Minnesota Road Trip!

Spring Break 2014 - MINNESOTA, BABY!!

Okay, I admit - perhaps Minnesota isn't the most exciting location on the globe.  It's the most exiting location I could afford on this year's budget, though, so here I am.   Specifically, I'm sitting in a dorm room at St. Olaf college, reminiscing about the parts of college I miss (the great friends you make on the floor, the collegiate atmosphere of ivy-covered walls, yummy food with no dishes to do)  and also remembering the parts that I don't miss (community showers!!).   My sister and I are visiting my cousin Erin, and she's in class so we're chilling in her room.

Our road trip yesterday was fairly fabulous.  Cara and I drove almost nine hours to get here, and most of it was through the nothingness that is middle America.  Think lots of fields and red barns and occasional cow farms.  At one point, when Cara was driving, she could see about a mile in front of her and a mile behind her, but there were no cars either way.  Therefore she decided to start weaving in and out of lanes and driving like a general crazy person "just because she could."  Eeeeeek!  She's lucky there were no cops hiding behind the hay bales, or she would have gotten pulled over for sure.  Here are some of the highlights (and lowlights) of the trip.

1. I took a nap, and when I woke up Cara was driving on some random back country roads (we were about a half hour from our destination at this point).  Suddenly she said, "Ummm...Christine?  Do you see a gas station?" No, I didn't see a gas station, because there usually aren't gas stations in the middle of corn fields.  My dorky sister had forgotten to stop for gas, and we were running on empty with the gas light on.  Oh brother.  She stopped at an intersection and told me to find the nearest gas station by using my phone (she left the car running while she stopped at the intersection, which I found funny and told her to turn it off).  I abandoned the GPS directions that were taking us to Erin's, and I typed in the nearest gas station.  It was over five miles away.  That doesn't sound like much, but when the gas light is already on and you don't see civilization anywhere near you...  It was a bit disconcerting.  Luckily, we made it.  Phew!

2. At the gas station, I went in to use the bathroom.  I saw an ad that said "Lambs for sale!" and had a phone number to tear off at the bottom.  OBVIOUSLY I had to take a number.  I went to the car and said, "Hey Cara, let's get a sheep to take home!"  She was fully on-board (because we're siblings and we agree on the important things in life like sheep adoption).  I called the number, and the following is an approximation of the conversation that ensued:
Al:  Hello!  This is Al's Farm Shop - Al speaking!"  (he had a really jolly voice, like if a 40-year-old Santa Claus owned a farm shop)
*background noise* BAAAAAAA!!!! BAAAAAAAAAAA!!  (It seriously sounded like the sheep were right next to the phone)
Me: Oh, um, hello Al.  I found your number at the Marathon station, and it says that you're selling lambs.  Is that correct?
Al: Yup!  You got it!  What kind of lambs are you looking for?  We have (list of about ten different things that I assume are sheep types, none of which sound familiar).
Me: Wow, uh.... I don't know exactly what type I want.
Al: Well, what do you want the sheep for?  A local herd?  A 4H project?
*background noise* BAAAAAAA!!!! BAAAAAAAAAAA!!
Me:  Um, more of just....a pet sheep.
Al:  Great!  We have plenty of pet sheep!  I would suggest (random name of some type of sheep) because they tend to have very cheerful dispositions and positive attitudes.
Me: Cool.  A friendly sheep would be great.  How much are they, and do you have a minimum number that must be purchased?
Al:  Our minimum is one.  It gets a little messy if you try to buy less than one...
Me:  Ha ha!  Okay, no, one is good.  I would like a whole sheep.  How much are they?
*background noise* BAAAAAAA!!!! BAAAAAAAAAAA!!
Al: That specific type starts at $200, but I don't have any that will be ready until May.
Me: Bummer!  I will talk to my husband, and perhaps I will call you back.
Al:  Great!  I'm always here!  Call anytime!

Aw Al... so jolly.  I really wanted to buy a sheep.  That would have been so epic.

3. As we were driving through the tiny town of Northfield (if you blink you'll miss it), we saw that the local high school had a baseball game going on.  I said, "Cara!  Check it out! Let's go watch some baseball!"  So we pulled over and went to watch the baseball game.  We cheered for random players and pretended that we knew them.  Some of the parents looked at us kind of strangely (it was a really small town, so maybe they knew we didn't really go there...).  It was fun watching high school baseball, but we didn't stay till the end of the game because we were burning daylight and had to get to Erin's.  Alas.

4. At certain points in the trip, we got the weirdest radio stations.  At one point we could only pick up one station on the FM bandwidth, and it was all in Spanish.  Why is there only a Spanish station in rural Minnesota is what I'd like to know.  Later we finally picked up another station, one that talked of farm reports and called itself "Corn Country."  We hung out on that station for a while, seeing as we could at least understand it.

It was a really fun trip, and we finally rolled into town at around 8 PM Minnesota time.  We had a great girls' night last night, and now we're waiting for Erin to get out of class so we can go to the Mall of America.  Woo hooo!