Last of Minnesota

I felt great this morning. When I went out to load the car, the sky was cloudless blue and the temperature was. The jets were taking off one after the other. A good morning. Today was to be mostly a Minnesota drive. The towns we drove through we neat. The houses and lawns well kept and the streets and buildings neat and clean. I don’t think I’ve ever driven though some many pleasant looking towns.

We decided to go to Mankato and then on to De Smet. I remember from the Little House show (don’t know if was fact) that when they had a particularly bad year, Charles would go to Mankato to work and build up some money. We drove about two hundred miles from Mankato to De Smet. Every thirty miles I thought about him calling it a day (A friend I worked with told me that Ohio’s county seats were situated about thirty miles apart because that’s about a day’s trip on a horse). That would be about six or seven days if he rode a horse. There were towns at several of those thirty mile marks but none at others. I couldn’t help thinking about how much he must have missed his family and how hard that trip must have been, especially in the winter. We drove it in much less time.

Continuing to take Brad’s advice on eating local, we had lunch at the Happy Chef on the north side of Mankato. Thanks Brad, it was good food and, again, a fun and friendly place. While we were eating, good ole Bud came in—an elderly pleasant fellow. Everyone knew him and said hi. He announced he was in for a quick cup of coffee before getting new shoes for Nellie. He made a show of explaining that meant tires for his pickup and proclaiming himself to be a hillbilly.

We continued to be impressed with lay of the land all of the farming activity. The land we saw was gently rolling but profoundly flat. In most places I could see about twenty farmsteads looking from one side of the car to the other and those farms were not small. They appeared to be around 500 to a thousand acres. It’s one thing to see a lot of land but to see that many farmsteads as you look around says boy is this flat. Flattest I’ve every seen.

Today, the grain heads were off and the corn heads on. The combines were bringing in the corn. There was a combine at the bottom of each of the many dust devils you could see all the way out to the horizon and convoys of semis moving the corn. Even at that Becky said she couldn’t see how they could possibly get all that corn harvested before snow closed it all down. It did seem discouraging but they do it every year. As large as those combine heads are, they still seem to be drawing a narrow line through those gigantic fields.

After driving a short time you begin to wonder where all the trucks go. Every so often there is a farmer’s coop of behemoth drying and storage towers. The trucks are continually going in and out with the dryers going full blast. Just think of how much gas and propane they need to dry it down. And it goes on day and night until they’re finished. Like most people, I act as if food is manufactured in a factory. But these grains that are at the beginning of most food production are harvested in a short period of time to supply a year’s worth of use. Amazing.

At one point, we saw a pair of church spires jutting above a small town ahead. It was the largest building in the town. When we got there I couldn’t resist going in. It was an impressive structure, all brick with stairs going across the entire front of the building. I climbed the twenty or so steps to the massive wooden doors. The interior was spectacular. Too ornate for me to describe adequately but the inside was full of architectural curves climbing to the ceiling high overhead painted with an explosion of colors. The Stations of the Cross were displayed on both sides of the sanctuary. The alter, at the front, resembled gold-gilded castle climbing about two thirds of the way to the ceiling. It was a breath taking sight.

At one point in the drive I noticed transmission towers in the distance and off to the left. As we got closer I noticed they were strangely spaced for electric towers. And then even closer it was apparent they were windmills. They could be seen closely spaced around about a third of the horizon. I went on line and found out that there are current 281 of them and they supply enough energy to supply 90,000 midwestern homes. If you’re interested, visit http://www.lakebentonminnesota.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={CEBE239B-59B5-4FF6-AB90-9520D07F5061};
What a remarkable site, I wish you could see them.

Not too long after seeing the windmills, we climbed a small hill and at the crest we saw an even flatter view—South Dakota. We’ll be spending the night here at De Smet.