Today is Thursday and we are headed toward home
although we won’t get there until Saturday afternoon courtesy of a wintery forecast
on our travel route. We left our motel and got our vehicle an oil change before
heading out to the St. Croix National scenic River. It’s funny how much one
takes simple things for granted such as oil change service establishments.
Apparently they don’t change their oil in MN and WI.
Anyway, we finally made it to the St. Croix National Scenic
River visitor center. Unfortunately we couldn’t view the film because a
training secession was being held in their auditorium. Walking the path to the
river was also ruled out due to the -4 degree temperature and a 10 mph wind. We
finally opted to drive to an overlook and view the falls, which were frozen,
and ultimately so were we.
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| River Nymph |
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| Frozen St. Croix River |
Leaving the area for our next stop, The Mall of America
in Bloomington, MN, we stopped at the Franconia Sculpture Park which we had
noticed the previous day. The sculpture park is an assortment of sculptures of
artistic impressions that are both unique and interesting.
The Mall of America is a smaller, cleaner version of
the Edmonton Mall in Canada and is also owned by the same Canadian Group. It is
three levels high and has more than 400 stores, an Aquarium, Cineplex, an amusement
park and more. We had previously been to the Edmonton Mall, so we didn’t stay
long here.
The road to our next destination, the Effigy Mounds
National Monument, followed the Mississippi River, which is totally frozen
over. The river is literately scattered with
hundreds of ice fishing huts and has many trucks and cars out on the ice.
Along the way we saw several more Ethanol refineries
like this one.
The road to the Effigy mounds is a sharp contrast to
the flat lands of the western side of Iowa.
All of the springs along the hillsides were frozen like
these springs were.
The Effigy Mounds National Monument are one of the
earliest of the ancient Indian burial grounds. The bodies are buried in shallow
graves and then dirt is mounded over the bodies. This National Monument has
several miles of trails to the various locations of mounds in the park but the
temperature and snow cover prevented us from doing much exploring. There were
three domed mounds about 100 yards from the visitors center which we did
walk out to see. I don’t know why the
National Park Service uses planking made of recycled milk jugs in places where
it snows. The snow does not adhere to the planks and it is very likely that you
will slip on your butt!
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| Eagle's nest |
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| Wearing lots of layers |
Leaving the Effigy Monument we crossed over the
Mississippi River three different times.
Today we crossed the St. Croix,
Wisconsin, and the Mississippi rivers, all very frozen. This is the Mississippi river.
Tomorrow we head further toward home probably making Indianapolis, IN, weather permitting.
Babs Says: I love the facinating, ever-changing Mississippi River. Maybe I was Huck in a former life.
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