Days 30 and 31 - The Land of Corn

After leaving Judge Amidon in Fargo Wednesday afternoon, we headed across the border to Minnesota and stopped for the night in the St. Cloud area about 35 miles west of Minneapolis. Don't go there for the food.  We went to a microbrewery that is rated #2 for the area by Yelp and Trip Advisor. If it's second, there must be no good food or craft beer to be found there; probably our worst meal of the trip. Oh well, can't win them all.

Mississippi River at St. Cloud

What we did like about St. Cloud was Munsinger Gardens on the east bank of the Mississippi River. These large gardens were close to peak and extraordinary. Gardens on the flood plain are largely annuals, so just imagine how much work goes into hothouse growing and planting with the long, cold Minnesota winters. Above the flood plain, large perennial gardens were beautifully designed by floral color. We were glad we stopped before skipping town. Mary's sister Sarah and you other master gardeners would love it.

Mary at Munsinger Gardens

Munsinger Perennial Garden

 


Mary and I love to find little treasures in small-town America. Owatonna is a small town south of Minneapolis on I-35. It's name comes from a legend about a frail Native-American woman who drank the healing waters from mineral springs. We stopped at Mineral Springs Park to say hello to Ms. Owatonna and have our lunch. For all you Amidons out there, this park sure had the feel of Lititz Springs Park and brought back memories. Oh yes, Phil enjoyed watching a pair of Great Crested Flycatchers, too.

Owatonna

Next it was onto corn country. We spent Thursday night near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, visiting our nephew Mark Amidon, his wife Dawn, and their dogs Maggie and Gracie. It has been 9 years since we last saw Mark and Dawn at a family reunion, We had a lot of catching up to do, especially since Mark had several Air Force duty stations, retired from the military and took an engineering job in Iowa since then. And their twins Matthew and Michael have all grown up and left the nest, so Mark and Dawn are looking for a smaller home. We also got happy news that Mark's sister Amy will be getting married soon out in Colorado.

Mark and Dawn Amidon

Today, after Cedar Rapids, all we saw was corn for miles and miles through eastern Iowa and all the way across Illinois - often as far as the eye could see in any direction except for an occasional barn and field of soybeans. It really is amazing to see that much land under production.

Tonight finds us near Dayton, Ohio, less than seven hours from home. Our journey truly has been a great experience seeing new places, exploring geological wonders, learning history, finding new birds and spending time with family members we see not often enough. Now we are ready to be home, but we are already are working on our bucket list of future travel destinations. We hope you liked coming along on our ride. It was a long-hoped-for journey that we are both so glad we finally made...eighteen states later, we feel we know, at last, the beautiful, natural diversity of the place we call home.