Mall of America

Jim and I drove directly north about an hour today from our RV park to Minneapolis to see the "Mall of America"-the largest mall in America!  Along the way the weather threatened rain and it was chilly, really giving us impetus to head south on Saturday when we leave Minnesota for Des Moines, Iowa.  The leaves are starting to change color with a few glimpses of red and yellow here and there. The farmers have fields and fields of corn and soybeans to harvest here and other that the city, the countryside here is all about farming, with red barns, white houses and steel or cement block silos.  It is a contrast from the horse and cattle ranches of our last stay-over.

The Mall of America is three levels with an amusement park in the middle of it.  You can ride several roller coasters, a ferris wheel, a carousel or a zip line.  There are Legos to see and build or toy stores to browse plus food courts to visit for treats or meals all within the center of the mall.

There is every store here you could possibly imagine from Nordstrom's to Macy's or Sears to Hallmark and every size and specialty store you have ever seen.

If you walk the circuit of any level you have covered a mile.  We did all three levels and ended up with about three and a half miles.  Mayo Clinic even has a "heart trail" measured out within the mall.  On winter days this would be an ideal walking venue.  But I would have to stop for a Cinnabon and coffee after!

If you are ever in the area, this is a worthwhile excursion.  I just left my credit card at home, because it would be easy to spend money here.  We controlled ourselves (except for lunch) and I am proud of us.  We did walk through the Apple Store hoping to see their new computer watch, but it won't be in until January.  I sat in a Brookstone massage chair about two-thirds of the way through and it was so nice I seriously hope I win the lottery one of these days!  That or the VW would be one my first purchases!

Travel Day

Today we traveled from Mitchell, South Dakota to Owatonna, Minnesota after waiting for a heavy layer of fog to lift in Mitchell and after a momentary scare of thinking we'd lost Jim's cell phone.  The cell phone had slipped down between the seat and door of our car with its ringer turned to silent so dialing its number was to no avail.  Luckily after the third search of the RV and car, we found it and that spells R-E-L-I-E-F!

The fog was also testy lasting until 11:00 am before we could see across the Interstate highway just a few feet from where we stayed. We'd been watching the weather and wanted to head out before a predicted rainstorm to our west and at the same time we wanted to stay behind one to our east.  We accomplished both.  We arrived in Owatonna after a 270 mile trip through for the most part cornfields decorated with barns, farmhouses, cows and wind generators.

This is the end of our journey on I-90.  We will spend a planned four nights here exploring the largest mall in the country-"Mall of America", touring the Spam Museum and possibly a visit to the Winnebago manufacturing plant located about an hour from here to view the process of making an RV firsthand.

They are predicting heavy thunderstorms here tonight and tomorrow and we have a pesky engine warning light that came on today which may alter our plans but we'll see.  It is supposed to get cold here (at least by our standards) with the weather system that is coming through tonight.  We are also watching west for a Canadian cold front that may put snow into Montana and Wyoming.  We are glad we left Washington when we did!  At the same time we are watching east for a storm that has developed off the coast of Africa that could potentially become a hurricane.  We have no desire to deal with either of these types of weather up close and personally.  When we leave here we will head south on I-35 toward Memphis.  Our journey takes us down the west side of the Appalachian mountains.