevue was wonderful. I drove back into Omaha one day to walk around “old town”, a very pretty area of old (1800’s?) red brick buildings which have been converted into galleries, restaurants, boutiques, and the like. We went to the movies to see “The Triplets of Belleville”; I’ve seen it several times before and it seems I like it better every time. It was new to Chris and Lynn, and they thought it was a hoot.

Thursday we drove over into Iowa and went riding in the Loess Hills, with friend Pete. This is a very pretty area of short, forested hills rising up out of the cornfields. We were stopped at a corner and heard a loud, pitiful, “meow, meow, meow”. And found a beautiful grey tiger-striped kitten, probably 3-4 months old, cowering alongside the road, terrified of the big trucks going by. What to do? We tried both of the houses nearby. No, they hadn’t lost a kitten and didn’t want one either. So, Lynn stayed with the kitten while we rode back to the car. We drove home with kitty in my lap, purring. Surely we can’t take this cuddly sweetheart to the humane society? But Patsy and Eddie (my host’s cats) aren’t likely to cotton to her, and Pete’s 23-year old cat isn’t either. Lynn says their neighbor was, she thought, looking to adopt a cat. And sure enough, when we get home, the neighbor comes over and immediately falls in love -- how could you not?

Neighbor has another cat, named Ozzie, so we thought the perfect name for kitten was Harriet, such a sweet little thing. But neighbor calls later to say Harriet was cleaning herself when it became clearly visible that she was a he…. So Christine came up with the alternate name of Little Dick, “LD” for short. Not sure the neighbor agreed with this, though.

So, yesterday I drove down to Nebraska City, home of Arbor Lodge state park. Arbor Lodge is the former mansion of Julius Sterling Morton, founder of Arbor Day and secretary of agriculture during the Cleveland administration in the 1890’s. His son Joy was the founder of Morton salt.

The lodge is well worth a visit -- 52 rooms to wander through on 4 floors, including a bowling alley in the basement. The mansion is surrounded by, of course, trees -- a beautiful arboretum of some 270 species from all over the world.

Just across the road is the Arbor Day Farm, a bit more touristy but still interesting, and a lovely half-mile or so trail through the woods to the Lied Lodge, a big (old?) hotel and conference center, where I had lunch.

In the afternoon I drove to Brownville, right across the river from Missouri. I had planned to drive across the river there, just to rack up another margarita point, but the bridge was closed. Brownville, however, was charming… a tiny town with several enjoyable art galleries and many beautiful old houses tucked into the hills along the river.

I stayed in Beatrice last night because it’s near Homestead National Monument, where I will go today. Had some trouble finding a hotel room here; the first two I checked were full, something to do with baseball. Can’t imagine playing it in this heat and humidity.