Oregon Bound: pt.4

The main point of the detour up the Minneapolis, Minnesota was to meet Liz Schewe, a girl who works for Publishgreen in the eBooks department. Liz and I had never actually met in person before, nor even talked on the phone, now that I'm thinking about it. However, we did both work with author Carl T. Smith, and exchanged a few emails. When my dad and I finalized the idea to drive across the country, I asked Liz if she'd like to meet, both to show me a bit of the city and just to actually talk in person, and she was gung-ho for the idea. My dad also had a friend, Al (short for Alfonso believe it or not) who he went to school with that we could meet up with in St. Paul. For those who don't know, St. Paul and Minneapolis are the "twin cities" because they are so close. This is also where the Minnesota Twins baseball team name came from.

My dad had been in the habit of at least attempting to get all the state welcome signs, though most of the time we were driving 65-75mph and I wasn't about to slow down for pictures when we had hundreds of miles to go... But, he did do okay with the drive-bys and you can sort of tell that it does actually say "Minnesota welcomes you":

Minneapolis was a very cool city and I almost wish we had spent a little more time there, but I think we probably made the right decision in heading to our next destination because pretty much every day we had a long drive, and this day was no exception. Some cool things to note about Minneapolis: there are a lot of pedestrian bridges that cross over the roadways. Not just from sidewalk to sidewalk, but actual bridges that connect buildings. Maybe that's for the cold or the snow; who knows... Another thing was that the public transportation seemed like it was pretty well done. The "subway" was really a tram, that rain right in the street. But I'll let my dad's pics speak for me here, since I didn't take too many that day (I was focused on driving like a good boy).

All in all we had a great time, and a great lunch with Liz at a place called Kieran's Irish Pub (after seeing the office of Publishgreen of course). It's a place I'd definitely love to go back to one day... though maybe it will be even more pretty when there's some fluffy white stuff on the ground :)

Before we crossed the South Dakota border, there was one more cool little tidbit that I need to mention. I've been a pretty big fan of Adam Young, the man behind Owl City, for quite some time, and still follow his music. Adam Young is from Owatonna, Minnesota, a place I never quite thought I would ever be near, because frankly, there's not really any reason to go there. However, it just so happens that while we were driving towards the South Dakota border, we passed the exit for Owatonna. And I did my best to take a picture as we hurtled by, given that Dad was very much asleep in the passenger seat...

the view from where we were eating lunch -- it was a beautiful day; we HAD to eat outside!

the good old city of Owatonna from the highway 

...and the official exit sign... nearly missed!

The rest of the day basically consisted of lots of driving through a vastly flat area, basically a straight road as far as the eye can see! Not to mention the sky looks absolutely cavernous!

The day ended in little Sioux Falls, South Dakota... where we stayed at the quaint little Brimarck Inn.

More to come tomorrow!