Land of sky blue waters

In Minneapolis

One of the things to know if you go online to check where you can get biodiesel is that there are two kinds. B5 and B100. Unfortunately, we spent energy locating biodiesel in Bismark, N.D., only to find out it was only 5% soy.

Michael processed oil in Dawson, N.D. in their community park. Dawson is a town off the Interstate (94) of only 25 families. They have an impressive wall of the names of those who died in war, plaques for their central beliefs as well as a WWII tank in the middle of their very small central hub….we tucked in out of the wind, behind all this.

That night we drove into the night and slept at a truck stop for the town of Jamestown, home of the world’s largest Buffalo museum. North Dakota suffers an overdose of Lewis and Clark but they do have the impressive corridor of river that brought that on them.

The Missouri levels are way down, as they have been over the last years, especially in fall. There are very few boat ramps that actually end up getting you on the water but the state does sport a lot of what they call “pothole” lakes that sparkle as you drone past. My dreams filled with prairies and the few privacies of hedgerow windbreaks and tall tulles.

We were searching for showers when we crossed the state line at Fargo and Moorhead. I was disappointed that Fargo wasn’t seedy, like the movie. Actually, from then on it seemed like the affluence scale shot way up. There were more and more of the suburban houses that look the same wherever you go.

We searched out the two Chinese restaurants in Fergus Falls, Mn but the renderers had their oil already tied up. While doing that my door practically flew off its hinge and from that point on would not open without a crowbar.

After Michael pumped in our last 4 gallons of veggie we just hoofed it to the Eden Prairie Costco (within the 3.5 million population of Minneapolis) to purchase soy oil which brought us the last miles to my cousin’s home in Mendota Heights.

I don’t have to tell you the glories of a king size bed and a full size house so I’ll just add that I am very grateful to have my aunt and uncle still alive and intact. I finally figured out about loving one’s family rather late in life and I am just deeply warmed to be with my cousins and their spouses. Enjoy what life gives you! (The pictures are of my aunt and uncle, cousins, their spouses, and some of the restaurant, kitchen and University Arboretum scarecrow props we found to be ourselves or mug with.)