Tuesday, August 4, 2009

WINONA to WELCOME, MN., TUE. AUG. 4, 2009.


Hello from Welcome, Minnesota....
Had a restful night last night on the shores of the Mighty Mississippi, at Winona, MN., and took our sweet time getting ready for our trek back West to Welcome, on the other side of the State.... We're doing a bit of backtracking, but all because we can't forget to visit Erik, and also to "pick up" a few more States to put on our map...
It's not much you can add about the landscape we're traveling through, especially after having described it, and shown pictures of it all the way here..... I must say, though, that I've never seen so much corn as I have in this past month, and my pictures tells the story, I think, quite well... What I'm puzzled about is, where does it all go?
I know people and livestock get their fair share, and I know some of it goes to making fuel, but, man.... There's so much of it....... Anyone care to set me straight?
When we took off from Winona we decided to have breakfast out for a change, so we began looking for a place almost from the start, but it took us all the way to the Lewiston exit before we figured we were hungry enough to stop.... Of course, we didn't know the town was about 4 miles North of I-90, with quite a few ups and downs thrown in to test my breaks, but we made it, and parked right in front of a restaurant..... Thought we'd get a bit of exercise before stuffing ourselves, and walked the town.... Main street is East-West, and about 3 blocks long...
The businesses were all on the North side, because there was a huge silo (or whatever) that took up all the property behind the railroad tracks on the South side.... To our dismay, we found over half of the establishments were empty, and quite a few had For Sale signs plastered up on windows... Even the building where we had breakfast was up for sale, and, listening to our waitress, we found that the town is in dire straights..... Talk about recession hitting home! One sad story after another.... Hundreds of people laid off.... Even the local grocery store closed down, so people now have to drive 16, or so, miles just to get their staples....
Almost felt guilty driving in here in our "get-up."
Sad to see vibrant places like this in this way.... No matter where you travel.
Down the road we went, and Lu took picture after picture of barns, farms, and corn fields....
It was rather nice to pull in to our Campground, here in Welcome, just to get away from it all....
Got everything settled down and hooked up, and then took off for a "field trip" back 9 miles, to check out Fairmont (because Lu spotted a Walmart there).... We drove through it, then walked Main Street... Nice town, but everything shuts down at 5:00, I guess..... Hardly anyone around to bug about what to see and where to go.... Oh, well.... We'll try it out again tomorrow.... We have two nights here, so plenty of time to get aquainted...
That's it.... Hasta la Bye Bye.....
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