Minneapolis, MN 2

“Explore Minnesota”

Welcome to state 41 – Minnesota. And plenty more of that Great River along the way !

A little about Minnesota – It became the 32nd state of the Union on 11 May 1858. The Hormel Company of Austin marketed the first canned ham in 1926 and Hormel introduced “Spam” to the world in 1937 ! Now you’ve got a “taste”, let’s continue ….

It had rained overnight in Wausau but was just cloudy when we left heading southwest. The countryside in Wisconsin varies between vast stretches of agricultural land …..

and then forested lake areas which are vacation havens during the season. We passed through one such town, Hatfield (no, we couldn’t find McCoy), which had a sign saying “Welcome to Hatfield – population 5,000 Summer, 50 Winter” ! These places are packed with accommodation options, taverns, and supply stores which must just close down in the winter. Mind you, many of these towns do have signs on the side of the road indicating snow mobile paths so there is at least some activity.

Our first destintion is where I head when I’m feeling hip, Neillsville 😎, and the world famous “Chatty Belle – the Talking Cow”. For a quarter, Chatty will tell you a bit about Wisconsin but also the other unexpected attraction next door !

Beside Chatty is a relic from the Wisconsin Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair – which Adrienne visited with her parents back then ! The yellow, teepee-shaped Rotunda shape symbolizes the state’s native history, and mosaic scenes of Native Americans decorate the surrounding walls. The glass tent is topped with a tall spire with giant blue and gold letters spelling out “Wisconsin”. Originally slated for demolition after the fair, the pavilion was purchased for $5,000 and shipped back to Wisconsin, arriving in Neillsville in 1966 (is there some sort of “six degrees of separation” going on there ?). It is now home to WCCN radio station, and also includes a store selling local Wisconsin products like jam, honey, and of course, cheese – and we picked up a block for our morning coffee stop.

From here we continued across various country roads – all with the very original idea of labelling them alphabetically. So we jumped from J to K, then across to E and occassionaly found a stray numbered one just to confuse things. But eventually we ended up in La Crosse, which sits just on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River – and Minnesota was just across the river.

First though, we had to visit the Worlds Largest Six Pack ! La Crosse is home to the G. Heileman Brewing Company which was established in 1858 and known as the City Brewery. Ironically, its downfall as an independent operation started in 1987 when our own infamous Alan Bond acquired the business with junk bonds and the soon after Bond empire collapse resulted in the company ultimately becoming part of the Pabst Brewing Company now. But its 6 storage tanks conveniently form a “6 pack” as part of the brewery complex !

After La Crosse, we drove across the river and stopped at a roadside stop for our coffee near one of the locks on the river. There are some 29 locks between Minneapolis and St Louis which make the river navigable in that section.

From here we criss-crossed the river between Minnesota and Wisconsin as we tried to find the best vantage points. As I have mentioned before, the lush vegetation can make seeing the actual river quite hard in many locations. This section wasn’t too bad for views. But the Great River Road itself didn’t start out too great as there were miles and miles of road works ! Eventually this eased off.

One quirky spot on the Wisconsin side was the “Rock in the House”. In a town called Fountain City, a 55-ton boulder rolled down the hill on April 24, 1995, and crashed into the house of Maxine and Dwight Anderson (another “six degrees of separation” ??). When the plaster dust had settled the Andersons found a huge, disc-shaped rock where their master bedroom used to be. The rock is still there. John Burt, a local real estate investor, bought the house within a month — with the rock firmly wedged inside it — and turned it into an attraction.

Near the town of Alma, the Buena Vista Park overlook finally gave us a grand view of the river. It also covered the nearby local Lock and Dam below us. It also gave us our first real location to give the drone a workout !

After leaving Alma, the grey skies which had followed most of the day really turned black as we headed along the river closer to Minneapolis. It was pouring rain so we decided to give the Great River Road Visitor Center a miss and continue on. The main attraction here is where two rivers meet and the colours are clearly distinctive – but only in good weather !

We arrived at our hotel late in the afternoon and went across to the mall for dinner where we had dinner at another favourite – Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. We had a seafood sampler for starters and Adrienne had fish whilst I had the spicy pasta.

We have actually had a 2 day stop in Minneapolis. The weather had improved this morning so we decided to make the most of the forecast and head to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden before the clouds rolled in again. It is an 11 acre park which reopened in 2017 after a reconstruction that resulted in the nearby Walker Art Centre and the Sculpture Garden being unified as one 19-acre area. It is one of the largest urban sculpture gardens in the USA, with 40 permanent art installations and several other temporary pieces that are moved in and out periodically

We then went to visit the Minnesota State Capitol building. It is modeled after Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome—the unsupported marble dome is the second largest in the world – after Saint Peter’s of course. However, like all capitols with domes in the US it is also inspired by the idea of domed capitols originating with the United States Capitol dome. 

Oh, did I mention the other attraction of Minneapolis ? Of course it is the “Mall of America” – opened in 1992, it is the largest mall in the United States in terms of total floor area (including Nickelodeon Universe), the fifth largest mall in North America in terms of leaseable space and the twelfth largest in the world. It is huge !

Some statistics for you for MOA – as it’s known –

• MOA estimates it would take you 86 hours to visit every store in the mall—provided you didn’t spend more than 10 minutes in each
• About 4 out of every 10 people you see at the MOA are tourists
• More than 5,000 couples have exchanged their vows
• MOA is generating more than $2 billion in economic activity annually.
• More than 170,000 Legos have been lost in the MOA’s very own LEGO land play area
• The number of people who visit the Mall each year—about 40 million—equals the number of people that live in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Canada

To add to the “shopping adventure” of this stop, we also managed to track down a Costco and another (smaller) mall but didn’t manage to “damage the plastic” too badly.

For dinner we tried a restaurant called Crave as we had been given a discount voucher by the hotel. Crave is “american & sushi” and it was very busy ! We had chicken egg rolls as a starter and then both had the seafood paella – which was delicious. Having wandered around the mall a bit further we stumbled upon a section we hadn’t been through previously and managed a couple of last minute purchases – much to Adrienne’s delight !!

We are heading north tomorrow and back into Wisconsin for this section of the tour …

Today’s Tour Trivia – Minneapolis’ famed skyway system of walkwaysconnecting 52 blocks (nearly five miles) of downtown makes it possible to live, eat, work and shop without going outside. I’d say that’s pretty handy in the winter up here !!