Minneapolis

We continued southward and westward, past the not-so-great lakes of Wisconsin. We stopped for the night at Rice Lake, Wisconsin, and dined at the Roman lounge there. Surprisingly, the spaghetti and pizza was not draped with american cheese food product, like all the breakfast items were.

Aside from Rice Lake it was all pretty rural, with each town boundary marked by a sign stating the tiny population, many less than 100. It was pretty much the same as we drove past the not-so-great lakes of southeastern Minnesota, finally making Minneapolis, where we hung out, and had dinner with Sheryl's delightful cousin Chrystopher, and her daughter, Lisa.

Minneapolis is a really cool city. Pity it's so cold in the winter. Thursday morning after a fun breakfast at a somewhat punkish diner, Sheryl and I took a bike ride around the University section of the city. It's extremely bike friendly, and, despite hosting the RNC that week, quite progressive, which is more than I can say for Sac. The food was downright decent, a welcome relief from cheese food product laden eats of the more rural areas.

That afternoon, after tying up some of the dangling loose ends of the lives we left behind, we were on our way, past more of the not-so-great lakes of Minnesota, into the flat desolation of western Minnesota. It's a big state, and from what we could tell, most of it is occupied by acre upon acre of cornfields. As far as the eye could see, corn, corn, corn. Not much traffic, the odd semi here and there. Pretty desolate. It's gotta be pretty rough in the winter.