States Visited Today
In case you can’t tell, we visited Minnesota on Saturday, July 11th, 2020. We had a short drive from Mitchell, South Dakota to the Pipestone National Monument. The land was designated a National Monument by Congress in 1937. The land contains a quarry of a soft stone called pipestone since the stone is used normally for the making of prayer pipes by the local Native American tribes. It is still used today as a quarry to make pipes and other objects from the stone. It is free to quarry the stone, but only if you are a member of one of the eligible tribes.
The visitor center was closed so the only thing we were able to do was walk the path around the area.
We immediately came across the many quarry sites.
The reddish/orange layer of rock on the larger picture above is what is used as the pipestone.
We then followed the rock wall for a bit.
At the end of the trail there were a few people selling objects that were made out of the pipestone. One person was even carving something, a buffalo I think, while we watched. We spoke with him for a bit. We also bought a turtle made of the pipestone. It was definitely a neat place well worth seeing and experiencing.
The town of Pipestone looked to be a nice place as well.
From there we headed up towards Minneapolis to a place we had anticipated going to for a while now: Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store. It did not disappoint. They had a huge selection of candy, sodas, and other things that are supposed to be good for you like pastas, pies, cake mixes and such. They also had some nice décor, at least for a nerd like me.
The “paintings” were actually puzzles in the restroom. They also had a huge selection of puzzles for sale as well.
After buying a wide assortment of sodas, candies, and a few other things we started our sad trek home. The candy store would be the last fun thing we would do on our two-week long trek across the country. We breezed by downtown Minneapolis, stopped for dinner at the Green Mill Restaurant just across the Wisconsin border in Hudson, and then spent the night in Tomah, Wisconsin.
The next day, Sunday, would be spent driving all day until we finally made it home. All-in-all it was an amazing trip, one that we would gladly do again. Being able to take two weeks off from work and getting to really relax and enjoy ourselves was awesome. I highly recommend taking two weeks off from work if you have the time, opportunity, and a willing management team…at least for us poor Americans. If you are reading this from Europe you probably have nothing to worry about since you might get to take off a full month! Needless to say, I’m jealous.
Anyway, road tripping the USA is a great way to see our country. You never know what you are going to come across as there are surprises every where and great food to be had all across this country too. We definitely plan on taking more road trips in the future and hopefully I will be able to talk about those on this blog as well. Until then, happy trails!
Hollar if you see Us 