Oh and a little bit – okay A LOT of this. 
There were miles and miles of corn surrounded by miles and miles of soybeans. This is one tiny piece of the picture. It becomes overwhelming at times to realize how much grain is growing out here. After 1000s of years with nothing but grass and trees growing and then fertilizing the ground for a new years growth to build on, with wildlife grazing and adding to the soil, this Midwestern dirt became the perfect growth medium for this type of crop. I should have gotten a picture at the intersection near my sister’s to show you how absolutely black the soil is in comparison to our garden and hayfield dirt. You can begin to get an idea by looking inside one of those bags of topsoil mix at the garden store… except that would probably still not be dark enough if it was laid next to this real farm dirt. The sad part for us is that the intersection I am talking about is going to be covered in concrete for an Aquatic Park. We would love to have that dirt spread about a foot thick across our hayfield and they are going to bury generations of it with cement. That is the way it goes though. They might like to have some of our old growth trees too, but that isn't likely either.Back to the trip, along the way we made a quick stop to see Pocahontas in the same named town.
And you thought she lived in WV or VA or one of the other many places that have borrowed her name. Nope, she is in Iowa and she seems to be welcoming us down the road. And no, FabHub did not listen to his B-I-L's suggestion about looking up her skirt. He is a gentleman afterall!We also found another dinosaur.
This one is named Sinclair and was a little bashful so we didn’t invade his privacy.We spent a nice afternoon with relatives from my father’s side of the family. First we had lunch with some of my Aunt Rose’s and Ruth’s families where we caught up on what everybody is doing these days and enjoyed sometime with them. Then we went to a community meeting room and socialized with the more extended family, which was mainly my father’s Aunts and Uncles. We hadn’t seen most of these people for several years. A lot of them recognized my brother immediately because he resembles my father quite a bit. We recognized some of them, but mostly it was a mutual introduction greeting. They asked what we were doing and where we had traveled. We listened to what they remembered about Dad and what they thought of the job the President is doing. It was very enlightening to hear a perspective from the Corn Belt region versus the Coal region. They are interested in the use of bio fuels and wind farms. We could have spent more time listening to that conversation.
After the gathering we stopped in the town square and looked at the new windmill and bridge display. FabHub and I sat still long enough to get our picture taken in a giant wooden shoe.
There was a “Standardmolen” or Post Mill on display.
It is so named because of the big wooden pillar or post that it turns around as the wind catches its sails. This type of mill was used for grinding corn mostly around the year 1200. There aren’t very many of them left in Holland, even for display, anymore.There was a “Wipmolen” or Hollow Post Mill on display.
It is so named because it developed from the Post Mill in shape. It is used to drain the polders so the rectangular mill house portion is smaller, with no living space, and the lower part is set higher.There was a “Paltrokmolen” or Saw Mill on display.
This one was designed to be along the water-front because the logs were floated in on rafts. The body of the mill was left open so that the long logs could project from either side.There was a “Poldermolen” or Drainage Mill on display.
These evolved from the “Wipmolen” as the top was made smaller and the body larger, which caused the mill to generate greater power and allowed suitable living accommodations. Often these mills were built in gangs of five, wach one lifting the water three feet.There was a “Stellingmolen” or Tower Mill on display.
These mills were used as an industrial or corn mill. There were generally seven floors. Grain is hoisted up in sacks to the Bin Floor by a sack hoist. The grain would flow by gravity to the Stone Floor where it is ground, and then to the Meal Floor where it is sacked. Below the Meal Floor are the Grain Floor, the Grain Store, and then two floors of living quarters. Some mills also had a Loading Floor and some a Stable Floor.One other display in the park is the “Brugge tot Oranjestad” or Bridge to Orange City, which happens to be where Mom and FabHub took a break.
The bridge is an example of a drawbridge that was used in the Netherlands to permit the passage of loaded ships or ships with high masts.After we finished site seeing in Orange City we headed over to Sheldon to visit and stay over night with my aunt there. It was nice to be able to do that so we could spend some time with here. My cousin and her daughters came over to visit also so we had another small getting reaquainted party there. We really enjoyed both visits and were glad to be able to see everyone.
The rest of the day was pretty much made up of figuring out what projects the guys could get done, cooking out, and fireworks.
Then we wound our way over to Blue Earth, Minnesota and found Little Pea working in a garden. 
The Jolly Green Giant allowed me to stand with him on the platform so that we could share some perspective of how big he really is.
Because of the new farming equipment creating more efficient row spacing in the fields, the Giant’s size makes it more difficult for him to work with the vegetables anymore. Things tend to get smashed, which is okay for the baby food products, but not for the frozen vegetables.
It took us about three hours to get to my sister’s house. This is the view from her front porch.
The back is pretty much the same and there are neighbors right next door on each side. The open view in the front and back is one reason behind buying this house, they are close to town, but it looks like they live in the country.
This is my sister and her husband. They are expecting a son in August so we picked up a few things for them including this sign.
Every kid needs a Sock Monkey to drag around. This one had some issues with his travel arrangements and so chose to show his butt.
If it is a Monkey or Frog it probably came from us.
My mother-in-law made a couple of baby blankets for them. She does beautiful crotchet work.
So now we are in Iowa and will be for a few days. 
Then we went over to the park and got some fun pictures with Charlie Brown and Lucy.
Then we started walking on in the direction that should be the museum, but… something doesn’t look right. Where is Market Street? Why didn’t we bring TomTom? Walked back a few blocks. There is no building that looks right. We are headed toward Hennepin Avenue; I know that is not right. Go back a block. This seems to be banks, lawyers, city hall… this isn’t right. Then my sister calls, "Can you stop by IKEA for me before you leave Minnesota?" Sure we can, by the way, are you near a computer? She searches and finds the Museum, but can’t figure out where we are. So, we decide to walk a bit more and see what we can find in another direction.
And then FabHub breaks the Man Rule and approaches a US Marshall – I told you we were outside some sort of building full of “Responsible People” – he asks the man where the Science Museum is located. The man says “In St. Paul”. So I ask “Are we in Minneapolis?” He answers “Yes”. Okay Then. So the conversation turns to Where are you from? WV, but I used to live in Edgerton, MN in Pipestone County. OF COURSE he says “Oh, yes, I have heard of that place, something about a basketball team.” Yep back in 1960, before the schools were broken up into size classes, David (Edgerton, pop. 1,019) beat Goliath (Austin, pop. 27, 908)for the State Championships with a score of 72 - 61. I just found thi s link to the story, there is a whole website set up to tell the story! 
And a view of the dome.
What we finally figured out is that we were supposed to get off the train at the Airport and then get on the bus to 5th and Market Street. Or we could have ridden the bus from the Mall straight out to the Museum in the first place. Roflmao… no not really.
The Mississippi river and a butt shot of Billy. If you are new reading this blog, get used to these. He prefers to be seen this way.
So we went in and managed to catch an Omni theater show of the Titanic and the science displays in the Museum. They have tons of interactive activities, displays, and shows that allow the kids to really get some hands on experience with ALL things science. It is something that WV could really use.
This is Marcie and Snoopy's Bird.
They were in a park just a few blocks from the hotel just waiting for us to visit at his logging camp.
There was a plaque there that told the story of how Paul was vandalized when someone knocked him over and then restored in 2002. The people of the Chippewa Valley put their resources together and got to work with the restoration, which took about a month. In 2003 they got together again and also refurbished Babe.
This guy is standing in North St Paul, overlooking highway 36. He is 54 feet tall and was built in 1974. The street signs in town have a little snowman on them.
This was a case of we had seen them for miles and miles and really didn’t know what they had for sale. So we swung by and found out it was a combination of things – electrical stuff, construction stuff, garden stuff – sort of like your typical big box hardware store we figured so we went on. Update We have since actually shopped in a Menards – they have all the hardware store stuff and a bunch of mega-store stuff – some types of clothes, food (but not bread and milk), pet supplies – a bunch of odd things, but a very convenient store.
It looks like you can walk right from your hotel room to the slide. Cool, but not on our agenda. The next stop was The Mall of America!
We enjoyed the Lego construction display where FabHub narrowly missed being attacked by a Dinosaur.
The Biker was really detailed too. 
Some Sharks,
