In the Land of 10,000 Lakes

Sunday I drove from Osseo, Wisconsin to Minneapolis and crossed the Mississippi for the second time. Wisconsin is one of the most beautiful states I have driven through. Too bad it turns so white in the winter or it may be a nice place to live. I did notice the deer here are as dumb as the armadillos, possums, and wood chucks. Think there is money to be had in a pedestrian school for wildlife. I am sure there is grant money from our government for such a venture. Just as I crossed the line into Minnesota, Wayne Husom called. Wayne is a Canopus buddy whom I have not seen since 1968 and we had planned on seeing a game together. We discussed parking for Shirley and he said he would call back with a plan. A few minutes later he had a plan. I could park Shirley at his niece’s house in Minneapolis. He gave me directions to her house and I arrived safely. Wayne and his wife Jan showed up a few minutes later and we did the ol’ “how the hell you been” routine. Wayne really hadn’t changed that much except for the beard. He had a hitch in his git along but that was because he had recently gotten his leg out of a cast after breaking a bone for the first time in his life. Wayne and Jan are retired but they travel all over the northern states selling/renewing advertisements in magazines. They pretty much spend the entire summer in their motor home.

Jan drove us close to Target Field, threw our rasty butts out of the car, and said “Find your own way home.” Well, it kind of happened like that. We followed the crowd to the park which is well hidden downtown. I was really glad I had purchased Stub Hub tickets because the park was full with 39,000 fans. Target Field is really nice and they did a great job of locating it in the old warehouse district. They kept the right field flag pole from the Metrodome and resurrected the “logo” from the Twins’ very first park which has ballplayers from St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Twin Cities, shaking hands over the Mississippi River. The logo is prominently displayed on the wall in center field. I had two guys next to me, Ron and Scott and we chatted for the first couple of innings before they vanished. Ron has been to quite a few parks so we compared notes and argued the merits of our favorite stadiums. They left in about the fifth inning and I didn’t get a photo. When they left it gave Wayne and me some room to spread out and enjoy the rest of the game.

The game was excellent and it moved along smartly even though there were five pitching changes. The Twins were down by two in the ninth and came up with a run early in the inning. It came down to the final pitch of the inning but they were unable to tie it up and lost 4-3.

Wayne and I took a cab back to his niece’s house. We said our goodbyes and I headed east to De Forest, outside of Madison, for the night. I crossed the Mississippi again and when I cross her (him? Old Man River?) in St. Louis, it will be for the last time on this trip. I have to go back to EDT when I go to Cincinnati but I will finally leave Eastern Daylight Time as I head for St. Louis. I am a little confused as to how you guys handle these time changes. One minute you are three hours behind me, then the next minute you are only two hours behind. I hope these changes have not caused you to be late for very important dates. Just be aware it is going to happen again on Wednesday, so be prepared.

I slept in Monday morning. I didn’t get here until about 11 p.m. I am going to cool my jets, give Shirley a bath, which will probably cause it to rain, visit a grocery store for resupply and just relax.