Summer Trip To Minnesota, Part One

Time for another road trip!  

Unfortunately this isn’t to a new or exotic destination.  Rather it’s a return trip to the Mayo Clinic for Geoana’s post-surgery visit.  We hope this is the last sojourn this year to Minnesota, this one makes the 2016 tally total 4.  (For the record I only went on two of these jaunts, the others consisted only of the female members of the Geohouse.) 

Since the office visit is set for Monday we decided to make this wrap around a weekend and throw in a visit to the Twin Cities as well.  I put in for the days of Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday off.  

Those approved, we are now in preparation phase.  Since we traveled to Rochester MN three times in 2014 and so far three times this year we have a pretty good idea of what’s in store.  Where to stop, when to leave, expected time of arrival, these are all factors that lack any mystery.  

Geogal and I decide we’ll leave a little after 7 on Thursday morning.  That will give us ample time to drive and take necessary breaks along the way.  

Then….

Geogal, on Wednesday evening, realizes she forgot to pick up her prescription.  Our pharmacy closes at 6.  

They don’t open until 9 the next morning.  

Great.  Not even into day one of the trip and we’re already behind schedule.  

Well, no reason to be in a hurry in the morning.  

Thursday arrives.  We rise, we eat, we load the vehicle.  We’re about ready to leave when Geogal asks Geoana to get her epi-pen. 

About five minutes later it dawns on us grownups that the child doesn’t know where her epi-pen is.  She looks longer but to no avail.  

Finally we decide we just need to leave anyway.  We can give her a good lecture along the way.  

Stop by the pharmacy.  Now we can hit the road!  

But….

Barely 10 minutes out of town we stop for road construction.  And wait.  And wait.  

No pilot car, just a guy in the roadway with a “Stop” sign.  We look ahead.  The crew is laying asphalt and the large roller is only starting to flatten the warm black stuff.  

Wonderful.  We’re not even out of the county and we’ve run into another delay.  

However this time we have a solution.  I made a U-turn, drove back to U.S. 36 then drove to the intersection with highway 60.  Turn left, takes us right back to highway 383, connecting with it past the construction zone.  When turning onto the highway I look left to see if the delayed traffic is moving again.  

Nothing.  

Ha!  Took us a few miles out of the way but at least it got us ahead of where we’d be had we stayed waiting for the road work.  

Score one for Geoguy!!

While we did get on the road later than we intended the rest of our drive that day was uneventful.  

And we arrived at our hotel in Bloomington just about 11 hours after beginning the journey.  Yes, we were tired but still on speaking terms.  And Geogal did well driving through a deluge on I-35 between Ames and Clear Lake, Iowa.  

That was the only precipitation we encountered the whole trip.  I must say this day’s drive was much superior to the last time I journeyed to Minnesota.  That was in January and featured not only arctic temperatures but also a nice amount of blowing snow on the return trip.  

I’ll take temps in the 80’s and 90’s plus a fair amount of green outside.  

Next entry:  Higher education and capitalism!