By Shelby
Monday we worked from the Kimberly Village Public Library in Wisconsin. After work, we went to Sunset Beach. Since we had been doing so much the past few days, we just wanted to do nothing for a bit. We had mac and cheese for dinner and then we played Minecraft.
We worked from the same library again Tuesday. After work, we drove to the small town of Mosinee. We ate pizza at the Pit Stop Bar and Grill. We learned that fried cheese curds are very popular in Wisconsin. After dinner, we decided to drive to the even smaller town of Spencer that Spencer really wanted to go to. I took Spencer’s picture with the Welcome to Spencer sign, along with the water tower. Coincidentally, there was also a building called The Olde Hall, so of course, we needed a picture of that.
Near Spencer, we went to an A&W restaurant for dessert. I got a strawberry sundae and Spencer got a root beer float. When we finished eating, we drove back towards Mosinee and pulled off the road onto an ATV trailhead to sleep for the night. Since the weather was so hot, we wanted to be able to open the windows all the way and keep the window covers off. The area was very private and surrounded by trees.
We were woken up in the middle of the night by thunder. Spencer checked the weather and saw a massive storm coming our way. There was already lightning every few seconds. We closed the windows so rain wouldn’t get in and turned on the AC. A few minutes later, the rain started. The lightning became even more frequent, lighting up the sky every second. It started raining even harder. Spencer was worried about the rain flooding the parking area and getting us stuck since it was just sand and dirt. I was more worried about the lightning. I looked up safety tips for being in a car in a lightning storm. The metal roof would protect us from a lightning strike, but we should avoid touching the door handles. The storm continued on for at least an hour. We finally fell back asleep when the rain started slowing. It was quite the experience!
The next morning, we fortunately had no issues driving out from the trailhead. We drove back into Mosinee and went to the Creske Community Center Pool, which was actually free for anyone to use. That was pretty awesome of them. Spencer swam in the pool for a bit while I relaxed in the hot tub. The people there were very friendly.
It seemed that all the libraries in the area didn’t open until 10 AM, so we went to the nearby River Park to work for a couple of hours. We parked right in front of the Wisconsin River. It was a very nice view. After a while, a large group of young boys started fishing in the river near us. That was kind of fun to watch. At 10, we drove to the Marathon County Public Library – Rothschild Branch near Wausau to work for the rest of the day.
After work, we drove an hour and a half to Eau Claire. We drove through another crazy rain and thunderstorm along the way. At some points, we had to slow down because we could barely see out the windshield. Shortly after arriving, I got a tornado warning on my phone for Wausau, where we just were. Thankfully, we were in the clear in Eau Claire.
Thursday morning, we drove further west into Minneapolis, Minnesota. We went to the Mall of America, the biggest mall in the US. We explored all 4 floors of the mall. It reminded us of the malls in Dubai, where we had both studied abroad. For lunch, we ate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. There were all sorts of references to the movie Forrest Gump, one of my favorite movies.
After lunch, we went to Nickelodeon Universe, a theme park in the middle of the mall. We went on one rollercoaster, the Fairly Odd Coaster since you could pay per ride. It was pretty neat to ride an indoor rollercoaster. After that, we went to Macarons by Maddie Lu, to get some macarons, one of my favorite desserts. Spencer had never tried one before. He found it very sweet.
When we were finished with the mall, we went grocery shopping. Our next meal was going to be hot dogs with corn and watermelon. We then drove to a nearby park, the Bloomington Ferry Unit Wildlife Refuge, to relax and eat dinner. The mosquitoes were pretty bad, so we mostly stayed in the car, but we did walk out onto a bridge over the Minnesota River to see the view
On Friday, we went to Fort Snelling State Park to do an 8-mile hike. We started within the park on a paved trail, the Minnehaha Trail, along the Mississippi River. At one point along the trail, it looked like a small landslide had recently occurred, likely due to the heavy storms that passed through earlier in the week. As we walked along, we caught a glimpse of Fort Snelling looming high over the trail.
Eventually, we made it to Minnehaha Falls. It was a popular spot to be. We saw multiple groups of high school students on field trips. After walking around the park at Minnehaha Falls and eating a small snack, we continued on our hike. Along the way, we crossed a large bridge over the Mississippi River, viewed the Twin Cities Assembly Plant Hydroelectric Dam, and visited another waterfall – Hidden Falls.
As we neared the end of the hike, we stopped at a viewpoint to see where the Minnesota River joined with the Mississippi River. The last stop of our hike was Fort Snelling, the fort we had seen at the beginning of the hike. Fort Snelling was built in 1805 to protect Americans’ interest in the fur trade. Near the fort, we also got a nice view of downtown Minneapolis.
After the long hike, it was still the early afternoon. We couldn’t think of a reason to stay another night in Minneapolis, so we drove an hour and a half north-west to St. Cloud. This made the drive to Fargo, North Dakota the next day shorter. We hung out in a skate park parking lot for a few hours in the shade. For dinner, we had hot dogs, corn, and watermelon. After dinner, we drove 20 minutes further to a small rest area to sleep for the night.
The next morning, we walked over to the lake that the rest area was next to. We wanted to visit at least one of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes, so that worked out. We continued on to Fargo, a little over a two-hour drive through northwest Minnesota. The drive was flat and windy through a lot of farmland.
Once in Fargo, we ate lunch at a primitive campsite next to a farmer’s field. We were hoping to park in some shade but unfortunately didn’t have any luck. It was also crazy windy, so that helped with the heat a little. After lunch, we went to the Fargo Public Library to escape from the heat for a bit. Later that night, we got Dairy Queen ice cream and we watched the movie “Fargo”.
We mostly relaxed on Sunday. We booked a hotel for the night since the temperature wasn’t going to get below 80 that night. In the morning we drove to the Fargo Moorhead Visitors Center to see the famous woodchipper from the movie “Fargo”. We also got a picture with a North Dakota sign. Next week, we’re planning on continuing to travel west toward Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Fun Facts from Week 8:
- The Mall of America is the biggest mall in the US, with over 520 stores.
- In 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson visited Minnehaha Falls. Due to a drought the area was experiencing, the city decided to open up many fire hydrants to dump water into the falls to make the view more beautiful.
- The point where two rivers meet is called a confluence.
- Besides the Minnesota River, other major tributaries of the Mississippi River include the Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, and Red rivers.
One response to “Week 8”
Love all the pics and info. Sounds awesome! Sending love from A Linda and U Dan.