The Windmill Posts

Welcome to a continuation of the tilting at windmills posts.. The goal is to post about future trips. Some of them may be a 25 mile jaunt, others may be across multiple states. Sadly, it’s not likely to be as long and as crazy as The Big Trip, but the hope is that they’re interesting at least. I like in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, so lots of day trips from there and as far as you can get in half a day. Opening it up for multiple day trips, but I can’t do hotels every trip. So I’m thinking of dabbling in camping options. We’ll see.

First of all, this is all one of my psychiatrists idea. There was a near magical respite from the depression and anxiety during The Big Trip. When I got home in December things settled back into my horrible life. Depression, anxiety, and so much therapy. She wanted to explore the idea of recreating that respite in the form of short trips.

The Trips

So far I have come up with the following potential roadtrips:

• Northernmost point in Minnesota. It’s up in the Northwest Angle, which involves some interesting border crossing.
• Southernmost point in Minnesota. Anywhere on the southern border.
• Easternmost point in Minnesota. Just past Grand Portage at the tip of the arrowhead.
• Westernmost point in Minnesota. Not in the little knob in the side of the state, like you would think. All the way up to the eastern and northern border.
• Highest point in Minnesota. Eagle mountain, 15 miles inland from around Grand Marais.
• Lowest point in Minnesota. Lake Superior.
• Geographical Center of Minnesota. South of Brainerd
• We have more than one continental divide.
• The Hill of Three Waters. Located near Hibbing, Minnesota, is a rare hydrological triple divide where water flows into three different watersheds: the Hudson Bay (Arctic Ocean), the Gulf of Mexico, and the St. Lawrence Seaway (Atlantic Ocean).
• We have one or two locations where four counties meet at the same point.
• Lost 40. 144 acres of red and white pines went untouched by loggers when a surveying error mapped the area as part of Coddington Lake. The Lost 40 pines are 300-400 years old, originating when the pilgrims came to America.
• Big Bog State Recreation Area. The 500-square mile peat bog is the largest in the lower 48 states.
• Both National Monuments
• Sawtooth Mountains. Hint: Not really mountains
• Oldest rock. Morton Gneiss!

I’d like to report that it had the desired effect, but running on less than 4 hours sleep, there are a good number of times that road hypnosis kicked in. A little dissociating, but never enough to hurt my ability to drive. Plenty of stimulants in my morning meds to keep me awake.

Depression poisons the future as much as the past. Looking forward to these trips is a challenge, and this trip was no different. I enjoyed bit of it here and there but the adventure didn’t quite catch my heart. Maybe they’ll get better.

Landscape

Minnesota was covered by glaciers, more than once. As they came and went they altered the landscape, making a flat earth into something more interesting. Unfortunately, they weren’t everywhere. There are some parts of the state that are flat as a pancake. And I got to experience some of that. Even the Dakotas had rolling hills. I was in flat nowhere.

I thought I knew Minnesota, but there were so many towns I had never even heard of. Winthrop, Bernadette, Morton. I need to spend more time out in the unexplored territories. There were a handful of signs that had flashing signage when they were closed. Flooding?

Eventually I dropped into the Minnesota river valley and got a chance to see the river. It was still a river, not a creek or stream. But it was absolutely smaller than the river that meets the Mississippi. It did not look like commercial (or even recreational) traffic would spend any time going up and down the river at this point. Though I’m sure there are jonboats that fisherman bring. While I drove across a bridge or two, there were other roads and bridges crossing the river. In one case a very muddy dirt road led to the river, where a very muddy, very not paved or gravelled bridge crossed the river. I’m guessing there were a culvert or two allowing the river to continue on it’s way.

Morton Gneiss

Wikipedia says: Morton gneiss, also known as rainbow gneiss, is an Archean-age gneiss found in the Minnesota River Valley of southwestern Minnesota, United States. It is one of the oldest stones on Earth, at about 3.5 billion years old. Along with the nearby Montevideo Gneiss, it is the oldest intact continental crust rock in the United States. Some references say it’s between 3.5 and 3.6 billion. The difference between those two numbers alone is 100 million years.

The glaciers were here between 1 million and 10,000 years ago. These rocks had already been waiting billions of years. When it was created, the trees weren’t there. The animals were a twinkle in ocean microbes eyes. In fact, it was all ocean, no dry land at all. The atmosphere didn’t have oxygen in it. When I imagined what it must have been like so long ago it stretched the ability of my brain to comprehend that kind of time.

I love old things. Something you can touch that’s been around far longer than you have. Even better if it’s been around deep into history. It’s part of why I love the Redwoods so much. A 1,500 year old tree has been waiting peacefully before and through our civilization. And will likely be around long after we are. I think I appreciate the patience. The rock didn’t feel like that. It wasn’t alive, it hadn’t persisted.

But it was pretty cool to sit on and ponder the vastness of time.

Deets

• Departed: 11:05 am CST, 63 degrees
• Original ETA 4:44 pm CST
• Arrival: 4:50 pm CST
• Weather: 77 degrees, sunny, partly cloudy
• Music:
  • Prince – Sign o the Times
  • Lady Gaga – Mayhem
  • Bis – Return to Central
  • Led Zeppelin – IV
  • David Bowie – Let’s Dance
  • The Crystal Method – The Trip Home
  • Mix

Observations

• I found a new reason to hate the Waymo spinny spinner cars. Because they’ve been programmed to follow the roads properly, they’re also programmed to follow the speed limit. Learned that along with nine other cars following one at 15 mph down a parkway.
• I was going to go to the World’s Largest Candy Store, but they were closed for the season.
• If you trick your vehicle out to look like a giant Police vehicle, then you shouldn’t mind when I slow down to the speed limit or less. Because all I can see is law enforcement about to pull me over. It’s nothing personal. When you roar past me and I realize you’re actually an over compensating wanna be, then it’s personal.
• Heading out into the prairies it seemed like a lot of the roads are scenic byways. I’ll have to come back when it’s green to see if they are.
• I was worried highway 212 would be boring. It exceeded my expectations.
• How do you know it’s the first convertible ride of the year? The sunburn. If I blush, you wouldn’t be able to tell.

Pictures