We are almost at the half way point of our journey. In distance anyway. I am going to take longer to get back to Oakland than it did for me to get to Indianapolis. I got to Indy in 9 days and I will take 17 days to get back to Oakland. But first, I need to get to Indy and share the experiences of Indy.
Before we start a new day, a final comment about the trip to Pierre, SD to the Capitol building. After turning to go to Pierre from I 90, a beautiful red headed pheasant walked across the highway to get from the side of the road to the median. The median was very wide at this point and has bushes and small trees so it afforded protection for the bird. But the weird thing was that it walked across the highway. Why did the pheasant cross the road? A little farther down was a billboard advertising Pheasant Hunts. Don't know if it could read, had been shot at before, or was just lazy, but walking was probably safer than flying if it is pheasant hunting season. ;)
And away we go....
My original plan was to stay in a motel close to the Mall of America in hopes of arriving early enough in the evening to go and see the Mall before it closed for the day. Didn't happen. The journey from the Black Hills started at 6 AM but I did not get to Minneapolis for another 18 hours and with the time change from Mountain to Central Time I lost an additional hour to boot.
An early wake-up call and I was off to the Mall by 8:30. Thankfully the doors to the Mall are open even though the stores are not. A bit eerie being in such a large place with so few people, the stores dark and many of the hallway lights still off. There were a hand full of people arriving for work, shining-up for the start of the day, and a few "mall walkers" getting in their exercise. However, I was rewarded with a close-in parking space. Yeah! And it probably saved me time with not being able to shop or go on any of the rides. :)
The mall is quite large as you can imagine calling itself the Mall of America. At one time this was the largest mall in the world, but it now has competition for that title with a mall in Canada and maybe one in Dubai. Three and a half floors of stores (some retailers have multiple locations in the mall) and an amusement park in the center. Not sure how many shoe stores are in the mall, but from the first picture of the advertisement, there must be tree full of shoe stores.
The mall does not appear to be that huge from the inside. The ceiling heights are 12 feet or so and the floors are not in straight lines but seem to be in a continuous curve. You do not see very far in front of you so unless you are in the open center or overlooking into the open center, you could be in any mall in America. But after walking around a bit, it is big inside.
The amusement park makes very judicious use of the space in the center of the mall. The picture above the big orange ball shows three different rides in close proximity and appearing to share the same space. I am sure they have enough clearance to operate safely, but I would imagine the close proximity ups the scare factor a bit. There is a regular roller coaster circling and cris-crossing the space, a u-shaped track that probably carriers riders forwards and backwards at a high rate of speed (although rides like this one go much higher in an outdoor amusement park) and a tower called splat-o-sphere (a drop zone type of ride). All three of these rides are much bigger in an outdoor park, but it is still kinda of cool to have this inside the mall. I would imagine it helps parents by being able to let the kids run free in the amusement park while they shop. Everyone's happy.
There are 2 or 3 different roller coasters, a log ride, a couple of drop zone type of rides, climbing structures and a couple that I could not understand with out seeing them in action. There are 25 rides and attractions in the mall. Additionally there are over 520 stores with 4.3 miles of store fronts and each floor is .57 miles walking distance. Included in the Mall is an Aquarium (with sharks), 12,000+ parking spaces, 11,000+ workers, 30,000+ plants, 400 live trees, a Dinosaur Museum, flight simulators and a Nascar Motor Speedway ride. The mall could hold 32 747 jets or 258 Statues of Liberty could lie inside and 7 Yankee Stadiums would fit in the mall. Whew. And to top it off there is a hotel attached as well. Must be fun the day after Thanksgiving.
After leaving the Mall it is on to St. Paul and the Capitol building. The St. Paul building has been the one that is in the most open space. All of the other Capitols I have visited so far have been surrounded by trees.
Near the dome is a sculpture in gold of what looks like a roman chariot, driver with an uncovered torso and 2 bare-breasted women holding onto the horses. Pretty racy for Minnesota.
Across from the Capitol is a sculpture of Charles Lindbergh as both a boy and an adult. Interesting that both sculptures are shown together on the same base. A nice effect. In the same park across from the Capitol is a sculpture in Memory of Roy Wilkins, who led the NAACP for 46 years. An interesting sculpture.
And now it is time to head off to Madison, WI and the Capitol Building. But at the motel, in the case that holds the flyer's of local interest, there was a flyer for the Spam Museum. Something about the post cards that are included in the flyer influenced my decision to go to the museum. I had read about it before going while doing my research, but I did not think I would have time. But hey, who knows when we will be back by this way ever again. Change of plans and the direction of how we have to leave St. Paul to go back to I 90 instead of taking the shorter route to Madison via I 94.
It was a good choice to go to the Spam Museum. It was fun and interesting. The exhibits were well thought out and obviously put together by professionals. I had feared that it would be put together haphazardly with not so great exhibits. But Hormel did a nice job with the museum.
Spam is sold around the world with mostly the same recipe. But new products are being continually considered for sale. One of the issues I do have with Hormel is that they sell various sizes of mascot pigs in the gift shop that they have named Spammy. This is one animal who is "all in" and not just a curious by stander or pet of this process. It was kind of weird seeing Spammy in the gift shop.
I asked the ladies working the gift shop if they also work in the factory, which is nearby and passed on the way to the museum from the interstate. They have worked in the office of the factory in the past but never in the manufacturing area. They slaughter the hogs at the factory as well manufacture the products. I know the process to get food in the grocery store, but I probably should not have asked since that took some of the fun out of the museum. But life goes on, unless you are a Hormel oinker.
On to Madison and the next State Capitol building.
Madison is a small city with a major university - Un of Wisconsin. It is has quite a few bike lanes. I read a local newspaper and the editorials and letters to the editor makes is seem that Madison is a lot like the City of Berkeley - left leaning City Council and dominated by the University.
The Capitol is unique in that is the shape of an X with the dome in the middle, but there was no clear front of the building. I assumed the front of the building to be the wing with the State flag flying above it. To also emphasize the laid back culture of Madison, they have a community garden planted at the end of one the legs of the X advertising an non-profit organization that will help you plan, start, and maintain a community garden for your neighborhood.
After Madison the choice was to go to Milwaukee and down through Chicago to get to Indy or to bypass Chicago and go down the middle of Illinois and cut over to Indy on I 74. Since it was late, later than I had planned to be at this point, I went to Milwaukee in hopes of seeing the skyline at least as I have never been to Milwaukee before. Bad choice.
There is construction happening all across the US on the major and minor highways. I have had road construction in various stages on my entire journey. However, even though it was already after 8, there was a lot of construction happening on the road to Milwaukee, on all the roads surrounding Milwaukee, and signs letting drivers know that there is construction all the way to downtown. It took quite a bit longer than hoped to take this route. I had no more planned stops to make,but I did not plan on getting to Indy at 3:30 AM. But so much for my planning skills.
I made it safe and sound, if not exhausted, to Indy, Mooresville really at my brothers house. It has been a great road adventure to get here and I expect some great sights on the way back to California. I will leave June 21st for California and arrive back home on July 9.
I did not name this blog onthewaytoIndyandbackagain, but that is a more accurate title. I will blog my way back. And, I have made three trips and attended three functions while I have been in Indy that I will add to the blog. I had hoped to be all caught-up before I leave for St. Louis tomorrow morning, but I doubt that I will be. I will get caught up as quickly as possible.
Thank you for traveling with me. I hope you are not bored. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for my return trip. I am going back via St. Louis, MO; Lawrence, KS; Garden City, KS (Dodge City, KS);Colorado Springs;Colorado City; Albuquerque;Gallop, NM; Moab, UT; Phoenix, AZ; Glendale, UT; and finally Death Valley, CA. If you find any or know of any interesting stopping points, you can leave me an email at mnemecek@pacbell.net
Talk to you later.
Happy Father's Day to all you Fathers!
Michael
Before we start a new day, a final comment about the trip to Pierre, SD to the Capitol building. After turning to go to Pierre from I 90, a beautiful red headed pheasant walked across the highway to get from the side of the road to the median. The median was very wide at this point and has bushes and small trees so it afforded protection for the bird. But the weird thing was that it walked across the highway. Why did the pheasant cross the road? A little farther down was a billboard advertising Pheasant Hunts. Don't know if it could read, had been shot at before, or was just lazy, but walking was probably safer than flying if it is pheasant hunting season. ;)
And away we go....
My original plan was to stay in a motel close to the Mall of America in hopes of arriving early enough in the evening to go and see the Mall before it closed for the day. Didn't happen. The journey from the Black Hills started at 6 AM but I did not get to Minneapolis for another 18 hours and with the time change from Mountain to Central Time I lost an additional hour to boot.
An early wake-up call and I was off to the Mall by 8:30. Thankfully the doors to the Mall are open even though the stores are not. A bit eerie being in such a large place with so few people, the stores dark and many of the hallway lights still off. There were a hand full of people arriving for work, shining-up for the start of the day, and a few "mall walkers" getting in their exercise. However, I was rewarded with a close-in parking space. Yeah! And it probably saved me time with not being able to shop or go on any of the rides. :)
The mall is quite large as you can imagine calling itself the Mall of America. At one time this was the largest mall in the world, but it now has competition for that title with a mall in Canada and maybe one in Dubai. Three and a half floors of stores (some retailers have multiple locations in the mall) and an amusement park in the center. Not sure how many shoe stores are in the mall, but from the first picture of the advertisement, there must be tree full of shoe stores.
The mall does not appear to be that huge from the inside. The ceiling heights are 12 feet or so and the floors are not in straight lines but seem to be in a continuous curve. You do not see very far in front of you so unless you are in the open center or overlooking into the open center, you could be in any mall in America. But after walking around a bit, it is big inside.
The amusement park makes very judicious use of the space in the center of the mall. The picture above the big orange ball shows three different rides in close proximity and appearing to share the same space. I am sure they have enough clearance to operate safely, but I would imagine the close proximity ups the scare factor a bit. There is a regular roller coaster circling and cris-crossing the space, a u-shaped track that probably carriers riders forwards and backwards at a high rate of speed (although rides like this one go much higher in an outdoor amusement park) and a tower called splat-o-sphere (a drop zone type of ride). All three of these rides are much bigger in an outdoor park, but it is still kinda of cool to have this inside the mall. I would imagine it helps parents by being able to let the kids run free in the amusement park while they shop. Everyone's happy.
There are 2 or 3 different roller coasters, a log ride, a couple of drop zone type of rides, climbing structures and a couple that I could not understand with out seeing them in action. There are 25 rides and attractions in the mall. Additionally there are over 520 stores with 4.3 miles of store fronts and each floor is .57 miles walking distance. Included in the Mall is an Aquarium (with sharks), 12,000+ parking spaces, 11,000+ workers, 30,000+ plants, 400 live trees, a Dinosaur Museum, flight simulators and a Nascar Motor Speedway ride. The mall could hold 32 747 jets or 258 Statues of Liberty could lie inside and 7 Yankee Stadiums would fit in the mall. Whew. And to top it off there is a hotel attached as well. Must be fun the day after Thanksgiving.
After leaving the Mall it is on to St. Paul and the Capitol building. The St. Paul building has been the one that is in the most open space. All of the other Capitols I have visited so far have been surrounded by trees.
Near the dome is a sculpture in gold of what looks like a roman chariot, driver with an uncovered torso and 2 bare-breasted women holding onto the horses. Pretty racy for Minnesota.
Across from the Capitol is a sculpture of Charles Lindbergh as both a boy and an adult. Interesting that both sculptures are shown together on the same base. A nice effect. In the same park across from the Capitol is a sculpture in Memory of Roy Wilkins, who led the NAACP for 46 years. An interesting sculpture.
And now it is time to head off to Madison, WI and the Capitol Building. But at the motel, in the case that holds the flyer's of local interest, there was a flyer for the Spam Museum. Something about the post cards that are included in the flyer influenced my decision to go to the museum. I had read about it before going while doing my research, but I did not think I would have time. But hey, who knows when we will be back by this way ever again. Change of plans and the direction of how we have to leave St. Paul to go back to I 90 instead of taking the shorter route to Madison via I 94.
It was a good choice to go to the Spam Museum. It was fun and interesting. The exhibits were well thought out and obviously put together by professionals. I had feared that it would be put together haphazardly with not so great exhibits. But Hormel did a nice job with the museum.
Spam is sold around the world with mostly the same recipe. But new products are being continually considered for sale. One of the issues I do have with Hormel is that they sell various sizes of mascot pigs in the gift shop that they have named Spammy. This is one animal who is "all in" and not just a curious by stander or pet of this process. It was kind of weird seeing Spammy in the gift shop.
I asked the ladies working the gift shop if they also work in the factory, which is nearby and passed on the way to the museum from the interstate. They have worked in the office of the factory in the past but never in the manufacturing area. They slaughter the hogs at the factory as well manufacture the products. I know the process to get food in the grocery store, but I probably should not have asked since that took some of the fun out of the museum. But life goes on, unless you are a Hormel oinker.
On to Madison and the next State Capitol building.
Madison is a small city with a major university - Un of Wisconsin. It is has quite a few bike lanes. I read a local newspaper and the editorials and letters to the editor makes is seem that Madison is a lot like the City of Berkeley - left leaning City Council and dominated by the University.
The Capitol is unique in that is the shape of an X with the dome in the middle, but there was no clear front of the building. I assumed the front of the building to be the wing with the State flag flying above it. To also emphasize the laid back culture of Madison, they have a community garden planted at the end of one the legs of the X advertising an non-profit organization that will help you plan, start, and maintain a community garden for your neighborhood.
After Madison the choice was to go to Milwaukee and down through Chicago to get to Indy or to bypass Chicago and go down the middle of Illinois and cut over to Indy on I 74. Since it was late, later than I had planned to be at this point, I went to Milwaukee in hopes of seeing the skyline at least as I have never been to Milwaukee before. Bad choice.
There is construction happening all across the US on the major and minor highways. I have had road construction in various stages on my entire journey. However, even though it was already after 8, there was a lot of construction happening on the road to Milwaukee, on all the roads surrounding Milwaukee, and signs letting drivers know that there is construction all the way to downtown. It took quite a bit longer than hoped to take this route. I had no more planned stops to make,but I did not plan on getting to Indy at 3:30 AM. But so much for my planning skills.
I made it safe and sound, if not exhausted, to Indy, Mooresville really at my brothers house. It has been a great road adventure to get here and I expect some great sights on the way back to California. I will leave June 21st for California and arrive back home on July 9.
I did not name this blog onthewaytoIndyandbackagain, but that is a more accurate title. I will blog my way back. And, I have made three trips and attended three functions while I have been in Indy that I will add to the blog. I had hoped to be all caught-up before I leave for St. Louis tomorrow morning, but I doubt that I will be. I will get caught up as quickly as possible.
Thank you for traveling with me. I hope you are not bored. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for my return trip. I am going back via St. Louis, MO; Lawrence, KS; Garden City, KS (Dodge City, KS);Colorado Springs;Colorado City; Albuquerque;Gallop, NM; Moab, UT; Phoenix, AZ; Glendale, UT; and finally Death Valley, CA. If you find any or know of any interesting stopping points, you can leave me an email at mnemecek@pacbell.net
Talk to you later.
Happy Father's Day to all you Fathers!
Michael
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