Sunday, October 27: From Sioux Falls, South Dakota to St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Not much to say about today, as nothing much happened, and was mostly framed by my sort of tedious drive to St. Cloud, Minnesota, where I am at the moment. I’ll get back to that.
Last night, I spent quite a bit of time figuring out the route I’ll take home. At this point, although I still have no interest in being home, I am nonetheless resolved that I am on my way home, so want to get there the easiest way, but without sacrificing a pleasant, enjoyable, and scenic journey, also bearing in mind the changing weather. So, I’m not going to head up to Thunder Bay in Canada, but instead will head to Rhinelander, Wisconsin tomorrow, and the following day to Mackinaw City in Michigan, where I’ll stay two night. It’s at the northern tip of Michigan, where Lake Michigan to the west meets Lake Huron to the east. Sounds lovely, actually, and I hope to also visit Mackinac Island, about 26 minutes by ferry. After leaving Mackinaw City, I’ll head down the Lake Huron coast on the east shoreline of Michigan, on scenic route 23, to Standish, Michigan. Once there, I’ll figure out the rest, but will probably choose the simplest and quickest route to Burlington, Vermont, where I’ll visit with Rachel, Jimmy, Anna, and Lance (and I hope to see Bailey), before finally reaching home.
I will definitely miss the election. Of course, Harris will win Massachusetts so my missed vote won’t matter in that respect, but I’d still like to vote for her, and I’d also like to vote for state and local politics. But there’s just no way now to get back for that. I could ask Elisa if she would pick up my absentee ballot, which is waiting for me at home, and mail it to me, but I’m not sure exactly where she should mail it and I can’t be sure it’d get there on schedule, other than mailing it to Rachel in Burlington, but by then it’ll be too late to actually get it in on time. I feel badly that I won’t be voting, but I had really had no idea I’d be gone this long. I’ve been on this journey for over 13 weeks at this point.
Okay, today…. well, like I said, I really have nothing much to say. Before I left Sioux City, I took another drive downtown to see how the city looks in the daylight, and also to revisit Falls Park in the daylight. I drove around some of the residential streets, with nice homes, quite a few of which were nicely decorated for Halloween, and the streets lined with fall foliage trees.
I also drove and walked along the downtown area, along Main Street and Phillips Avenue, which is really the main downtown street, as well as walking over the 6th Street Bridge, which overlooks the Big Sioux River, and has a lovely art deco glass sign that is lit up at night, as well as a view of the Arc of Dreams, also nicely lit at night (both of which I saw last night). The river has a nice looking walking/bike path running along it, leading to and passing through Falls Park.
Even though this was a Sunday morning, Phillips Avenue was pretty busy, with open stores and restaurants, and still more Halloweeners in costume walking along the street, although now of the parent and child variety. It was a nice scene, with nice weather, although only in the mid to high 50’s.
All in all, from my very limited tour of the city, last night and this morning, Sioux Falls is a nice place, with a nice and an active downtown area, even on a Sunday autumn morning. Falls Parks, 123 acres just north of downtown, is also a great centerpiece for the town.
Then park features the falls of the Big Sioux River, the namesake of the town, and also includes the Falls Overlook Cafe (at which Kaye had breakfast all those years ago), sculptures, an observation tower (which was unfortunately closed today), playgrounds, and walking trails, as well as a seasonal farmers market. Nice, very nice. There were plenty of people in the park this morning, scrambling over and sitting on the rocks by the falls, viewing the falls from the park bridge, and walking through the park. Very nice.
I enjoyed my small tour, and then hit the road, heading northeast to St. Cloud. However, this was not just a day of driving much of the day, about 5 hours (and there will be more of those days ahead now as I head home), but also a sort of unexciting and uninteresting drive day. I am now trying to avoid the interstates when possible, and have google maps set to avoid highways. But, up here there aren’t any interstates to avoid, and there’s really only one way to get from Sioux Falls to St. Cloud, and that’s taking state highway 23 once you cross the Minnesota state line, about 16 miles north of Sioux Falls.
The drive, about 225 miles, although pretty, was also pretty deadening. Minnesota is flat, flat, flat across much of the state, and is the fifth-flattest state in the country. So, the landscape was flat grasslands pretty much all the way, passing through a number of very small towns on the way, as well as a couple of larger towns (but still small), such as Marshall, home of Southwest Minnesota State University.
Route 23 does eventually become a two lane highway, with a 65 mph speed limit, but it still frequently passed through small hamlets along the way, where the going was slower. Earlier in the journey, maybe 150 miles from St. Cloud, there were big signs planted squarely in the middle of the driving lane, perhaps every quarter of a mile for several miles, in both directions, that insisted the road was closed to through traffic. But having no idea of how else to get to St. Cloud, I simply veered around the signs and kept going, hoping they were somehow wrong. They were. Very bizarre, and the signs, which continued for miles, eventually stopped appearing, and the road was neither closed to through traffic nor showed any signs of road construction. Very weird.
On days like this, where I have nothing to do but listen to the radio and get lost in my thoughts, my thoughts are full of Bev, including thinking of all those things Bev missed out on. It’s been eight months now, and of course I’m used to no Bev, but nevertheless I think about and miss her every single day. It’s so sad.
I pulled into St. Cloud maybe around 5. The town is a decent size, around 68,000, and Greater St. Cloud, where my hotel is, is loaded with big box stores and fast food and family restaurants, along strip mall type roads, although it doesn’t look garish or overly commercial, and is nicely laid out. I think, also, that most of the night life and entertainment is in Greater St. Cloud, unlike Sioux Falls with its busy and jumpin’ downtown area. I drove around town and into the downtown area, by which time it was dark, which is relatively large and mostly stores and business from what I could tell, and very quiet on a Sunday night, with little signs of any downtown night life or entertainment.
I also visited Munsinger Gardens, a small park and walking trail that runs along the Mississippi River, which runs through St. Cloud, although by the time I got there it was pitch dark, and I couldn’t see a thing in the park or along the trail, although I took a mile or so walk along the path anyway. And then back to the hotel, book a room for tomorrow night in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, write this blog, and then hit the sack.