Day 41 - Minneapolis to Fort Atkinson

Staying in hostels

Hostels are a good option (when you can find one) because they are cheap and normally have a kitchen. The disadvantage is that you can sometimes get treated like a child or a delinquent. Here's the hostel I stayed at in Minneapolis:

Seems nice, right? Ah. Take a closer look. Here is a selection of the signs dotted around the place:

I find this kind of treatment of paying guests a little unnecessary. Maybe I'm too old...

Lake Harriet

This morning I went for a very civilised walk around Lake Harriet in Minneapolis.

I gather it's a popular walking place - there were couples walking hand in hand, joggers, old ladies chatting and this guy with SIXTEEN dogs:

It was really fun. It's a beautiful spot and everyone I crossed paths with smiled or said hi. Minnesota nice.

Side of the road

I see all sorts of unusual things by the side of the road. Lots of advertising, the kind that's been banned in most European roads for decades and a LOT of tyres. Actually half tyres. It makes me worry that further along the road I'm going to come across a truck missing a chunk of tyre weaving all over the place (I haven't so far but who's to say) In addition to the tyres I've seen lots of animals. In California and Nevada it was squirrels or chipmunks (we're taling dead, of course) but as I've moved east the spoils have become larger and slightly more disturbing. Today I saw about twenty dead deer, which is really sad. Also scary. I've been lucky enough to swerve in time when they've crossed the road in front of me but I guess I might not always be so lucky. Scary stuff these American highways!

The Endless Bridge

One of the things you're meant to see in Minneapolis is the Endless Bridge. I kind of assumed it was a pretty bridge over the Mississipi (incidentally, this river is likely to become my new travel love, to replace the gap that Highway 1 left behind) So I went to where my guidebook told me it was and I eventually (after asking lots of passersby) worked out it was part of the theatre I was standing next to. So I went in and this was the view:

All this was cool but not really a bridge and not really endless. I was a little tiny bit disappointed. But then.... I walked outside and around the theatre and this is what I saw:

Ah! This was totally not the impression I'd got from being inside!! Very cool.

The mystery of restaurants

I have come to accept that I will never figure out the intricacies of the waiting staff hierarchy in this country. For example, today I went out to have some soup for dinner. I arrived and a girl showed me to my seat. I asked her if she knew what the soup of the day was but she had no idea what it was. A guy then came to bring me a glass of water, so I asked him. He had no idea what I was saying (I gather he did not speak English) Then someone else entirely came to take my order. Three people for one cup of soup? This is the answer to Spain's 25% unemployment problem!

Chicago!

Tomorrow I will be going to Chicago and today I was super excited to see my first sign for it:

I know it's blurry - I was driving!