Hello! It’s your pal Kate, a few days late with the Sunday update. Believe it or not I began this post on Monday in Kansas City, KS…but then Starbucks closed and we were busy busy busy (or out of service service service) for 3 whole days!! Now we’re back, online and very much alive. We ended the last post in a cushy(ish) motel with Brian in dire straits due to a kidney stone plaguing his loins. Luckily he was out of the woods by the evening and adventures continued as scheduled! It was nice to sleep in a king sized bed and to shower and stock up on complimentary breakfast and shampoo. Definitely a more pleasant experience than our Sacramento motel; the plugs and TV actually worked in this room!

After a refreshing evening at Econolodge West, we were out of Fargo, ND and headed into Minneapolis. Our first stop was the sculpture garden. We parked in a very ritzy little neighborhood with a bunch of gorgeous houses on huge lots of land. I think Lloyd parking on the curb too long might have started depreciating some houses. Nevertheless, we spent a good few hours strolling the sculpture garden grounds and taking in all the lovely art. A wide variety of sculptures is housed in this garden from all kinds of sources, with some of the big stars including a giant blue chicken and a cherry in a spoon. There was also a bridge that crossed into a smaller park across the freeway adorned with a poem along its beams, a functional sculpture connecting two points of interest in the city. It was a nice warm afternoon with clear skies and not too much humidity – a lovely introduction to the Twin Cities area! We soon decided this might have to go on our list of potential places to live… assuming we can handle the freezing winters, that is.

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We spent the evening at a cute rest area, a new found and untapped resource for nights when we aren’t really sure where to stay. The ones we found in Minnesota were a cut above the rest! The next day we headed to the Mall of America. We didn’t have a ton of money to spend but we had to go check it out. Some highlights included the butterfly sculpture, “Kaleidoscope“, in the front of the mall which was made entirely of discarded material and was created with the help of tons of volunteers to bring awareness to the necessity of pollinators in our ecosystems. We were also pretty impressed by Nickelodeon Universe, a Nick-themed park in the middle of the mall. Because, why not, right? We happened upon a little cheesery giving samples and tried probably 5 or 6 different types of cheese, including a maple syrup cheddar which was surprisingly delicious! We walked enough to warrant a treat that evening so we headed downtown to the very uniquely named Brit’s – a British style pub serving up all kinds of traditional fare and a nice variety of beers. The food was good, but nowhere near the homemade delights I’m used to! Still, it was nice to have a little taste of home while we’re so far away.

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Our next (and last) day in Minneapolis was spent at the MINNESOTA STATE FAIR! A recommendation from Brian’s friend Katie in Portland (whom you may remember from this post here), who used to live in the Land of 10,000 Lakes and recommended the bucket of cheese curds. Yes, you read that correctly. They have cheese curds served by the bucket. We’d soon find out that the overarching theme of the state far was FOOD IN EXCESS. But I’ll get to that later…

We didn’t have a specific place to stay in Minneapolis and the most common problem we’ve run into while staying in cities is finding an appropriate place to spend the night. We’ve done lots of research and read countless accounts of others who have lived in cars, RVs, trucks with trailers…you name it. But at the end of the day it feels pretty vulnerable to spend the night in a car in an unfamiliar city, especially knowing that it’s not strictly “allowed” to do so in a lot of places. After reading a post about “stealth camping” from an ex-police fellow who now lives full-time on the road, we decided to look into some neighborhood areas that we might be able to crash for the night close to a park-&-ride location for the fair the next morning. Luckily we discovered that one particular park-&-ride was located in an unused office building’s parking lot right next door to a Courtyard by Marriott. We snuck around to the side of the lot, tucked in by a tree and without too much light, right along the side of the hotel. We were able to walk into the hotel lobby a couple of times in the night to use the restroom and even managed to mooch some wifi for the evening (enough to finish season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale! Such drama!) We saw a car drive around the lot at about 11pm and drive right back out, possibly security for the building making sure nobody was up to any funny business. After that we could rest a little more easily with the assumption we wouldn’t be hassled in the night.

…OR SO WE THOUGHT..!

Just kidding, we made it through the whole night without a problem. By the morning the park-&-ride lot was filling up fast and we were glad for our window shades, which let us change our clothes without startling families on their way to the fair. We hopped in the line for the shuttles and were off for a day of fun and food!

We had somewhat of an idea of the magnitude of the fair and its attendance before arriving, but not until we actually saw it did we realize just how CRAZY busy it is! We were there for day 1 of the fair and later found out that this year broke the record for highest attendance for the first day, and was projected to break the record for highest attendance throughout the whole event (Which takes place from August 22 – September 2). Thankfully, the fair is well equipped to handle all these people. Other than some events being full to the brim with audience members 20 minutes ahead of time, we didn’t suffer much from the crowded-ness. The lines moved quickly and there were no shortages of bathrooms or drinking fountains. Kudos to the MN state fair. Anyway, let’s get to the part that I know you’re all interested in – the FOOD!

We ate lots of food. Not too much, but quite a bit. However, we decided to act with some sort of restraint when it came to serving sizes. Most of the stalls offered reasonable, unreasonable, and disgustingly excessive serving sizes of their different foods. In an effort to save money (and tummy troubles!) we proceeded with caution. Instead of a bucket of cheese curds, we went with a small serving. Instead of a bucket of cookies, we went with a “regular cone” (which still had about 16 cookies in it…why does anyone need that many in a single serving!?) Instead of an 18-inch corn dog, we went with a regular (approx. 8 inch) “pronto pup” (a MN fair staple)… the list goes on. Gaze upon our gluttonous food gallery! (not pictured – samosas, cream cheese wontons, spring rolls, lo mein…but none of that was on a stick so does it even count?)

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Some fun acts/displays we saw at the state fair included some skateboarding kids (no photos unfortunately), dog diving, sheep in wool accessories, and some horse showjumping which took me back to my equestrian days! We wandered through the carnival grounds as the sun went down and enjoyed watching the rides turning their lights on and getting a little more intense as darkness took over. We didn’t ride anything, as the cost of admission was kind of insane for most of the rides (not to mention our tummies full of deep fried mush). But we enjoyed our time nonetheless, watching other little bodies catapulted into the air and spun around with reckless abandon. Such fun!

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After all that excitement, we said goodbye to Minnesota. We stayed at a rest area overnight on our way down toward Iowa. We had to stop in Wisconsin on the way, as it was our only chance to see the state and this isn’t a trip of 47/48 states! We looked for some natural beauty that wouldn’t take us too far off course, as we had other things in Iowa calling our name. We decided that the Devil’s Punchbowl would do. It was somewhat disappointing – littered with bits of glass on the pathways and with graffiti all over the wooden steps – but the waterfall itself was lovely, and the road through showed us some really pretty rural Wisconsin towns on the way.

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After that we were Iowa-bound, our first stop landing us in the middle of the town of Austin. The Spam Museum! Neither one of us particularly cares for the coagulated canned meat mixture, but it sounded like a peculiar enough place to pique our interest. They reinforced very heavily the amount of Spam that soldiers were given during every American war/conflict and included a display of different countries where Spam has become a household staple. I even got a sample of some new hickory Spam! Brian missed the sample tray’s circulation. It tasted like barbecue cat food.

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One more night at a rest area before we made it into Des Moines to visit my dear friend Kina! Kina and I go way back to 8th grade, though it’s been several years since we’ve seen each other. I also got to meet her teeny tiny dog Stella and her new hubby Marcus, and they all met Brian too. We admired their beautiful home and got (re)acquainted over lunch at Zombie Burger – which was delish. Marcus had a haircut appointment in the afternoon so Kina, Brian and I hung out at the house and drank margaritas until his return. Later they showed us around the downtown area, including some great little breweries. We ended the night with some tasty vegetarian Mexican food, tummies and hearts full with good times and good eats.

The next morning we were treated to a wonderful breakfast spread of waffles, strawberries and cream, syrup, and vegetarian sausage patties. Such wonderful service in this establishment! After munching (and watching a couple of episodes of Euphoria at Kina’s suggestion, to which I very suddenly became addicted) we headed out for a quaint drive to Winterset to see the bridges. Which bridges, you ask? The Bridges of Madison County, of course! Neither Brian nor I had seen the movie but we enjoyed the trip nonetheless. The covered bridges have all kinds of interesting history that we were introduced to on a kind of superficial level during our exploration. We also checked out the Clark Tower briefly, as it began raining as soon as we climbed up to the top.

Our next stop was the Covered Bridges Winery. We tasted lots of lovely wines, buying two bottles for enjoyment later and a glass for enjoyment immediately. We were able to sit outside at this point as the rain hadn’t followed us, enjoying some overcast summer sun and a delicious cheese and chocolate platter. That’s my kind of afternoon!

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We retired for the afternoon and hung out at their place a little more. Kina was kind enough to prepare us a delicious feast of homemade pasta, which paired excellently with our wine purchases from earlier, followed by crème brûlée for dessert. Marcus even gave us a freshly baked loaf of Sourdough for our journey! Seriously, how about that service!? It was in stark contrast to our usual canned dinners cooked on a camp stove and sleeping in the car. Martinis by Marcus and a little more Euphoria (seriously, I’m addicted) and then it was time for bed. Marcus and Kina, thank you so much for your hospitality, your generosity, your fun conversation and your delicious treats. And for not letting Stella rip our limbs off 😉 Our time with you guys was a dream!

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That takes us through to this past Monday, so my post will end here. Stay tuned next week for Brian’s first Kansas City Barbecue experience and a giant yellow jacket from hell! 🐝 Toodles xoxo