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Thursday morning I packed up my belongings and left the Nesvig's home. The night's rest helped me recover from my crushing Farkel blow the evening before.
I drove into St. Paul and left my truck in a park to explore the city on bike. I know this sounds a lot like yesterday's post, but rather in the other twin city. However, I assure you that yes it was pretty much exactly the same, except for the fact that I had a Chipotle burrito for lunch making the day totally different.
After reading on the river for a while and conversing with some new friends, I packed up and headed down to Cannon Falls to stay with Andrew Holloway and his wife Stephanie. Andrew and I played football together at PLU, Stephanie didn't quite make the team. It was much fun to hang out and laugh at stupid things and eat good food. Some of the simple joys of my visit came from the stories these two west coasters had about their adjustment to Midwest life. Tatertot hot dish anyone? And from dubunking Waterworld. Here's our criteria: 1) You'd think that if it took hundreds (thousands?) of years for the earth to turn into an ocean, in that time wouldn't all the inhabitants of Waterworld lose their southern accents. 2) If the Earth is all water, why is everybody so dirty all the time? I'm sure the conversation is open to suggestions and theories. 
St. Paul from that park I left my truck at.
I dropped off my truck in downtown Minneapolis for the day and pulled out my bike to explore more on wheel. I rode around for about three hours within the city and gave myself a pretty good little tour including downtown, the University of Minnesota, the bridge that collapsed a year ago, the Metrodome, Starbucks, and a Barnes & Noble. Later in the day I left downtown and went to the Nesvig residence where I spent the evening with Kirk and Mary, and their kids John and Ben. Kirk and Mary went to PLU with my parents and offered a warm bed and some warm meals for my travels through the twin cities. Upon my arrival, I found a box from Lauralee full of her world famous, and now web famous, monster cookies. She somehow managed to get the cookies to arrive on my one night stay at the Nesvigs, a very narrow window. That's like hitting reentry on an Apollo mission. Many thanks Lauralee- Kirk and Mary would like the recipe. Post cookies, we ate dinner on the deck overlooking the golf course and played a riveting game called Farkel, a combination of Yahtzee and Russian Roulette if you were to ask Ben. Myself being the rookie, only took second to last thanks to his selflessness. The Nesvigs will send me off tomorrow with some worthy reading to think about and pocket Farkel to ensure that I make friends along the way and spread the Farkel magic.
Midwest Mountaineering is an oxymoron. 
Downtown Minneapolis, MN
Here is the wreckage from the bridge collapse in Minneapolis on August 1, 2007. Just up the river they are rebuilding. You can see the cranes.Some downtown Minneapolis bike riding.
I left the Anderson lake cabin on Bad Medicine Lake around three in the afternoon after some morning water skiing. Maren and I completed the dangerous "high-five maneuver" which was captured via the magic of digital video below.
I made my way down to Rogers, MN where I met up with my old PLU teammate Max. We hung out and then ran over to Maynard's for dinner and beverages to watch the Lakers get pounded. 131-92?!?! C'mon that's not even respectable. Tomorrow morning I will head down to Minneapolis to tour the town and to meet up with the Nesvig Family.
Today started with almost everything going wrong. Boat battery was dead, weed whacker busted, lost internet, fridge shut off, lost all electricity at the house. So we ran into town and got almost everything fixed which provided ample opportunity for a tour of Park Rapids, MN. I've never seen a gas station/bar. But the weed whacker will be another day's battle. Sorry Loren... I guess "universal head" applies to every other weed whacker in the universe, I guess I picked a dud.
The day was full of water sports with the Andersons. I went water skiing today for the first time and totally got up! Naturally I advanced to slalom skiing which was basically me getting dragged behind the boat underwater... so naturally I advanced to hypothermia. Thanks for the tea, thermal socks, and crocs. Again I can feel my feet:) We then took out the mini catamaran for an afternoon sail. It was a cruise of fun questions, trying and succeeding at steering the sailboat with my first mate Maren, and MaryAnn falling asleep... I just thought she was a good listener. Dinner was fantastic, and full of bbq chicken we attempted doubles skiing and were quite successful. Anderson ski school is still at 100% success rate!
Thank you Andersons for a wonderful wonderful wonderful time in the Midwest. It was fantastic spending time with your family and I am glad we all got to know each other better.
This morning I woke up to a beautiful Bad Medicine Lake, the "Best Lake to Swim in Minnesota" by Minnesota Monthly. I've only seen clearer water in Hawaii. Here's more about it from the article. The article would not be complete without Don's quote at the the end.
Bad Medicine Lake lacks nutrients. That may be bad for certain types of critters, but it’s good for you, since it means the lake, southwest of Itasca State Park, is extraordinarily clear; instead of phosphorous-and-nitrogen-rich runoff, it’s fed by cool, clean ground water. Indeed, its transparency is more than 30 feet deep in spots—greater than one-third its maximum depth. And while Bad Medicine is famous as a rainbow trout fishery, the lake is also a great spot for swimmers and scuba divers, says Don Tschudi, who has owned the Bad Medicine Lake Resort & Campgrounds for nearly 50 years. “You don’t have to worry about that swimmer’s itch,” he says.
Today we celebrated another 50th wedding anniversary with some other friends down the lake, MaryAnn and Loren's own wedding anniversary, and on top of that Father's day. Maren and myself then stole away and did a 15 mile or so bike ride at Itasca State Park, home of the Mississippi River headwaters. With my elementary school Oregon Trail tendencies, I had to ford the great Mississippi. I only lost one wagon wheel, 200 pounds of buffalo meat, and little Timmy died of dysentery. However the crossing was a great success and my backpack remained dry.
I don't know I keep running into such good fortune, but everyday thus far has been blogworthy.
I awoke at the crack of dawn this morning around 8:15am for a lesson on the Anderson farm in Rugby, ND. I rode along in the tractor, learned about combines, and really got a solid overview on farming. The amount of technology involved in operations these days is surprising; autopilot, gps, & air seeders. It really was fascinating for this city boy to see how middle America "tills the land," and I actually learned what that phrase meant.
On the drive to the Anderson's cabin in Minnesota we made a stop at Fort Totten, the proclaimed best preserved military post of the Dakota frontier era. I am not entirely sure how prestigious that title is, but nonetheless it was neat to see. Brevet Major General Joseph Gilbert Totten was the chief engineer in the U.S. Army at the time of it's completion and thus the fort was named in his honor. In the honor of my arrival at Fort Totten I paid full admission even though I am the closest living direct descendant of dear Major General Joseph, which the lady in the gift shop wasn't having at all. As well she shouldn't because I totally made that up.
Now being from Los Angeles, I grew up understanding that the emergency broadcast system on the radio was a big crack up. You hear the terrible beeping sound, the lady says "this is a test" and you go along your way happy because you'll never recover the lost 45 seconds of Ryan Seacrest in the morning. Driving through North Dakota and Minnesota today changed that for me. I heard eleven severe weather warnings including golf ball sized hail, severe thunderstorms, and tornadoes. Luckily by the time I encountered the hail and thunderstorms I was already at the lake house, and the funnel clouds never touched ground.
We were standing on the dock at Bad Medicine Lake in Minnesota when this huge cloud system came out of nowhere and took the sky. It was one of the funkiest things I have ever seen, and I have seen some funk in my short life. The black clouds rushed over the lake at immense speed and totally filled the sky, and the stillness was suddenly filled with winds that grew to a reported 65 miles per hour. I mean the entire scene changed in about six minutes. But on the water, this eerie white wispy fog took flight toward us at an extremely quick pace. Recognizing this as being bad, MaryAnn said "It's time to get inside." And immediately God let loose and we ran inside where we watched the storm pass.
Tonight I write from the geographic center of North America... Rugby, North Dakota. Other notable features include the Prairie Village Museum, Frank's German Restaurant, and a supper club called The Eagles. I am staying with the Anderson family, some dear friends I made during my time at PLU and very gracious hosts.
This morning started with coffee and oatmeal at a local diner and then to a museum tour with my friend Maren, one of those gracious Andersons I told you about. After a riveting time at the museum we drove to downtown where we walked around a bit and eventually made it to Frank's German Restaurant. At Frank's we ordered donor kabobs and enjoyed the company of other Rugbians. The restaurant is small enough that all customers join into a collective conversation- a really cool perk of a small town, even Frank was having fun with us. Maren then took me to some local farmland where I thought it would be fun to do a photoshoot with all my best cowboy gear (see pictures below). Later we met up with Maren's parents Loren and MaryAnn and we proceeded to a 50th wedding anniversary at The Eagles supper club for a much loved couple who are icons in the Rugby farming community.
Rugby is a very small town and it felt as if the entire community was in attendance at the anniversary party, I kept seeing people from passing in town earlier in the day. A sideshow played. There was an attempt to capture the lives of two and all they loved and accomplished in 50 years in a 20 minute presentation. Not a critique on the quality of the sideshow, it was well done, but more an observation on life. A video just can't do the justice that the experiences and memories sitting in those chairs do, but it sure is neat to see old photographs of newly weds and new photographs of old people still in love. To see photos of a family so enriched by each other, and sons and daughter honoring their parents by putting on such an event, really put the Midwest into perspective for me. Being a pure outsider from the west coast observing this all has definitely provided a unique experience that is hard to articulate other than life's really about family and the community out here.
